Last summer my all little boy grandson went to a half day camp and
had a good time. Yes there were typical little boy behavior issues with his
five year old attention span but there were two teachers in charge with some
teenagers as helpers.
This year he and his little sister attended the same camp.
The difference was there was only one teacher in charge of 30 kids
with a handful of teen-agers as helpers and one non-teacher adult helper. The camp was the same format and the boy was
totally bored. His little sister wasn’t accepted by the other little girls on
her row since she didn’t go to their school. I guess there wasn’t a way for her
to make friends with others in the camp! From the lips of a five year old “All
we do is sit, sing, sit, snack, and sit some more and wait on our parents to
come. It’s been a total waste!”
So my grandmotherly advice is this:
1.
Please make sure there is an adequate number of
adults in charge even after you have paid your money!
2.
Make sure the adults are experienced at handling
children and won’t start a battle of wills because children will win every
time!
3.
Make sure the adults are trained to spot
bullying tactics and will not allow it to happen.
4.
Ask lots of questions before signing the child
up even if the child went to the same camp the year before.
By the way I have many years of teaching and
creating a fun camp for my students with an adult teacher helper. Our goal was
to make sure each child had a good learning experience, made friends with
others in the camp, and had a good time. We also limited the number and ages of
students we would have in our camp. Mizz
Mac
