Another Busy Week At Sloane

It's been another very busy week at camp, just like all the weeks past and all the weeks to come. I've been out and about all over camp taking lots of photos, making videos and keeping the parents up to date via our social media channels (do you follow us yet? Check out the links to find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram)...all the usual Media stuff. I even went to the batting cages on my day off to hit some balls and get a bit of a break from the camp 'bubble'.

Boy's dining hall.

This week was the start of a new session, which meant we saw a lot of new kids and our numbers increased MASSIVELY from about 50 kids to just over 200...so the noise levels have definitely gone up too! It's awesome to see camp busy and full of life and energy, not just from the kids but from the staff too, all of whom have been on top form all week.

Girl's dance party.

The weather this week has been totally insane, ranging from incredibly hot, humid and gross at the start of the week to having two enormous storms the last two evenings, meaning that the whole of camp has to head to the dining hall to stay safe and dry. Last night was particularly spectacular, with huge lightening strikes ripping across the sky which meant that we were inside from dinner at 6pm until about 8:45pm...quite a long time to keep all the kids entertained and happy. But we just turned the music on and danced the evening away, with the boys even having a 'boyband off' and coming up with their own dance routines.

The storm approaching!

Some amazing stuff this week, with plenty more to come this summer I'm sure, starting with our Square Dance tomorrow evening (fingers crossed the weather holds up for us!)

Where Does The Time Go?

We've come to the end of Session 1 here at Camp Sloane, and I really can't quite believe how quickly this past week has gone. I feel like it was only yesterday that I was writing about how excited I was for the kids to arrive! And now they're here, for the next 7 weeks, or 49 days, however you want to look at it. I remember my first year at camp and how long the 8 weeks of summer camp felt, but this year I have a feeling it's just going to absolutely fly by...it's going to be the end of the summer before we know it, so it's time to make the most of it while we can!

Opening Campfire

It's been a busy week, full of fun activities, lots of games and many laughs. It's so awesome to be back surrounded by all these kids, some of whom I've now known for 4 summers, and some of whom are brand new to camp. It's great to see them all having a great time and making new friends and really enjoying their camp experience, and experience that can truly impact their lives for years to come.

A little bit of Wake boarding

This week has been super fun for me too - I've been making videos, taking lots of photos and just loving being back into the swing of everything this summer. I've been out on the water ski boat (one of my favourite things to do here), hung out down at swim beach and I even ran an all camp evening activity the other night with huge success. It was a Scooby Doo themed mystery night where the kids had to figure out which villain (or supervisor) had 'taken' our Program Director... it was pretty special to watch the kids (and staff) having such a great time doing something that I'd planned. And I think that's my favourite thing about camp really, that moment when you can see the effect you are actually having on a child's whole experience.

The Mystery Machine to the rescue!

Check out our closing campfire skits from this first session!

 

Follow along with all the goings on at Camp Sloane YMCA here:

www.campsloane.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campsloane

Twitter: @CampSloane

Instagram: @campsloaneymca

And So It Begins...Almost.

It's been another pretty full on week at camp, full of more training and lots of fun. Almost every member of staff has arrived now and everyone is starting to get excited at the prospect of the kids finally arriving on Sunday! For those of us who have been here since the end of May, it really feels like it's been a long time coming, and I for one, am so pumped for this place to be full of chatter and noise and all the tiny humans having an absolutely amazing time this summer!

My home for the summer

This past week has also been a pretty incredible one weather wise too - everyone is sporting some sort of tan (or burn) lines as we've been out and about in the sunshine either swimming, kayaking, de-weeding the lake, sleeping outside in the middle of a storm (with tent-ripping results), and even square dancing!

De-weeding the lake!

Yes that's right... square dancing. During every two week session we have a square dance with all the campers and last night we had one just for the staff so that everyone can get to grips with the songs and dances so they can then in turn help out the kids with their own groups dancing. It's always a pretty special night (and ALWAYS absolutely boiling hot... the lovely clothes and make up we all put on is totally ruined by the end of the night and we all end up a hot, sweaty mess) and a great way to get to hang out with a few more people that you haven't yet had the chance to properly chat to.

Sleeping in Hammock Haven

That's one of the greatest things about coming here to camp every summer - the amount of people I get to meet and interact with, people whom I would never have met otherwise. It's a fantastic opportunity to learn from others and open your eyes to the world a little bit more.

And so, we're all off out tonight on our day off after a hard slog this week, then tomorrow afternoon brings the final prep to make sure we're ready for the influx of kids on Sunday! Here we go!

Everybody loves a Square Dance!

Staff Training Is Underway

We're well into our staff training here at Camp Sloane... last week was our supervisory and specialty training (lifeguards and adventure/ropes staff) and it was full of fun discussions, lots of learning, note taking, many many group bonding games, and a lot of time to just generally get our areas prepared for the coming summer. It was nice to have the time in a slightly smaller group of staff to get to know the new people as well as to get all my lesson plans written for my media classes, get my media room moved and reorganised, and have more of an overall sense of how the summer is going to go.

 The weather last week was pretty poor, so respect to the lifeguards for getting in the (really cold) pool and lake everyday without any complaints at all! In fact, everyone all week has been quite impressive, there haven't really been any complaints about anything, everyone seems to be working to their absolute best and it's looking like this summer is going to be pretty spectacular! I think this staff group is one of the best ones we've had to a while and I'm super excited to see everyone in action once the kids arrive at the end of this week!

On Friday we all had the night off and it was great to get off camp and get to know one another under different circumstances - it's always fun to get out of the camp 'bubble' every now and again. And then on Saturday a whole bunch of new (and returning) staff members finally arrived! It was super exciting to see lots of people whom I haven't really even spoken to since we all left camp last summer... there were lots of excited squeals and hugs going on!

Then yesterday was one of my favourite days at camp so far this summer... a bunch of us were taken down to our new climbing tower (check out a photo of it in last week's post) and were then formally trained and certified so we can run it this summer and in our Fall season too. We basically spent the morning tying knots, learning about the ropes and different safety measures and the afternoon saw us belaying and climbing. It's a sport I never really got a chance to do much until my second summer here at camp and now climbing is one of my favourite things ever! And I'm super proud of myself too because I managed to climb to the very top of the 'hard' wall, which is actually really hard!

Putting up tents!

So it's all go go go this week as it's only 6 days until the kids arrive! Wow, that's come around quickly!

Two Weeks Down...

I've been at Camp Sloane for almost two weeks now and this Spring season has been pretty excellent. I've loved getting back into the swing of things and basically have the run of the place... being able to just have a wander around, or have a go on our brand new climbing tower, or even take some boats out on the lake for an evening is part of the reason I love this place so much!

Climbing our awesome new tower (that's me on the left!)

A few more people have started arriving already and then tomorrow we get the first big load of arrivals as the supervisor and lifeguard training starts on Sunday! I'm super excited to see all my returning friends (whom I havent seen since camp last year!) and am also really looking forward to meeting all the newbies too... these next few weeks of training are always fun, getting to know people and work out who's going to be living where and what activity they'll be working in.

Taking the boats out on the lake

If you're making your way to camp for the first time (or have just arrived at your camp for the summer), I hope it's going to be awesome for you! Just remember, you will probably feel a bit weird at first, especially with all these returners around you who haven't seen each other in a year and are ridiculously excited to see each other... they are all lovely people I promise. Just try to be yourself and get involved in EVERYTHING as much as you possibly can, and you'll soon feel just as at home as everyone else seems to.

My favourite view in the whole world!

You can find out what's going on at Camp Sloane YMCA by 'liking' our Facebook Page, or following us on Twitter.

Oh It's Good To Be Back!

So I've finally made it halfway across the world and I'm back at Camp Sloane YMCA for the summer. I've been here just under a week now and I am loving being back in my home away from home. There's only about 10 of us at camp at the moment (and for the next week until supervisor and lifeguard training starts), so it's a lot of fun having camp all to ourselves! I always love being one of the first to arrive, getting the lay of the land and settling in before the mayhem of staff the summer really begins.

This past week has been pretty busy, full of random jobs around camp, preparing for the kids to come. During the Spring season we also have groups come to camp with whom we do all sorts of activities, ranging from canoeing to hiking to fishing to creative arts. For the three days after I arrived we had a primary school group of the loveliest kids you'll possibly ever meet and we had so much fun showing them around camp, doing initiatives and games with them, and challenging them to work out all our camp riddles or, as we like to call them, 'never tell' games.

I've been doing some bits and bobs to start preparing for this summer's Media program, which I'm in charge of. There's been a lot of ideas floating about for new videos and classes and it's all exciting stuff, if not a little stressful at the moment, just because I haven't quite had time to wrap my head around everything I need to do yet... give me another week and I'll be entirely sorted though!

That's about it for this week. Next week a lot of my friends whom I haven't seen for about 8 months are going to be arriving AND it's my birthday (birthdays at camp are the BEST), so it's going to be a pretty awesome time!

For those of you that aren't at camp yet and are so excited you can barely sleep (I know I was), don't worry, it'll come around soon enough!

The greatest kids ever!

Planning Your Activities

So it's getting pretty close to camp starting now and I'm sure a lot of you have already started packing and planning for your summer ahead (some of your may actually be at camp already...jealous!) I've only got 3 more sleeps until I'm back at camp and I don't think I could possibly be more excited!

So what have you got planned so far? You know what you're taking with you, and you've thought about where you want to travel after camp ends, but what about while you're actually AT camp? Have you thought about what you're going to be doing each day, or what you're going to be teaching (if you're running an activity that is).

You don't need to have EVERTHING entirely mapped out, because you'll be doing a lot of planning with your supervisors during staff training, but it's a good idea to have some sort of plan of how you're going to structure your lessons, what sort of things you want the kids to be learning, or even just a few ideas for how to deal with a homesick camper or how to entertain your kids during some daily down time.

I'm sure most of you already have some experience in teaching your specialty but for those of you that don't, it's really not as daunting as it may first seem. The biggest thing I would suggest is that you think about how YOU were taught the skills you'll be passing on to the kids. Did your teacher have a good way of explaining things, was there a particular thing about the activity that stood out for you, something you could use to engage the kids at camp? Once you've got your hook, it's really just about planning your lessons around that - use it as a starting point and work from there. I'm not saying have every lesson for the entire summer planned out (although your supervisor will probably love you forever if you do!), but just jot some notes down so that when you get into staff training and someone asks you to fill in a lesson plan, your brain is already in gear!

I know some of you might be going to camp without knowing what you'll be teaching yet...sometimes it will get changed around or decided mid way through training, but have a think about what you like to do, and what you are passionate about. Think about how you could pass on your passions to the kids. As a general counselor it's also really important that you get thinking about the things you're going to do to bond with your kids - do you have a book you could read them in the evenings, some nail polish for makeovers, or just some random games up your sleeve? As a counselor it is your job to make absolutely everything fun, whether that be teaching your activity, eating in the dining hall or merely getting the kids to brush their teeth before bed.

So get your thinking caps on and get ready for the summer of a lifetime!