Summer Camp 2017!!!

Whew… Summer is finally over for me! This 9 weeks was a great experience, and although I spent most of my time working I enjoyed the work I was doing. In addition to teaching sewing and fashion design I was also teaching yoga on the weekends, so developing, creating, and learning my teaching style has been an experience in itself. It’s funny how you learn while teaching.. You go into the classroom and you cannot predict what these kids are going to say, do, or feel at any moment so every day is a new opportunity to see how creative your problem solving skills are.  The girls kept me on my toes and laughing all the time. If you checked my Instagram stories you got a glimpse of what we did on the daily.. lol

So the theme of camp this year was to Go BIG. The “B.I.G” stood for Being in Gratitude. I thought this was  a beautiful concept to introduce to children and even to remind us adults about the importance of gratitude. I remember being in team training at the very beginning of summer and the leader said “we want to focus on building character muscles.” She went on to say that virtues (courage, respect, patience, loyalty, compassion etc.) are like muscles that must be used in order to grow. So in order to cultivate the virtues, particularly gratitude, you simply have to practice gratitude everyday. Contrary to the popular saying, gratitude is not an attitude, it is a practice. In the same way you would lift weights everyday to become stronger you have to practice the virtues daily, in order to build character. I could go on and on about this, being a yoga teacher conversations like this get me excited. So I may have been the only one who enjoyed training that day.. lol

I tried to combine character building activities with our fashion activities. In addition to highlighting a different virtue every week, I also did things like have them say something they were grateful for at the beginning of each day, saying a positive compliment about someones work, or noticing when you or someone else does something kind. On the last day of camp I had them write a letter of gratitude to someone they were thankful for. I know that is kind of a cliche activity but, I told them people don’t hand write thank you letters anymore, we text or simply say thank you, which is fine but you can ALWAYS hand write a letter, note, or card to someone and thank them.

At the end of the 2 weeks instead of a normal fashion show or presentation, we set the room up as an art gallery. Each camper had their own little area to display everything they created. This way is was more personal, and the girls felt so important having people come around in awe of their work, ask questions, take pictures, etc. I really just hope all the girls I’ve taught this summer, enjoyed the experience and learned something about sewing, fashion, or even themselves! Click the links to read the blog posts about Fashion Design.

https://www.esfcamps.com/riverdale/passion-for-fashion/

https://www.esfcamps.com/georgetownprep/specialty-major-camps-inventors-fashion-design/