At A Kid’s Place, not only is the month of June the time when school is out and summer vacation officially begins, but it’s the time that Ms. Alice preps for what has turned out to be the highlight of each summer: SUMMER CAMP AT A KID’S PLACE!

If you walk by the pre-school classroom, you’re sure to see bins and boxes, piles and stacks, notes, labels, and directions filling the classroom.  This is the ever-important behind-the-scenes work that goes into presenting a camp program of the magnitude to which our children are accustomed.  Almost one-third of the centers this year are STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) related, and these aren’t your garden-variety busy-work projects!  This year our children will learn about classic artists and try their hand at duplicating the famous styles.  Science will include the ever-popular slime, but each child will walk away knowing how the slime is formed and what chemical reaction occurs when the ingredients are combined.

Field trips this year include Rugged Cross Youth Ranch, where the children will experience hands-on farm life and learn what it takes to run a ranch day in and day out.  There’s even the distinct possibility that Ms. Alice will even take the simple bowling field trip and make it into a scientific lesson on gravity, propulsion, and angles in an effort to knock some pins down!

For many children in foster care, summer camp is a first-time experience.  Each year, parents spend millions of dollars on camps for their children, but for those in foster care the experiences are vastly different.  While we can’t change what has happened to each child before he or she came to A Kid’s Place, what we can change is what happens once that child comes into our care.  These children are going to make slime, throw water balloons, craft pot holders, weave bracelets, run obstacle courses, and meet community heroes.

Guess what else happens with full camp days?  Early nights!  Our kids sleep soundly after a day of camp, and many have been known to give in long before bedtime and catch a quick nap.  Happy children, noisy classrooms, wet bathing suits, and tables full of drying craft projects…it’s Summer Camp again at A Kid’s Place!