4-Week Super Summer Bootcamp… Plan Your Best Summer Yet!

Summer camp is always a lot of work for early childhood business owners. Planning them takes a lot of time, and making sure everything goes perfectly can turn into a daily task very quickly.

It can also be a wonderful opportunity to showcase your early childhood business, as well as be a great enrollment season for your school or center. However, how can you focus on enrollment when you're too busy making sure everything goes well?

Well, what if I told you you didn't have to do any of that ever again?

All you need to do is be intentional about your purpose and mission for your summer camp season and how you hope to accomplish it.

Once that happens, you can use the tool I share with you today to make your summer camp life easier!

Our 4-week Super Summer Bootcamp guide will help you plan an amazing pre-fall enrollment season and build a summer camp plan you can use every single year! 

Are you ready to learn more?

Tune in now!

Let’s Talk About Summer Camp

The flowers are beginning to bloom, the days are getting longer, and trees are budding with beautiful foliage. Spring break is right around the corner, and the end of the school year projects are happening in your classrooms right now. 

And even though summer still feels far away, in reality, it’s just around the corner. And the arrival of summer means summer camps!

For early childhood business owners, summer is an enrollment season that will look different from school to school. Whether you're taking a well-deserved break on a sandy beach or you're gearing up for a fun summer season, March is the best time to set your center up for enrollment success and the best summer camp yet. 

Now you might say you’re too busy to be already thinking about summer plans. However, I promise you, if you take the time to put a summer camp plan in place, you’ll save so much time in the future. Plus, you’ll experience a fabulous summer camp enrollment season!

A little planning today means more enrollment for the summer. This not only means more summer revenue, but increased fall revenue as well. 

Ready for the Best Summer Camp Ever?

Right now your days are busy, and scheduling time for planning can be difficult. However, doing your summer camp planning before the sunny season starts will help your teachers feel prepared and set your business up for success. 

Camp days can be long and tiring depending on the type of program you're running. Learning to plan ahead of time will help prevent some of that. 

Another reason to plan ahead is that it allows your team to stay focused on the children and the summer camp activities instead of worrying about what’s going to happen later. 

When your summer camp is planned out and all the materials are purchased, everything else goes much more smoothly. 

Would you like to learn how to plan your best summer camp ever? Keep reading!

Map Out Your Summer

Take your calendar and look at the last week of your school year now and the first week of your coming school year. How many weeks in between are there? Usually, it's 10 to 12 weeks, but it really depends on your school year calendar. 

For example, for 17 years now, we have always had the last day of our school year around the third week of June. And the first day of school in the fall is always the Wednesday after Labor Day. Even when our local school district moved their first day to the last week of August, we kept ours the same. That means parents can plan accordingly, knowing exactly what our summer camp calendar looks like. 

Here are some other key things to consider when you're mapping out your summer season: 

• The structure of your camp.

• What add-ins you’ll offer (hot lunch? supplies?).

• Which day you’ll go on field trips or have special guests over.

• What team members will be on vacation and when you will need additional support for the summer.

• Which days you’ll be closed.

Build a Superpower Team

Having the right leaders for your summer program is the main ingredient for a successful camp. 

Team members who are energetic, passionate, and full of fun and exciting ideas will encourage the same attitudes in your summer campers. 

Summer camp is all about building experiences, being silly, singing fun songs, playing games, and being interactive. So build a superpower team that is willing to explore, smile, and have fun, while encouraging your campers to join in with them. 

Incorporate your teachers and their passions into the planning process. And remember; when the team is having fun, memorable experiences are happening. 

Great Themes Always Help!

Summer planning should be more relaxed. This is why it's normal for summer camp themes and activities to be different compared to what you do during the school year. 

You can still support your preschoolers' growth and development, but have your program feel less like a typical school year. It's all about being creative, and it can be as simple as changing the names of your activities or changing your environment. 

That means that choosing the right theme for camp doesn't have to be overwhelming. Creating a weekly theme will help you and your superpower team stay organized and get your families excited for what is to come. When you are thinking about what themes to include in your camp, select the ones that will be engaging to the most people. 

Field Trips and Special Experiences 

Field trips are essential for a great summer camp experience, so try to create a once a week experience that takes you somewhere else. A special guest visiting once a week is also a great idea! 

Your field trip and special experiences day will become a day that all of your campers are looking forward to. So grab your list of weekly themes and map out your special days according to them.

Keep It Budget-Friendly

Planning your budget for your summer camp season can feel overwhelming. However, there are ways to maximize it and profit while still offering an amazing summer camp season.

You can ask for contributions from parents for summer camp supplies —parents are always eager to help and usually have stuff laying around the house that they don’t need—. 

You can also take an inventory of your supplies when planning your summer and use what you already have for the camp. 

Finally, you can also plan a “sustainable day” each week where none of the activities planned require new supplies.

Get Your Team Excited!

The energy of your team will determine the energy of your camp. Energy is the confetti of your summer camp, so throw it around like you have an endless supply. 

Have a weekly huddle to get your superpower team excited. During it, share things and lift each other up. 

If your budget allows it, get gifts and tokens of appreciation for all of the energy your team is sharing. 

Be creative, give incentives, lead by example, and share the energy with your team that you would like them to share with the campers.

Focus on Communication

The final way you can make your summer camp planning magical is to communicate. This seems simple enough, but as we all know that when there's an issue, it's because of bad communication. 

So, whether it's your team, a parent, or a camper, make sure that you are communicating with each one in multiple ways. 

I discuss all of this in more depth in the episode above, so make sure to give it a listen!

Resources

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You will learn how to spend less time on small details and daily tasks. You can spend more time doing the things you truly enjoy. Focusing on the things that really matter, your top priorities, your key relationships, your most important projects, all the things that will bring you more joy and your business more success.