LOGISTICS

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+ GETTING STARTED

Parents can book as many weeks of Hero's Journey that they'd like this summer by clicking here.

Given the focus on helping children develop a plan and track their progress, Hero's Journey can only be purchased in one-week increments.

+ FLEXIBLE TIMES

When booking online you'll be reserving a time-slot for your child to participate in the Dungeons & Dragons portion of Hero's Journey with us.

You can choose between a morning slot (10:00am until 1pm, M-F) or an afternoon slot (3:00pm until 6:00pm, M-F). The content of the two sessions - on a given day - will be identical. Pick whatever best fits your schedule and your child's needs.

+ YOUR INTAKE CALLS

Once you've booked your weeks, you'll be able to schedule a time with one of the coaches at Organizational Tutors at your convenience. They will reach out to speak with you directly, allocating up to 45 minutes to discuss your child's strengths and areas for growth - as well as your personal pain points (to see how your son or daughter might step up around the house).

After the intake is complete a familiar face from the Brooklyn Game Lab team will work directly with your child to generate the visual, high-fantasy map they'll be referencing throughout the week (or summer). If they need a D&D character sheet - no problem - we can knock that out, too.

Keep in mind the intake call with Organizational Tutors takes place the week before they begin Hero's Journey. By the time Monday morning rolls around they're ready to play, focus and reflect.

+ DAILY CHECK-INS

While you're enrolled in Hero's Journey, you can expect a daily check-in during your D&D session every day (Monday thru Friday). Parents do not need to be on these calls (this is about making less work for you, not more).

During these 20 minute check-ins, we will drill down into what tasks your child has completed and what's coming up next.

How do we plan to get kids excited about taking on more personal responsibility, being more organized and helping out around the house? During each daily check-in we'll be awarding them gold, magic items and spells which will make them more powerful in their next dungeon crawl!

+ PROGRESS UPDATES

We've structured this program so that - after the initial call to learn about your child - there’s no additional work, oversite or contact required from parents.

But we will keep you informed, sending you regular updates indicating which goals your child has accomplished. If you see anything on this list that was not accomplished in reality - please feel free to quickly let us know so we can address that ;)

PROGRAMMING

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+ Dungeons & Dragons

Brooklyn Game Lab has run tens of thousands of Dungeons & Dragons sessions. Our Dungeon Masters give young questers an amazing experience every day. But what we're most proud of is our methodology to run campaigns with any child of any age at any experience level. Whether it's your child’s first time playing or 100th, we make sure it's engaging and welcoming.

In Dungeons & Dragons kids create a character and then participate in a narrative story-telling exercise in groups of 3 to 6 kids. As a team, they work together to overcome whatever challenges our instructors throw their way. We’ve been able to use the experience of our staff and existing resources to create fantastic maps, characters and - yes - even digital dice throws!

+ Executive functioning

Organizational Tutors is a network of highly-trained tutors, academic and executive functioning coaches, educators, and learning specialists, founded and led by Anna Levy-Warren, Ph.D. All tutors hold graduate level degrees and have a background in working with students with a combination of educational and cognitive challenges to improve Executive Functioning.

Executive Functioning (EF) refers to an interrelated set of cognitive processes that govern goal-directed behaviors and enable us to effectively manage everyday activities.

Key academic abilities generally rely on EF: planning ahead, keeping track of materials/tasks, managing time, effectively processing information, maintaining focus, organizing thoughts, adapting knowledge for particular situations, screening for errors, and managing frustration. The skills kids will hone through their Hero's Journey are tremendously important inside and outside the classroom.

+ ONLINE MERITS

Positive reinforcement and recognizing accomplishments is one of our key tenants.. We’ve worked hard to not only bring our programming online, but our system of merits, too.

Each child joining us this summer will accrue merits just as they would in the Lab. Their virtual folders allow students and parents to track progress during the summer. Once we return to the brick-and-mortar Lab we’ll apply all awarded merits to kids' folders!