Author: Element6

Progressive students think about what they’re doing for the summer, months in advance.  The pragmatic ones think about what summer jobs will help them with their career aspirations when they are done school.    Whether it’s a career in education, child care or sports and leisure, one would be very prudent in  pursuing a summer camp position in July and August.

Working at a summer camp prepares you to work with children, problem-solve, learn to adapt, manage your time & develop creativity.

Working with children

It is impossible to not improve your skills with children while working at summer camp.  It’s no surprise that you’ll develop great experience working with children ages 5-13 including dealing with different behaviors associated with a variety of age groups.  Many staff pursuing a career in teaching or early childhood education will benefit from the experience they get working with children at summer camp.

Problem Solve

Everyone thinks they are a good problem solving…but you haven’t learned anything like what you will learn at summer camp.  Every day poses challenges & problems you will encounter.  Getting the proper training for your summer camp job will not only assist you with the challenges you face at camp but this skill of problem solving will translate to almost any other career field you may choose to pursue.

Learn to Adapt

Each week at Royal City Soccer camp is a different experience! This means you will develop skills adapting to changing needs of a group and generally to changes within a workplace setting. Many employers will view this as a valuable skill, it means that you show an ability to adjust and still work effectively regardless of changes.

Managing your time

A huge career development skill that is gained from working at camp is time management.  With about 40 hours a week managing children in your care, you will become a ‘master’ time manager when it comes to the art of scheduling activities. At Royal City Soccer Club, working as a camp staff member will allow you to emerge as a leader in this area…a transferable skill for future careers.

Creativity

If you are a creative person, camp will make you more creative.  If you are lacking in the creativity department, this is an area for significant improvement from working at a summer camp.

For those creative minds that enjoy developing new ideas and inventing – there is an opportunity to develop that as well, especially when working at Royal City Soccer Club! As staff, you need to attend to the needs of the participants by putting your own spin on camp activities, and what would work best for that week of camp. Creative thinking is important when solving problems, as not all issues will have a straight forward solution.

What do you think you will be doing for your future career? Whatever it may be, working at a summer camp is likely a recipe for future career success.

-Nastazja

Congratulations, you have made it through another Canadian Winter! But now that April has arrived, we must face all of those gloomy rainy days which means days you might be stuck indoors and not sure what to do (although it’s still better than snow, am I right?). But do not fear, we are here to help you with some tips and activities to try out!

THE GREAT INDOORS

One of my favourite activities as a child was building my own fortress and I’m sure your children would love it too! Pick a room in the house that you don’t mind being rearranged for a few hours, use sheets and blankets on top of couches or chairs to keep it secure.  Let them decorate, bring in their favourite toys, books, and you can even enjoy a picnic lunch in their camp!

HIT THE BOOKS

No one said that you HAVE to stay at home on a rainy day. Take your children out to the public library to check out some new books! Even if you don’t have a library card they are always free to get and you can spend hours at a time there! Get your children (and of course, yourself) to pick out some of their favourite ones and you’ll have a stack of new bedtime stories to read. It will also decrease some of that screen time.

HOMEMADE PLAY DOUGH

Every child loves to get their hands dirty with a special activity, so why not make some homemade play dough? To make it even more creative, you can add things like sprinkles, different food colouring and dare I say glitter?

See the link below for an easy play dough recipe:
https://theimaginationtree.com/best-ever-no-cook-play-dough-recipe/

DANCE PARTY

Get everyone on their feet (yes that does include you, parents), the music blasting and dance moves flowing! Make sure you have lots of space and shake off those rainy day blues! You can even spice this up with some classic Limbo competitions.
We hope that you now have some fresh ideas for the rainy days to come but just keep looking forward to the hot, summer days that are not too far away where you will be able to go outside and perhaps…. work on those soccer skills?

-Larissa

Here at Royal City Soccer Club, we always say that working at camp is not only the best, but the most rewarding job to have and we wanted to back that up by having our Staff give us insight on some of their favourite memories at camp..

Lewis  from Calgary

One of my stand out memories of camp is that I had 2 campers that were 13 years old in my group when I was a Supervisor for RCSC. The next year they were too old to be a camper but they loved the camp so I asked them to return as volunteers. Both of them were so awesome as volunteers and me being a Regional Coordinator, I got to witness them step up and help out the new Supervisor which made his job a lot easier. They remembered all of the games that I did with the children and they got along with not only the campers but the parents as well. This year I have already been in touch with them and they are looking forward to another year volunteering at the camp and I look forward to seeing them grow even more.

Colin from Whitby

I have been working at this camp for years, and it has become a tradition of playing music while we’re getting ready for swimming every day. I find that it always gets the campers motivated to help clean up their garbage after lunch, it gets them more comfortable with each other and it ends up turning into a huge dance party! Last year was no different, but something that was special was the solar eclipse so the campers decided to make a dance all by themselves as a group and called it the “Solar Eclipse Dance” and showed it to the staff. I am returning as a Supervisor once again this summer and I plan on continuing this tradition and can’t wait to see all the dance moves the campers have in store for me.

Tanysha from Mississauga

My favourite memory when I was a Supervisor was the last week of camp, not for the reasons of it being the last day  but because of the special activities that I planned for the entire week. The campers that I have at my site are usually children that have been coming to this camp for years so I wanted to do something that they weren’t really used to. I thought it would be a great idea to have a weeklong Soccer Olympics. In order for it to have a different feel, I added a bit of competition and excitement by giving the campers the chance to gain points and by the end of the week they would be rewarded for first, second and third place, “Most Improved Camper”, as well as the “Camper of the Summer”. Immediately, when I explained at the beginning of the week what we would be doing I could see the excitement in the campers. This week was also my favourite because old and new campers were able to team up and play with each other and it was a week where I saw a lot of them come out of their comfort zone and wanted to participate. It was filled with lots of laughter, happiness and just straight up FUN! I also liked the fact that campers were trying their absolute best to improve their behaviours and it was quite refreshing. The last week of camp can be bittersweet but because of how we changed things up, it ended up being like we were having a celebration for how great the summer went. That was my first summer as a Supervisor and it is the reason why I continue to enjoy working for RCSC!

Saya from Oakville

One of my favourite camp memories is getting all of the campers involved in making a music video to the song Firework – Katy Perry! The children were all extremely into it and put so much time into making it perfect. Oakville tends to be a bigger and busier location so when we get to see the campers all working together it is such a good feeling. I have established amazing relationships with past staff and parents but best of all I have got to see the campers grow year by year whether it’s improving on their soccer skills or stepping out of their comfort zone. It’s memories like these and so many others that I have witnessed over the years that keeps me coming back!

-Larissa