I finally could let my hair down after supervising 22 children aged 5 - 12 plus 9 teenaged leaders-in-training. It was a more than 9- 5 job, with shopping for all the supplies and groceries to make lunches for the volunteer camp leaders. It was hard work but a fun time. I guess there is always teaching blood in me. After working in education for more than thirty years, and being retired, I enjoy this opportunity to work with children again.
Kids are smart, creative and fun to be with. They can tell when a camp is organized, well planned and staff is caring. I love that when they tell me this camp is the best one they have attended and that they really love it and want to come back every year! Kids do know their stuff and recognize quality programs. The success of our camp is due to three things.
1. A well thoguht out program - We have a tight schedule packed with a variety of activities starting from 9:00a.m. to 4:00p.m. each day. We realize that children get bored easily and their attention span is about 15 - 20 minutes, therfore we pretty well have a different kind of activity for them every 30 minutes.
2. Experienced and caring staff - Though all the camp leaders are volunteers, we take this camp very seriously and work hard to plan and make sure our programs and camp leaders meet the needs of the children. We provide an annual 3 day intensive training camp to our teen volunteers prior to the opening of the camp and to make sure they have a good understanding of the needs of young children and how to deal with them.
3. Sufficient Funding - Since our camp staff are all volunteers, and we are a non-profit organization, we put all the camp fees back into the program, therefore we could afford to buy material to run the program and we do offer a lot to the kids. For instance, every year at our 2 week camp, we offer all the campers two nutritious snacks a day, one in the morning and in the afternoon. Kids get a glass of juice, ( the real stuff, not sugary punch ), and either fruits, biscuits, crackers and cheese, corn chips with salsa, ice cream and dried fruits etc. In order to reward our volunteer leaders, we provide a yummy daily lunch to them and keep them fed and happy. In turn, the leaders work hard for the children and have a lot of fun working together.
Our children are happy and they behave well at our camps becasue of our excellent programs. We are very proud of the programs and schedule we have designed and would like to share with other churches and organizations that run VBS / camps in their communities. Below is our daily schedule this year:
Time
Program
8:30a.m.
Sign in
Game Stations
9:15a.m.
Singing
9:30a.m.
Outdoor Exercises
4 Stations
10:15a.m.
Break - by Gp. Table
Snack
10:30a.m
Skit Presentation
10:45 a.m.
Story Time
11:00 a.m.
Arts & Crafts
11:50 a.m.
Clean Up Time
12:00 p.m.
Lunch
12:30 - 1:15p.m.
Board Games Station
1:15 - 1:25p.m.
Clean Up
1:30 - 2:00p.m.
Reading/ Rest
2:00pm
Snack
2:15 - 3:30p.m.
Lesson / Activity
Junior Group
Senior Group switch activity at 2:45pm
3:30 - 3:40p.m.
Clean up
3:45p.m.
Gp Time - Singing
4:00p.m.
Sign out & Good bye
4:15 - 4:45 p.m.
Debriefing & Planning
All leaders
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