Fun is our Middle Name

Having worked at summer camps since I was 14, I have discovered that there are certain things a child will only learn while having FUN. Never is this more present than at Camp JCC.

When you ask teachers what their biggest challenges are in the classroom, you will likely hear how difficult it is to keep students engaged. A teacher can present slides, lecture, and hand out mountains of homework, but it appears as if the chances of children truly retaining information is up to a coin flip. However, if you ask about the lessons that stood out as the most successful, you will inevitably find a key component: FUN!

Adding an element of fun has been a staple of effective education for decades. Need your students to learn their times tables? Bust out the flash cards, and make it a competition! Students leaving a mess behind every day? Crank up the speakers, and give a prize to the cleanest table at the end of the song. These are the moments that stick with a child. When they are so engrossed with the entertainment aspect, they don’t even realize that they are completing an educational task: learning in disguise!

At Camp JCC, when we discuss how our Summer Camp can inform and enrich our participants, we have to admit that we cheat. Blatantly. The growth and development that research shows is associated with the time that a child spends at Camp is not only made possible by the focus on fun, it is dependent upon it. When one of our campers participates in an icebreaker, he is not only learning the names of the new boys in his group, but also how to take turns, how to introduce himself to new people, and how to form a group identity. A camper will not only be told how she should play soccer; she will actually go out and kick the ball to her friends and get a chance to score a goal! Campers don’t need to sit in front of a textbook to learn the difference between types of trees; with the woods in our backyard, they can go out and discover the differences for themselves. We provide the safe and enriching environment for them to be engaged through fun, with the freedom to play and learn at the same time.

As the individuals who have this delightful responsibility as arbiters of Fun, we have to look at how we shape our summer camp programs for the future to best suit the needs of the incoming campers by gearing it towards their collective interests. Our focus has been to see what our campers can get out of our program and how we can make sure it is just as fun as ever. Here’s what we’ve been up to:

1. Expanding Camp JCC from 8 weeks to 10 and giving a bridge week to make a seamless transition back to the classroom
2. Building up our program for older campers (4^th-7^th graders) to give them more choice in activities and time for self-directed play
3. Bolstering our Leaders-in-Training Program to build future leaders and adding Counselor-in-Training sessions to provide our oldest campers with the guidance and instruction needed to work at Camp
4. Growing our camp offerings to include more technology, science, cooking, art, and Wizards & Warriors Live-Action Roleplaying camps
5. Strengthening the roles of the principles of Judaism and our community’s relationship with Israel in our Camp experience

One of the blessings of having been a part of the Siegel JCC from my childhood is that I have seen how Camp has grown over the years. What makes Camp JCC so special is the tradition of creating and adapting programs that are fun. With that focus, we are confident that our program will be the place for the children of our community to grow and have fun. Because our campers deserve it.