The Problem:

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After the pandemic, many parents of the children I babysat expressed concerns with their young children's social development. They felt as though their kids had missed crucial socialization time as a result of not being in a preschool setting. They also observed that the pandemic made their children more reliant on their devices.

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The Solution:

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I founded the Summer Send Off Camp in August of 2020 to offer a space for children aged 3-6 to safely immerse themselves in a social environment before starting school in September. The camp was tech free in order to push the campers to rely on their words and actions to form relationships, and to find joy in crafting, learning, and physical play. I planned all camp activities, keeping in mind the following points of emphasis.

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1. Creativity

The space to be creative is crucial for children. It develops how we problem solve, express ourselves, communicate with others, and mentally grow. Creativity is often stunted when we are reliant on technology, so this was extremely important to highlight in our camp curriculum.  We created creative opportunities with daily crafts, science experiments, baking, and puzzle activities. 

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2. Learn community values

We wanted to show our campers that the heroes they see in their cartoons aren't all fictional. There are some amazing people in our community who we can celebrate and learn from. To show our kids this we planned visits from the Fire Department, Police Department, Darien EMS, youth group leaders, and local athletes. 

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The Result:

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We saw a significant amount of growth in the children across the two weeks.  The campers were more confident and empathetic in their interactions with each other, and did not rely as heavily on technology to find joy. The positive feedback from the parents in 2020 was overwhelming, and thus three years later we are now hosting over 30 campers across two weeks in August.

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What I Learned:

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I not only learned the important elements in early child learning, but also what it takes to organize and execute a large scale design process. I had the opportunity to do everything from budgeting, finding campers, hiring counselors, and planning the curriculum. This was new and exciting for me. I also was able to build so many new relationships within my community that I never would have been exposed to. 

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