The Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples and Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) completed the second installment of their co-created Shine On workshops on April 27, 2022. This session included partnership with Child’s Path preschool rather than having open registration.
The six-week program, hosted inside the children’s museum’s exhibits, helps children build vital communications skills, develop confidence and self-esteem, build resilience through problem solving and impulse control, and make healthy life choices. Master’s-level clinicians in FGCU’s clinical mental health counseling program led the preschoolers from Child’s Path during each session, giving both parties valuable learning opportunities.
“It’s been incredible to see the participants’ progress over the course of the program,” said CMON’s Senior Director of Play and Learning, Beth Housewert. “The way the children interreact with the exhibits, the instructors, and each other has noticeably developed since their first visit.”
Shine On workshops at the children’s museum began in 2021 when leadership at CMON and instructors in FGCU’s clinical mental health counseling program noticed a need for small-group programming for young children who may not have been properly socialized due to the overlap of the COVID-19 pandemic with children’s foundational developmental periods.
Workshops are held on Wednesdays, when the museum is closed to the public. This gives Shine On clinicians and participants the unique experience of having the full museum to themselves to help develop the children’s foundational life skills.
"My son attended the [Shine On] program at the Golisano Children's Museum of Naples,” said Maria, a Child’s Path parent. “He really enjoyed every minute of this experience. It was priceless when he woke up with so much excitement the morning of his field trips. He would come home talking about all the fun he had and things he learned during this experience. It was a great opportunity!"
At the conclusion of this third six-week session, CMON also gifted each Child’s Path participant free passes to the museum so they could return to learn and play throughout the exhibits with their caregivers free of charge.
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