A great facilitator is a great time keeper
New programs require ongoing communication with camp administration and a commitment to logistics in order to be successfully worked into the overall camp calendar. Make sure you have an understanding of the number of periods in a day, the length of each period, and the number of kids attending. Consistent attendance, realistic goals, and knowledge of the essentials will help settle the foundation of a program.
Try this helpful exercise to identify how much time you will have in the camp calendar this summer:
- Cross out all the days when the children aren’t having regularly scheduled programming (color war, big trips, theme days, etc.)
- To be safe, cross out another day every week, calling it a “flex day.” This is essentially a buffer for additional conflicts that will inevitably come up over the summer.
- Communicate this calendar with your programming team to confirm details, make changes, and help set realistic goals for the program.
- Once you have identified the specific number of days for the program, start managing weekly and day-to-day routines for time management.
Use the following tips to save time:
- Get a head start in seeing potential schedule issues by looking at how many campers are leaving for session changes.
- Use a dry-erase board to write out information, and schedule outlines for campers to read when they enter.
- Spend one evening each week planning the next week’s activities.
- Routinely go over schedule changes with the programming team.
Are you running behind schedule?
Ask yourself what component(s) of the program have been least introduced. How can those components be communicated more simply and more effectively in fewer steps? Look at the schedule for the next few days to see if you can make up for lost time.
