Holiday Clubs

Holiday Clubs

by: Guider-too - 22-07-12 19:26

Hello all - I am looking for a little advice on a new position I have been taken on for. Holiday Club supervisor.

Age range will be quite wide - from 41/2 upto 13 years old. We will have two seperate areas for the ages, we have permission locally for that.

This is a new venture, the setting is a new one - so bascially I have a blank canvas to work on. I have set the room out to what I think will work, have loads of activities to hand.

My thoughts are that the first day I will ask the children what THEY want to do. Set the basic rules for the room (with guidance of course) I would like them to make this room theirs.

We have a file with ideas where we can take them out - but what use is it if I say that for example next wednesday we are going to a musuem if it will bore them silly?

Is it necessary to have a topic for each week? I have just seen an advert for a (fairly local, well established club) and they have a topic for each week.

Under the sea

Aliens and monsters

Pirates and mermaids

Knights and Princesses

Minibeasts

Jungle Animals.

This has made me panic slightly - are my ideas of child led (although guided) wrong?

Please advise. What would you want for your child if you used holiday clubs.

by: Jumping Jax

Actually having a theme is a good idea - not all children have to do everything that is on offer that week - but it helps some children anticipate what they are likely to do that week. Some children need preparing for new activities and dont cope well with the unexpected.

Plus it helps some parents make the decision to send / not sent their child that week.

One with a phobia of spiders will probably miss out on the Minibeast one - or at least let you know in advance if spiders and bugs could be a problem

Easier to manage if you know what you and your team are doing.

If, on the first day, a strong charactor declares that all want to do hulahooping and you dont have enough hoops to go round then what are you going to do?

Following a theme also makes it look like you have done some preparation in advance rather than making it up as you go along all the time.

There is always room for creativity on the subject - but just how much paint and paper can you carry to the centre each week on the offchance that someone wants to paint?

Jaki

by: Sunshine

I think a mixture of the 2 is good. I think a theme is a good idea with planned activities, but also to allow the children some choice and maybe allow some time each day for an activity that the children have chosen. You would still have a selection of toys/activities out so the children can chose from a selection rather than being made to do one particular activity.

My son goes to a holiday club which runs from 8-6pm and they change the activities throughout the day to stop the children getting bored.  They also have an outdoor area, a quiet area and an area just for the older ones

Sarah

by: Kandy Flip

I am in a simiilar situation in suddenly finding myself this summer as supervisor of a holiday club.

I think the emphasis should be working within Playwork Principles and creating a choice of environments in your club that are conducive to the different types of play that children like to engage in. For example:

- a wide open space encourages fantasy play, locomotor play

- an enclosed space encourages dramatic play, fantasy play, imaginative play, role play, social play

- sociable spaces encourage creative play, symbolic play, dramatic play, fantasy play, socio-dramatic play, social play

- a space with movable open-ended resources encourage creative play, object play, symbolic play

- a space with possibility of challenge encourages mastery play, risky play, rough and tumble play

- a space that appeals to the senses encourages exploratory play

- a space with contact with natural features encourage deep play, exploratory play, mastery play, recapitulative play

- a space for chilling out and daydreaming encourages object play and mastery play.

I would make sure you have enough resources to make all these types of play possible. In general, plan for play rather than plan the actual content and narrative of children's play. It's best that they have ownership of their play.

That's not to say there isn't room for adult-led activities or themed activities where the content is decided by you. New, unfamilar ideas and the acquiring of new skills can support children to expand their ability to play. However, I would say adult-led activities should not dominate a holiday programme and should not make free play of secondary importance. 

by: Guider-too

Thank you all for replying.

Today was a good day, very mixed bunch of children aged 4 1/2 to 12 years old!

Started the day with asking them what THEY wanted to do. We had an ideas session, I left the flip chart out for them to add to.

Lucky with the weather, managed to get out to a local park for an hour - funny as we met up with another Holiday group (I used to work at their place 10 days ago..some of the children came running to me!)

Tomorrow is a new day, the console will stay switched off till at least after 10am. Ownership of the room by the children is important to me, they have some ideas what they want as displays and stuff.

Kandy - we are based within a private day nursery and we are lucky to have access to most of the areas you have suggested.