First two weeks of camp

June 9th- June 13th

June 7th started the first week of camp. My week started on Tuesday because I have Sundays and Mondays off. There weren't very many campers this first week. There were a few employee kids but that was it. The employee kids proved themselves to be a challenge from the start. Because school was still in session we only had a few five year old's in camp. There was one boy in the group, Grant, and and five girls, Ohana, Molly, Emma, Danielle, and Anna. All five of the kids have known each other since they were in diapers because they have been going to the same day care, camps, and schools since they were infants. This made things a little difficult because Molly, Emma, and Anna are best friends and often exclude other kids from playing with them.They also get into a lot of fights with each other. During the first couple of weeks of camp it was pretty difficult to separate them because there were only enough kids for one group. As the weeks went on, and the camps got bigger, it was easier to separate the three girls into different groups.

This week also kicked off my head counselor position. While the supervisor was out on her days off I took over as the supervisor. One of my head counselor days there were only 5 kids on the books so I was the only person staffed for that day. I ended up with six kids by myself. I planned on it being a pretty easy day. In the morning, however, one of my kids had a breakdown. We were playing on the playground and she was blocking the slide so I kindly asked her to move out of the way so the other kids could play on the slide. This was her first day of camp so I understand first day jitters, but this girl had a total melt down. I put her on the bench and asked her what was wrong but she would not talk to me at all. She just sat on the bench screaming and crying and I could not make out a word she was saying. After about 10 minutes of bawling she started asking for her mom amidst her sobs. Seeing as lunch was in 20-30 minutes I asked her if she would like me to call her mom at lunch. She nodded. I also reminded her that her brother would be at lunch when we went inside. Soon after I was able to console her and she was playing in the sandbox, by the time lunch rolled around she completely forgot that she wanted me to call her mom. I didn't remind her because I didn't want her to talk to her mom and then possibly start crying again.

June 16th- June 21th

The week of June 16th the groups started to become bigger. We started to get more 6 year olds in the groups because school was out.  Two of the employee kids were 6, their names were Brady and Hailey. I remember them from camp last year. I remember last year we had a little bit of trouble with Brady communicating how he was feeling. He would also find a counselor that he trusted and he would go to them with almost anything that he needed, even if that counselor wasn't in his group that day. When Brady was upset he would shut down and not talk to anyone, it was pretty hard to talk to him when he got like this. There was one thing that would almost always cheer him up; toy cars. He loved and still loves playing with toy cars. This year Brady has become better at communicating but he still shuts down when he is upset. It could be to get extra attention. What I have found helpful with dealing with his behavior is trying to get him to be the counselor's helper. He loves helping set up activities, he loves holding the door for the other kids in his group, and he loves being a helper. When he is being acknowledged for his good behavior he doesn't try to get attention with bad behavior.

This was also the week that we had two five year olds that stood out to me especially. There names were John and Mike. These two boys have know each other and have been best friends since they were in the Discovery camp for 3 and 4 year old's. They stood out to me because of how sweet they both are. I have worked at Smugg's camp for four years and I have never met kids that I enjoy having in my group as much as I enjoyed these two boys. They were always smiling, and they were always making the other kids in their group smile too. I enjoyed every minute I spent with them, and I can only hope that they had as much fun being in my group as I did having them in my group. They made me realize why I love  my job so much, and they made coming to work so enjoyable for me.

Instead of doing two head counselor days this week I did three. I work Friday through Sunday as the head counselor. This meant that I had to make sure that there was enough staff or if there were too many than I had to send someone home. I also had to scan all of the camper cards and make copies of the schedules. This also meant that any time one of the counselors in a group needed help, I was the one that they asked. There were only a few groups each day that week, and the weekends are usually far less busy than the week. The slow start to the season made it good practice for me to get in grind of things. During the slower weeks I am on a group and one of the other supervisors helps me with my scanner and camper cards, during the busier weeks I am not on a group. Instead I walk around from group to group to check and see if they need help with anything.

5/26- 6/6: Training Weeks

     I started my internship at Smuggler's Notch on May 26th. That was my first day of training. I had to start a week early for supervisor and head counselor training. During that week I learned a lot about some of the extra responsibilities I would face during my internship for the summer. I had to learn how to use a scanner for the camper cards, and I had to learn about scheduling and the importance of the camper to counselor ratio. I also helped set up the Trail Blazer check-in center. Trail Blazer refers to an age group of children between the ages of 5-6. There are also the Discovery Dynamos which are children between the ages of 3-4, the Adventure Rangers are 7-10, the Notch Squad are kids ages 11-15, and the Explorers covers ages 16-17. 
     My next week at Smuggs was the regular camp counselor training week. We started training on June 1st and we got trained in safety, child development, and customer service. I work with the The Trail Blazer staff, and we had specific training to teach us activities such as arts and crafts, games, and nature fun targeting the 5-6 year old's specifically. We brainstormed a list of  activities to do with the children each day and we posted it in the meeting house, where we do check-in. Programming started the following week.