Winter is over and now summer is fast approaching. The time has come for children to play outside and enjoy the outdoors. However, it would be more meaningful if children could experience outdoor camping so that they can have fun with nature and bond with other children, friends, and classmates. At its core, summer camps always provide an educational experience for kids because the outdoors offers so many different kinds of discoveries. Children can realize all the things worth knowing, even outside their homes and schools. They can feel the value of survival, experience camaraderie and teamwork. So, how to organize a summer camp for children can be one of your agendas if you want your children and other children to enjoy their summer vacations.
On the other hand, you must remember that children, unlike adults, are more prone to stress but have unstoppable energy, so they must be guided accordingly when they are in their camps. This is why the organization of a safe but fun camp must be well thought out. Here are some tips that could help you create a good summer camp for children.
Tips on how to organize a summer camp for children
- If you are hosting a large group and want to please the kids with various activities like sports and contests and want to give away prizes to make the event more memorable, you need to find sponsors to help with the expenses. However, have a clean budget plan before you start soliciting sponsorship from different organizations. Word your goal so potential sponsors see that your goal has a good cause. If the organization of a summer camp is for the children of the school, you can ask for financial help from the former students of the school.
- If you already have safe potential sponsors, check for required legal issues, such as parental waiver and insurance for all children, including you and your attendants. You can consult an attorney about this because as the organizer, you are the most responsible for each and every camper, including any staff or teachers who will want to attend the camp.
- Find the best location for the summer camp. Do not think of going to remote areas because your companions are the children. You might consider nearby national parks, forest preserves, or city-owned parks if ever the administration allows you to camp for free. If parks aren’t available, there may be community centers, farms, or even schools that don’t have summer classes. These may not be part of the outside world, but at least it can make the children develop their sense of teamwork, independence, and camaraderie with the camp.
- Think of activities that everyone can enjoy and include activities that improve children’s physical, mental and logical skills, such as sports or discovering things around them. It can be the study of the flora and fauna around the camp, photography or simply planning a nature trip.
- Find people who can help you. These can be young volunteers who are knowledgeable about supervising summer camps for children. Teenagers or college students are ideal attendees because, just like children, they also have a cheerful disposition and can get along with children. If there were no volunteers, you should at least hire camp workers to make sure everyone and everything runs smoothly inside the camp.
- To allow as many children to participate, please take the time to advertise your summer camp. You can create flyers, posters, or advertise the activity on a local radio station and invite parents to include their children in the activity. You can also use technology like the web, radio, or the local newspaper just to reach a lot of people.
- Make your registration form easily accessible. You can upload a registration form online through a Facebook account or through the camp website. You can also borrow a small office where people can personally obtain registration forms and file completed forms directly.
- Inform parents and participants about the necessary requirements for the camp and don’t forget to tell people the exact date. If possible, you can broadcast about the number of children who have already registered. This is to tell all the remaining spaces. Remember to have a limit on the number of children attending because you literally cannot handle hundreds of campers, even if you will be attending camp activities in person. About 150 to 200 children is manageable if you have reliable staff with you. More than this, it would be difficult for you to monitor each and every child. You can group the children together once they are at camp.
- Active advertising. You can post your posters inside day care centers, parks, schools, community message boards, or websites. You can also enlist the help of your local radio station in the campaign and you should also have a landline ready if anyone needs to ask about your upcoming summer camp.
How to organize a summer camp for children should take a lot of consideration on your part because you do not want anything bad to happen to even a child. Your goal is to make the children enjoy the experience. Allow them to be with other children and do various fun activities so that they learn the meaning of teamwork. You want them to stay in the outside world for a while to let them know that the world needs someone like them to trust. As an organizer, your greatest satisfaction will probably come from seeing the children enjoy the camping experience and seeing them learn from it.