12 Summer camp things you should know before sending your child
Before sending your child to a summer camp, keep these tips in mind. From ensuring which company organizes it to what activities your child can do ... Here you have up to 12 questions that you should ask yourself when choosing the best summer camp for your child. 12 questions to choose the best summ
Before sending your child to a summer camp, keep these tips in mind. From ensuring which company organizes it to what activities your child can do ... Here you have up to 12 questions that you should ask yourself when choosing the best summer camp for your child. 12 questions to choose the best summer camp for children 1. Who is the organizing company?
It is the first aspect that should be studied well. Who organizes the colonies, whether they are with overnight stays or if they are summer / easter schools. It is important to ensure that the company has a dense experience and that you can see the opinions of other users who have attended these colonies.
2. What are your priorities
, your philosophy, the objectives that are raised with the children, etc.
They should be clearly visible on the web or should be explained at an informational meeting. It seems obvious, but you have to make sure what the final pedagogical objective is with that colony; but, above all, what things are going to prioritize to reach that goal.3. What kind of staff do they have
and what is their selection process.
- Parents should check if it is an entity that works or carries out activities throughout the year. It is the best way to ensure that the staff is trusted as they will be educators who know how to work with children. In many cases there are companies that hire only for summer campaigns and although they make a selection and training, you never know a person well until you've seen them work for years, or at least months. It is also important that they have specific qualifications. It is not enough with "... that you like children". También - You also have to be well informed about how many children each educator will take. If it is the first time you leave home and at ages between 3 and 7 years old, you should not exceed 6 to 8 children per educator, to ensure that you can have an individualized treatment and care. - We must make sure of who is responsible and how many professionals without taking groups (coordinators, logistics coordinators, facilitators, support educators, health, etc.) This is essential, since in many places, the educators themselves are the ones in charge to perform other skills besides those of taking care of children and in this type of camp, educators should be there 24 hours a day. to the care and attention of the group. También - It is also important that there are extra personnel in case there is any eventuality or urgency to attend, that the children never stay without attending well. This extra staff will be the most expensive for this type of colony, but it will be one of the things that will ensure that this first experience is positive
4. Should you be able to have contact with the children?
It is better that you can not talk to them or see them during the camp, especially in the first outings of the family environment. We have found that it is always counterproductive for their integration, because they are adapting to a new challenge of "survival" without their parents. Therefore, we advise you to look at how you can find out how they are doing it. For example, a telephone service in a time where you can talk to someone responsible and tell you, a video-blog or form that from time to time you see what they do, but without them seeing you.
5. How can you guarantee the safety of your children?
Some aspects to take into account and that can give you peace of mind in that aspect, are for example, if the enclosure is completely fenced, if it is not too large where they can be lost, if the pool is completely fenced with a non-scalable fence, if there are no dangerous areas of cliffs, different height of slopes, how deep is the pool, how many educators supervise children at bath time, if they have animals, what kind of animals they are or if they ride a pony, they are in a closed riding or safety wheel, where if the educator escapes, the child will not run any risk.
In the event that you are without overnight stay and go by bus every day, what type of measure or control do you have to deliver the child to the authorized person? They should have some kind of control in which they assure you that, even if you arrive late to the stop, even if you can not pick it up that day, or in case of any unforeseen event, you are guaranteed an exhaustive control over the delivery and collection of children.
6. What kind of sanitary protocol do they perform in each case?
- Are there any kind of health personnel 24 hours a day? What kind of technical means are available in your nursing? Although it seems exaggerated, it does not hurt to have a resuscitation team, defibrillator and emergency material such as Guedel cannulas, etc. as well as specific training for it.
- But the most important thing is to know what they do if they put mallets, have a stroke, a fever, a fall, etc. They should have means to make first cures; In case there is a possible risk of fracture or disease, you can take them to the nearest clinic so that a doctor can assess what to do. Ask from this moment what they do; since, as parents, you are in all your right to be informed of what the doctor has told you and you must authorize the doctor's instructions; the center can never jump and make that decision for you, so you should call to inform and you will be the ones to decide what to do. We say it because some sites see "normal" not to notify parents and do what the doctor says. Set well the authorizations that you sign and if this does not put it, add it. Por - In case the need arises, it is important to know how far from the center is the nearest clinic.
- Also find out if they have the possibility of adapting the menus in case of allergy or the need for a soft diet. A good fact is to know if they are registered in associations where they control medically food intolerances, such as Acecova, for the case of celiacs.
7. How is individualized and specialized dealing with children?
The more homogenous the ages of your group, the easier it is for the educator to adapt to the rhythm of the group, and therefore there will be a more specialized treatment; on the other hand, the less they mix in the colonies with ages from 9 years better, since from those ages are another type of needs and motivations that they will have.
Therefore, if your child is the first time he / she leaves the neighborhoods, it would also be good to ask how many of the children who will go to these colonies, it is also the first time they go and what age they are. That will give you an idea of the specialization of the organizing entity.
8. How do you ensure the fun of your children?
At these ages, what catches their attention are the stories and fantasy characters, so that the more means available to make animations of characters with settings in their facilities, the more predisposed there will be to a guaranteed fun.
Another very important aspect in this sense is the rhythm of activities; From 3 to 9 years old they get tired very fast of each activity so they must have a schedule with many activities, but not too long, since, if they do few and have moments of inactivity, it is when some could have moments of longing of the potatoes and consequently not adapt well.
9. At what age is it better to leave it to sleep que or to go and return with the bus?
The options are very different, the first is a very enriching experience for your maturational process and you will undoubtedly achieve many maturing advances, being an emotional memory that you will remember all your life. The fact that they can realize that they can "survive" a few days without the family environment will make them develop their self-esteem and autonomy in many aspects. According to our experience, if the environment is safe and gives you guarantees as soon as possible, try the best experience, even from 3, 4 years. Some of the children who find it difficult to adapt at the beginning are those of 8 or 9 years who have never left the family environment. If you still do not see it fully prepared for it, a first experience can be a summer school in which they go back and forth every day. The pedagogical objectives will be more long-term, but they will also enrich them.
10. How are the facilities where the children go to sleep?
One of the most important aspects of the neighborhoods if your child is going to sleep for the first time away from home, is where they will spend the night, since the fact that they spend a bad night because they do not feel comfortable or emotionally Sure, it can be a factor so that, the next day, because you do not want to go through that bad experience again, you want to go home, no matter how well you are going through it. Several aspects must be taken into account; that he sleeps very close to his monitor and that he / she is with him / her until he / she falls asleep, that in his / her bed he / she is as close as possible to other children / as (the joint tent-type beds are the ideal ones for it), that the bathrooms are in the same room and do not have to go outside if they have to go to the bathroom at night; Another important aspect is that the rest of the camp leaders, such as coordinators, health workers, etc., also sleep nearby. to which the monitor can turn if he has a problem.
11. What do you do if your child does not adapt?
Do they have some kind of experience in this regard? Although there are few cases that occur, you have to be prepared for it and know what the organizing entity does, since they must transmit total transparency in this regard to ensure that in that case they would warn you and it would be you who would make the decision to keep it / to some more time or finish the colony before its completion. You should never force a child who is not comfortable to stay in the colony, since a brief but positive experience will positively influence its development, but a bad experience could condition other future departures from the family environment. We must never lose sight of the fact that the ultimate goal of the colony should be that positive experience for its emotional development. 12. Is a diomas camp better?
In recent times the offer of camps or colonies in English has grown a lot. If it is the first time you go out and especially if you are staying to sleep, a total immersion camp may not be the best first experience, since language may be an aspect that influences your adaptation; although it can be positive that multi-language experiences are carried out to motivate them towards the subsequent learning of the language. It is better to ensure that the first experience is positive and then continue looking for other types of more specific outputs.
Coordination team of the summer camps of the aDAIParque ADAI Park -
ADAI project of child development and learning.
