One effect of tough economic times and tighter budgets is that many of us are facing a long summer of child-minding and childcare juggling. It would be great to send the kids to camp for a while, but what if kids camp just isn't in the budget?
We'd all love a quality camp experience for our kids and not just because we'd like a break or need child care. For our kids, staying social in summer creates special bonds that supersede the day-to-day stress of school life. Kids camp opens up important new possibilities and encourages our kids to be more independent.
So how do you create a quality camp experience for your kids without breaking the bank? Some planning, some cooperation and some kids can equal a fantastic neighborhood camp experience. To make it easy to get started, VolunteerSpot has created a brand new eBook: Do-It-Yourself Neighborhood Camp. Please view it below, and read on for more information about setting up your own DIY Camp. To see the eBook full-screen, click on the icon in the lower right corner that looks like a little projector screen (it's just to the right of the page numbers). When you're done, pres ESC to come back to this post.
One of the keys to a successful DIY Neighborhood Summer Camp is clearly laying out the responsibilities of all parents, very similar to what you might do with a babysitting coop. Some important points:
Agree on safety rules all will abide by (for example: one-third of American families own guns; there needs to be a safety rule that if guns are in the home, all weapons are locked and secured). How many days will each parent work? For elementary age kids 1 adult per five kids is probably a good rule of thumb, plus it works out to 1 day worked equals four days off! Parents with 2 kids work one shift for each of them. Younger kids need a higher ratio.
What is the age range of kids? Toddlers are harder to watch than 12 year olds, think this through and get agreement.
Are there pools at any of the camp homes? Will the camp pay for a lifeguard? Is there a fence? What about sunscreen and sun safety?
Will the host camp home provide snacks or will parents send them. If the camp provides snacks are there guidelines about what's appropriate or is a junk food free-for-all completely fine since it's summer?
Is video entertainment allowed? Under what circumstances? For me personally, I don't want my kid supposedly going to camp and then watching SpongeBob all morning (or something less savory).
Discipline: What are the discipline guidelines, conflict resolution plans, and ultimate penalties available? This is a critical point for every to agree to.
Agreeing to ground rules ahead of time is important because it will prevent conflict later. It also prevents any one parent from feeling overly scrutinized -- these rules apply to everyone, and once they are in place, every one can feel comfortable knowing that supervision and programming will meet their expectations. Then comes the fun part -- planning the activities and setting the schedule.
If camp is batched in 2 week increments, it can rotate through all 10 houses so each family gets an equal dose of chaos. If some families just can't host, there has to be a trade-off to make up to whoever hosts twice. (e.g. A working parent may pay a stay-at-home parent in exchange for hosting an extra day.) And finally, set up the activity plan and so everyone knows what happening and figure out the supplies needed to run the activities. A budget should be set up for supplies (agreed on by the members -- there's nothing worse than one person thinking that a hundred dollars is a reasonable budget when most feel like $10 is more than enough. We're in a recession here folks, be sensitive!!)
Before camp begins, have an orientation meeting with
all campers and parents present. This gives everyone a chance for
introductions and reassures the kids that all the parents know the
other parents and kids. You can let them know all the fun they'll be
having, and a little bit about the discipline plan and camp rules.
(Kids knowing that there are agreed on rules and consequences while all
the parents are standing there can prevent a lot of "rule testing"
misbehavior during camp itself).
Finally, the genius part is you can easily set up the entire calendar of workdays, locations, supplies in VolunteerSpot, providing easy reminders to each worker and a good place for all participants to keep track of everything that's happening.
So
get ready to get out there and have some real fun this summer -- for
you and your kids - start your own camp and let everyone - adults and
kids -- make some great new memories this summer.
