We have age guidelines for geek camp, mostly for my (Amy writing here) convenience. I pretty much have to invite all the Makice kids to camp, so I’ve got to find ways to make it work for their ages, whatever they may be. My preference is not to stray a lot from their ages, which are spread out already, so suggested guidelines are kids entering 1st-8th grade. Older than that, and I want to talk to them about helping me run the camp, which I can promise them, is tons of fun.
I’ve had several people ask about kiddos who are younger than 1st grade, and we’ve certainly stretched our ages in the past (we used to say only 3rd grade and up). It makes more sense to simply have some guidelines and trust parents to choose appropriately for their kids. Here are a few pieces of the puzzle to ponder with your younger kids (these apply to older ones too!).
- We ask all kids to deposit their electronic devices in a basket when they get here, and only access them when they are directly needed for a project. If your child will be heartbroken to lose her device for the day, one of them should stay home. (Devices are NOT necessary for campers).
- Adults aren’t always with the kids. Sometimes there are two adults and 4 or 5 different working projects, leaving kids self-directed. The groups are multi-age, so there’s added protection, but not all middle schoolers remember to keep an eye on all the kids in their group. We ask all of them to stay within our yard, and our house is small enough that if they are within the boundaries we set, we’ll hear them if they need anything, but if you have a youngster who happens to enjoy unannounced explorations, there’s no guarantee we would see them leave. Geek camp is not the place for kids who wander.
- Geek camp is primarily self-directed, collaborative project work. Campers need to be interested in working with other kids. If they find something they want to do solo, I’ll encourage them to follow up on that at home, but while they’re at geek camp, they’re working together. Campers need to be flexible enough to find something to join even if their project didn’t get any takers.
- Geek camp is multiage and child led. This almost guarantees at least one group will decide to create a horror movie. (So far, this has happened every year). The kids will push the envelope with language and violence. I will repeatedly remind them that the ratings limit for geek camp movies is PG, but they will include bodily function jokes as well as pretend gore. They will create weapons to use as props, and they will practice using these weapons on each other. This I know from experience. We talk a lot about nurturing/caring for all ages during the week, asking kids to think of more sensitive souls among them and how their project might impact them.
- On a related note, geek campers talk about and use social media. While they are here, we ask them to stick with the official geek camp social media accounts, even if they have their own accounts at home, so we can see everything that gets posted from geek camp. For the older kids, this can be frustrating because they’d rather be posting things on their own instagram, youtube, etc, and for the younger kids this can be intimidating because it may be their first exposure. For parents who don’t use social media, this can be frightening. I’m happy to talk with you more in-depth, but it’s impossible to promise that your child’s image won’t show up in one of their projects (most of them like to star in movies) or in our blog posts.
- Geek camp incorporates electricity, dry ice, hot glue guns, felting needles, real scissors and knives. Just last week, Matilda managed to burn herself fairly severely using our 3D-doodler. We talk about safety, we remind them about physics and gravity, but kids still get hurt. Kids who come to geek camp don’t need fabulous table manners or technical know-how, but they need to be able to control their bodies around dangerous things.
- Geek camp does some field trips that involve walking. Campers need to be hip to walking approximately one mile each way. Field trips also include going places where they are expected to act a little more like they are in school than romping through summertime, but I try to keep those time-limited, as I’d rather romp.
- Food rules vary wildly among the families who participate in geek camp. Generally, during lunch time, I’m frantically trying to get things ready for the afternoon, not watching who is trading food, or who is happily feeding my beagle. Snacks are sometimes super healthy smushed fruit popsicles, and other times are Dairy Queen Dilly Bars.
- Geek camp kids need to be able to pitch in. If all the campers step up and help put things away at the end of the day, they’ll be able to find their projects in the morning, because I promise, I won’t do it after they leave, so it’s only if Kevin happens home in time to get it done. When the kids leave, I pretty much collapse.
Bottom line: if your children are interested in sharing their passions, trying out some other kids’ passions, exploring and collaborating on new projects, please send them my way this summer.
