Space: This summer I am doing summer camp at AIS. Most of you know that I believe in unscholing and child-led education so there was no reason for me to start "teaching" in camp (and I don't). We have a gymnastics studio for the camp and so it is very empty. About 30 square meters of open air conditioned space that I needed to make fun and inviting for children aged 1.5 to 9 year olds.... I am very proud to say that I managed to make just this - an inviting and fun place to be in ... parents tell me that kids enjoy it and I see the ease with which children solve the problems in that room and the light in their eyes when they are busy (playing, reading, making ..etc) I love it! So what did I do? (something that I thought we could do at my house when we are inviting friends over):
1. Huge sheets of paper glued to the floor with road drawn on them. Next to them is a basket of blocks, a basket of crayons and all sorts of cars. Some children enjoy driving the cars, some decide to draw their houses and fields and people and others want to construct bridges and skyscrapers ... I see children of all ages at this place and they all come without me inviting them orally. All I need to do is sit and draw or drive a car...
2. I made a very simple "house" play area and divided it from the rest of the room with benches (could be done at home with chairs easily). This is by far the most popular play area (especially for older children -6-9). We have a simple kitchen (stacked benches one on top of the other and taped paper on top with "stove" drawn on it. We have a little set of plastic dishes, a couple of broken cell phones, all sorts of scraps of cloth and one bean bag.... So easy to make and kids spend at least two-three hours playing there (amazing!)
3. Next to the mirror we set the dress up basket. a big basket with different cloths, bags, hats (no real costumes). this is especially fun for girls. They play princesses and put stuffed animals to sleep.
4. Doll corner. A bed, plastic bathtub, potty, dolls, animals, clothes for dolls. Girls (3-6) love this corner. They spend a lot of time there.
6.Board games - (Yaniv, the guy I work with, is good at that.... he takes out a game and kids come to play with him) on the carpet.
7. Reading corner - a bean bag and books (some are on the shelf and some are on stands)
Activities:
When we see that kids are becoming a little violent and want "action" we take them outside to run and scream and jump and ride scooters. Some games are planned (they work worst of all) but most of the games are made up by kids and they enjoy them a lot (inspite of the age differences .. no one is forced to play, but usually everyone does)
Food in camp is a process - we order catering, so we recieve a box of rice/potatos etc, a box of meat and a salad. Every child has his plate, a fork/spoon and a cup. We do have time for food, but we adjust to the hunger. Before we eat, we do sports, so that the kids will be hungry and they are... We eat and then we all clean up. Children are responsible for their plates and cups (some need help, of course), we clean the tables and the floor. - maybee it would be a good idea to have this sort of thing when we are going outside (one family will be responsible for all the food or two families - one for the snack in the morning (we have it around 9 - 9:30) and one for lunch (we have around 12:30 - 13:00) we have another little snack after pool (around 14:30) and that's usually fruits and left-over sandwiches.
Arts & Crafts - I always have supplies ready ... when I see that we need some quiet time I take them out - a couple of possibilities. Some children choose to join me and some choose to go and play. With older children we decided to make a little doll theatre from a box. The others choose to help decorate or they are beading or drawing. I like that it became a continuing project (for three days already). In the end of the camp I am hoping to show them a story about themselves in camp. - I think this the difficult part, maybe I could have a little bag of supplies with me, but the problem is that I already have so many bags with me ... maybe we could divide things up between families. Two families bring the food, one family brings the supplies for sport games/ science experiments/ other and one family brings arts and crafts stuff.
None of the activities are really planned but we do have a vague idea of what we think will be fun to do that day, so far every day was fun and (I would say) productive.
Games - when playing games with the ball it really helps if we have a plan. The games should be really easy to play but funny. If I decide that girls can dance I bring a box of little scarves and music and everytrhing else just happends. Hoola hoops are also one of the favorites and "class" game is used by all a lot. I showed the older kids all sort of ball games that I used to play when I was little. I think the key is to keep the games really simple.
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