Summer time is a time to be outdoors, have fun, make friends, and enjoy new experiences! While we are a speech and language camp, we want our kids to also enjoy their break from school and enjoy their camp experience. Therefore, we spend the majority of our day outdoors involved with a variety of activities. While we have a schedule and theme for each day, there is ample time for free play and socialization. We begin with outdoor free play, where many items and activities reflecting the day’s theme are set up for kids to explore freely. A morning circle time officially starts the day and introduces the children to the schedule of activities. From circle time we move to a group activity. This could a sensory activity, craft, or game. We eat snack and lunch together each day at camp. This allows for more social interactions while we relax and take a break from all the action! For our kids with feeding challenges, having 2 opportunities per day allows for plenty of time to address oral motor and/or sensory feeding goals.
Our activities throughout the day typically involve a variety of systems: gross motor, sensory processing, language processing, and social/emotional. One activity may tap into a variety of systems. For instance, a big hit last year were the team relay races. This introduces kids to the concept of team sports and cheering on other teammates. Kids must learn patience and waiting for their turn. When it is their turn, they may have to answer a question related to the day’s theme (either naming a vocabulary item or using descriptive language to give a clue) and then run to find the named object and return to their team, all the while balancing the tray of items. This one activity incorporates a variety of goals at once. Most importantly, we’re having fun the whole time!
This year we’re looking to expand our services to include an art teacher, yoga teacher, and possibly a music teacher. We are currently in the process of finding these specialists. If any of you have a recommendation for someone who would fit in and offer specialized, creative activities for our kids, please let us know!
