Wow I've Been Gone A While...

I haven't posted in a forever long time. I guess I sort of got caught in the flow of summer. But let me tell you about my past week. I'm really big on making films and movies. In the past I've made a few of them with my little sister and her friends. This summer I decided to make it into a camp. For a week we spent time casting, costuming, playing theater games and filming. In a week we filmed the whole entire Wizard of Oz and for anyone who knows anything about filming, that's no small feat. But what was even harder was being the main person in charge on 9 children for around 7 hours a day. My friend came and helped out but keeping 4th through 7th graders in check is not as simple as it sounds. It was an experience and I'm so glad I ran camp. I've learned things for next year, I gave kids an fun inexpensive way to spend the week and I even made a great movie out of it.

If you have something you want to share with kids, I think making it into a camp is a great way!! But here's some advice.

1. Get forms back early. I sent out forms for parents to sign with things like allergies on it and asking for their money. This is the only way to confirm someone will come. Even if they tell you 10 million times that they'll be there, until you get their money there's no way to know for sure.

2. Have a schedule. Every night before camp, I'd make up a time plot of exactly what I wanted to happen when. Instead of just writing "10-10:30 Games" I'd write "10-10:15 Dinner Party, 10:15-10:30 Half Life". That way I never blanked on ideas.

3. Be flexible. What you wrote in your plan will almost never go the way you wrote it. The things you though would take an hour take 15 minutes. The things you thought you could do in 10 minutes take a half hour.

4. Food is a savior. When ever people were getting tired or cooperation was low, a mere mention of food brought people back to where you needed to be. I always had snacks and lollipops and treats around.

5. Be consistent. You don't want to let people climb the trees half the time but not the other half the time. You might seem mean for always reminding people that they are not allowed to swear but in the end, they will appreciate that they know what to expect from you.

6. Never question yourself. You are the one in charge and even if you have no clue what's going on, you ALWAYS know what's going on. Instead of phasing things as "We're going to pick up now, alright?" say "Everybody clean up! The faster we do this the sooner we get games." This leaves not way for them to say it's not alright and offers an incentive.

I loved running a camp, but that doesn't mean it was easy. I spent about 30 hours prepping, 35 hours in camp and I will spend around 70 hours editing the movie. If you want an easy job running a camp might not be for you, but it is oh so rewarding.

If you were to run a camp, what would you run it on? How many kids do you think you could handle having? What ages would you work with?

(The picture is of my sister Rebecca, as a Munchkin.)