Online camps are difficult. They are especially difficult when you’re the only one online and everyone else is in person!
Zoom camp perks: lap cat
Peace Village camp was certainly a different experience than the other camps I went to this summer for that very reason. Now I’m going to be honest here, I wouldn’t recommend zooming into an in-person camp! If you had another option, like being physically present or having everyone on zoom, I’d say that would probably be a smoother experience for everyone involved. Being “present” only on a laptop made communicating with the campers pretty difficult. But with the extremely generous help from the staff at Peace Village Kids Camp, I think I was able to make the best of the situation! I can only hope the campers got as much out of the experience as I did.
The kids were soooo sweet! It was a younger crowd than I was used to. The campers ranged from 6-13 years old. All of my previous camps were CYF camps, so this camp was a pretty big divergence from what I was used to. I was a little nervous about giving a workshop to such young kids. And there was such a range of ages too; a 6 year old is gonna be in a vastly different place, developmentally, than a 13 year old, or even an 8 year old!
I did my best to present material that was age-appropriate. It had been a long time since I had last interacted with young children for an extended amount of time, so I really hope I was at least somewhat successful in my attempts. I got good feedback from the staff at the camp, but sometimes I’m not sure if people are just saying things to be nice, ya know? Personally, I felt like the best feedback came from the kids. I’m not sure if they really got much out of my actual workshops, but I think they at least managed to have a good time during our sessions! I really enjoyed watching them laugh and play with each other. I loved listening to the stories they told me; even if I often couldn’t actually hear the stories, the looks on their faces when they talked with me were enough of an indication that they were having fun, and that made me happy! So what if we ended up talking about dogs instead of ways we could make the world better? Learning to find joy in life is an important aspect of peace-building!
One of my favorite moments of camp was when some of the kids stayed behind after the session to give me air hugs. ~melt~ It was just TOO CUTE! Can’t quite get THAT at a high school camp!
So yes, the experience was vastly different from the in-person CYF camps I went to for most of the summer, but it was still fun and meaningful in its own way! I’m really glad I was able to have this experience. I’m also super grateful to Susan Finch, who went so far as to mail me a camp T-shirt and a camp photo! The photo was a lovely surprise! I also wanted to thank Richard Cintron, who became my makeshift IT person, as well as my in-person facilitator. Richard really helped things run more smoothly for me, and I’m very grateful! Overall, it was a fun and rewarding camp experience for me!