How To Plan a Summer Camp
It's the time of year when I begin planning for Camp Gigi, and I thought it might be helpful if I pulled together in one place all the advice I've given in various posts on how to plan a camp for your grands. Whether you want to plan just a special day or two together, or a whole week of summer camp fun, here are my recommendations.
- Most importantly, make it fun!
- Consider both the age of the grandchildren attending the camp as well as their interests to determine what would make it fun and exciting for them.
A simple schedule could look like this. Have a schedule. It can be very simple or very detailed—the most important thing is letting the kids know what to expect for the day.
- Decide on a structure. It could be a different topic each day or an overall themed week. I've tried both and liked having an overarching theme of the week. It still allows for lots of flexibility in planning activities but lets us string ideas and concepts together for learning.
- Use picture books to introduce a topic or activity. If nature is your theme, for example, research good nature books for children that you could use you to introduce the topic or specific activities such as a nature walk or gathering items to make a nature collage. Most children love books, as well as the intimate time they get with you when reading together.
- Depending on their age and stamina, taking them out into the community is a fun thing to do and breaks up the week a little bit. You might go to a story time at your local library, visit a local lake, pool, or water fountain for a swim or to cool off, or go to the grocery store to gather items for a cooking session. A change of scenery can add some excitement into the week!
- Throw a little bit of quiet time into the day. I usually make the mornings more active then after lunch have a little quiet time and then another activity later in the afternoon. What quiet time looks like will depend on the age of your grands.
- Lastly, one of the highlights of our week is usually a field trip. We are lucky enough to live near a place that has some fun themed places to go, but your field trip can look like whatever you want it to based on what is available to you. Maybe a visit to Discovery Museum!
How's this for a theme: Rocks! Rocks are a wonderful theme for a camp day or even a whole week! In my last post about camp I gave you the details on the rock-themed activities we did during our second year of Camp Gigi—I promised you the list of books I used, and here they are!
Rhoda’s Rock Hunt, by Molly Beth Griffin
If You Find a Rock, by Peggy Christian
A Rock Can Be…., by Laura Purdie Salas
Scribble Stones, by Diane Alber
A Rock is Lively, by Dianna Hutts Aston
*****
Are you interested to try camp, for even a day, with your grands this summer? What theme might you choose? What do you think will be your biggest challenges and joys? Let me know your thoughts, and if you do camp with your grandchildren, whether you were correct in your expectations of how it would go! You can email your questions, thoughts, or post-camp stories to me at: gpdiscoveries [at] gmail.com (gpdiscoveries[at]gmail[dot]com). Or, feel free to comment on this blog post—I’d love to hear from you!
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