4-Week Super Summer Bootcamp - Planning Your Themes

Last week, I discussed how to plan for your best summer camp ever! 

Today, I'll dive deeper into that plan, and talk about how to decide on the right themes.

Your themes are some of the few things that will differentiate your school or center from other ones around you.

If they're fun and creative, your team will enjoy working on them, the children will absolutely love them, and the parents will be satisfied, which means... more enrollment!

When done right, your summer camp can be a golden opportunity for your business. A successful summer camp can bring new families into your world and even convince them to enroll in the fall.

And the first step to achieving that is wowing your potential families with your super fun and creative summer camp themes.

How can you come up with something that'll leave everyone wanting more?

Tune in to find out!

Ready for Summer Camp Season?

As I discussed last week, summer camp can be a wonderful opportunity to showcase your business. It can also be a great enrollment season for your school or center. 

But you do have to be intentional about your purpose and mission for your summer camp season if you want to achieve that. 

Whether you've run a camp every summer for the last fifteen years, or this is your first one, our four week summer boot camp will help you plan an amazing summer camp enrollment season! It will also give you the opportunity to build a summer camp plan you can use every year. 

This will save you time and give you more freedom to focus on the things that are important to you. 

Are You Choosing the Right Themes for Your Camp?

Choosing the right themes for your summer camp can seem difficult. However, this is one of those things that is worth making the time for. 

As you've probably heard me say before, spending a little extra time thinking about the future will result in a bigger reward. 

In this situation, take a few moments and really think about this summer. What are your students excited about right now? Do you have access to parents who have interesting or unique jobs? Do any of your team members have any unique skills? Is something special happening in your community this summer? 

Taking the time to answer those questions will spark ideas for creative themes that produce enrollment. And that's really what you’re looking for. 

How to Come Up With Creative and Engaging Themes

Wondering how you can come up with fun summer camp themes that will bring in more families? Keep reading!

Keep the Parents in Mind

Here’s one thing you always need to remember while planning a summer camp: It’s crucial to attract the person who is actually going to pay for the camp, the parent! 

Having amazingly fun activities is great for the children, and they will enjoy them when they are in the camp. But it is the parents who have to sign them up for the camp in the first place. And if the parents aren't excited about the camp, they’re not going to think their child will be excited about it. And that means they won't sign them up for the camp.

So, keep in mind who you’re marketing your summer camp and other services to before planning for themes.

Keep It Fresh and Different

Creating weekly themes will help you and your superpower team stay organized and get your families excited for what's to come. 

This means your themes and activities have to be different from what you're doing during the school year. 

You can still support your preschoolers’ growth and development, but your program shouldn’t feel like your 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. 

If you want to keep your currently enrolled families over the summer, and attract new families as well, then creating fun and exciting themes is a must. 

Choose Engaging Themes

When you are thinking about what themes to include in your camps, select ones that will be engaging to most children. 

Think about the dynamics of your school, your team's superpowers, and what is trending in your area. Then, work around it with what you already have!

For example, instead of “circle time” or “morning meeting”, try “campfire chat” or “bonfire bonding”. Create an artificial campfire at circle time using rock sticks and leaves. Sit around it with your preschoolers each morning as you review your summer camp plans for the day. 

You can also change the name of different areas in your classroom. One week, your dramatic play center can be a beach for an ocean theme. Another week, it could be a corral for a Western theme.

This is your school's opportunity to transform your classrooms and take them to the next level for your campers, while still working on concepts and skills. 

When you walk into your classrooms during summer camp, you want them to scream the theme of the week without anyone even telling you what it is.

Make It Festive

Make sure to make it as festive as possible! For example, Monday is always “dress up day” at Peake Academy in the summer, and every classroom decorates their door for the campers to walk through at the beginning of the week and become immersed in the theme.

I discuss all of this in more depth (and share a few of our themes for our coming summer camp) in the episode above, so make sure to give it a listen now!

---

Resources

Be sure to get on our email list so we can send you more information about our Shine Membership for Early Childhood Business Owners/Managers that is now Open!

We give Early Childhood business owners/managers the operational strategies and tools they need to grow their profitable businesses with more joy, confidence, clarity, and less overwhelming.

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.