Over four months of preparation and the day is finally here. The kids will be walking in at 6:30 AM, ready to have some fun!
Let's take it back a couple months to start off my experience of the summer of 2013:
January 2013:
Begin talking with my boss about planning the field trips that we go on daily for the summer. I decide to completely revamp the field trip schedule and begin contacting many organizations to plan fun activities for the children.
February/March 2013:
E-mail and contact many different businesses in Lincoln to start putting together our field trip calendar. Slowly the calendar gets closer and closer to being done! We also experienced a director change in the midst of all of the chaos. In these changes, I was offered and accepted the position of Summer Coordinator. A position that was in charge of all registrations, staff, and all activities of the school age summer program.
April 2013:
Published field trip calendar for parents to see.
Beginning of May 2013:
New director begins. In a conversation we were having she stated she did not know exactly what my job was since I was hired before she was brought on. Since this is a lutheran day care center, she had a meeting with her boss (the pastor) and they decided on me being the Director Intern so that I could learn what it is like to be a director of a child care center and still organize the summer program.
As soon as I got out of classes, I was in full swing at the center getting ready for the summer time. I was answering questions from parents and organizing all staff and of course, many other odds and ends that you do not think of until the time of the event.
Weekend before Summer Day Camp begins (Memorial Weekend):
I was at work about 40 hours the week before the weekend and then I spent all day Saturday including Saturday night with friends creating stuff for the center, all day Sunday, and all day Monday preparing for the next week.
6:15 AM May 28th:
I was at work finishing decorating for before the kiddos got their decorating the sidewalks with chalk and pinwheels to welcome them in to our summer time!
Even though all that work was a lot and I was completely exhausted starting the week, I got many hugs and thank yous for decorating and doing what I did. This made it all worth it. After my fourth summer of working at this program, I have made many long lasting relationships with families and love their children dearly. I was ready to head up the program this summer and absolutely ready for the challenge that it was going to entail.
Whew! Meg, it sounds like you've been working hard long before the actual summer program began! That exhaustion you speak of is common to any experience in working with kids and families, but it is such a good exhaustion. This "prep work" that you've done is exactly what the planning component does in school--you set up experiences very carefully and anticipate trouble spots, and then remain responsive to what happens when actual people come on the scene! Sounds like a fantastic experience for you.
ReplyDelete