Inspirational and Empowering Child Care Business Owners To Build Successful Child Care Businesses

Archive for the ‘Program Planning’ Category

5 Easy Ways To Plan for a Successful Summer Camp

My Center Directors and I planned for a successful Summer Camp back in March 2023 and It was so exciting. We planned our weekly theme, fun Friday events and fieldtrips. 

Are you planning to have a Camp this Summer? If so, now is the perfect time to start marketing your Camp.

However, if you have been too busy to market your camp; it’s never to late to start today!

The summer time is a great season for the business of Child Care. In fact, school-age children are out of school and parents need a fun and enriching place for their children to be.

Today I want to share with you 5 easy ways to market your summer camp:

1. Create a festive Flyer about your camp on your computer and share it as a reel on socialmedia. Be sure to include the dates of the camp, events along with field trip information. Include a registration form with the flyer.

2. Start Marketing your Summer Camp now On Your Social Media Pages; using summer related images that include a link to your website or your phone number.

3. If you own a center, display Summer Camp banners on your playground fence or in your windows. (If allowed in your municipality)

4. Send flyers and information to families that attended your camp in previous years.

5. Plan lots of fun theme based activities along with field trips and be sure to market all that you have planned for your camp! 

6. Market your camp on your website and provide downloadable camp forms! ** be sure to disclose Covid 19 precautions.

Much Success to you!

Shiketa

For more Summer Camp Planning be sure to download a copy of my Summer Camp Planning eguide. 

Have you checked out my new Child Care Leaders Club? There is lots of Inspiration and Empowerment for Center Owners/ Directors. Click Here

Category:

Marketing, Program Planning, Quality Care

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How to Create a Cool Place for School-Age Children

I began transforming my school-age program in the spring of 2010 with the help of a Missouri T.E.A.C.H. project Pilot grant. The information and resources that I gained while completing nine college semester hours of youth development training hours inspired me to create a cool place for school-age children.

In this blog post, I will share with you 5 ways to create a cool place for school-age children:

1. Solicit feedback from the children. Ask the children what type of activities that they would like to see in the program this summer.

2. Assess the environment and added materials that are appropriate for their age group. Changed the classroom centers to ,”Clubs.” School-age children love to belong to clubs and this makes the environment a cool place to explore. For example, The cooking center is now called the, ” Cooking Club” and the Art area is now the “Art Club.”

Fun materials to add to your environment: Games, clay, paint, paper, scrap booking materials, yarn for crocheting, hobby magazines, wood working materials, variety of books, dress-up clothes, blocks, large cardboard boxes, computer, sports equipment, puppets/theater, dramatic play prop box (hair dresser, store,etc)

3.  As you make changes  observe the children to see how they are responding to the environment. If the  children seem to be very involved in the materials and more focused…you did a great job!

4. At my childcare center, we plan a cool and fun-filled summer camp every year. The weekly activities are theme based and there are  a variety of field trips planned every week. For example: Mondays- Park Day; Tuesday- Visit a local attraction; Wednesday- Free Movie Camp; Thursday- Library (Summer Reading Club) Friday- Visit local attraction.

The parents are responsible for all field trip fees and the field trips are planned for the entire summer. Furthermore, the last week of camp is back to school fun and we plan a big back to school party for the children.  See my website for ideas

5. Ideas for the Fall Before/After School – Kids Club- In many cases parents need some place for their school-age children to go before/after school and creating after school club activities, is a great way to keep the children from getting bored. Some of the after school kids clubs could include: Art, Science, Music, Cooking, Drama, Technology, Math, Literacy Club. For more tips on how to create clubs visit, After School Training Tool Kit website.

Cool Summer Camp Marketing ideas:

  • Add a large Summer Camp Here Sign in your window (if permitted)
  • Market your summer camp program on your website and on your social media pages
  • Decorate your windows with summer decor
  • Be sure to insert Summer Camp Enrolling signs in your van window (if permitted)
  • Issue Summer Camp Flyers to your local schools
  • Offer incentives for parents who refer families to your summer camp

For more marketing ideas, check out my Marketing 101 Toolkit.

With your Child Care Business in Mind,

Shiketa Morgan

Follow my Child Care Business Tweets @ccarebusiness

 

Category:

Child Care Center, Curriculum, Family Child Care, Program Planning, School-Age Program

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