More About Summer Camps at BGC

Our local Boys and Girls Club has an ideal location, in between a park I used to take the kids to and James' current school. This means he can walk there after school and they can use the park so the kids can run around outside. James can even sign himself in. The staff is great with all the kids. I like what I've seen about reinforcing safety, respect, and caring. While I've received a couple of phone calls and requests to talk with the director when picking up James, any issues regarding behaviours are dealt with as calmly as possible, and they include James in the process, which is great.

Homework time and loud levels in the Teen Room can trigger behaviours. We are working on addressing this with James being more mature in requesting a break and the Staff doing what they can to accommodate us while keeping track of all the kids present. 

Summer camp is fun time! While I'd love to drop James off for a full day, so far it seems to work best to give him some quiet time before hitting camp. Every week has a theme. This week they are making films on an iPad with a partner. I can hardly wait to see what he's done.

One week they focused on cooking, and James made his own pizza and ate it for lunch. Wow. My picky eater, making and eating his own lunch! I swoon. James is eating lunch with his group! Again, I swoon. I hear tales (albeit brief and a bit garbled) about touch football games, goofy friends, and club staff nicknames and news on our ride home. It feels so good.

It makes me feel happy that James is not missing out on summer, fun things his peers are enjoying, and opportunities to learn new things. James seems pretty happy too!