I don’t have to tell you that running a quality early childhood center with high standards is a feat in and of itself, but doing so in the middle of a pandemic takes a Herculean effort.
This past spring, directors, and teachers scrambled to make sense of their new realities and needed to learn how to connect with their children and families in a new way, whether via Zoom or another platform. Fortunately, our closures occurred after the teachers had already established strong relationships with the children and their parents.
With summer quickly approaching, conversations centered around camp. In early May when all the local day camps were still deciding if they should open onsite programs, TSTI’s Iris Family Center leadership decided that it was not safe to do so.
We committed to offering something online that would be engaging, active, and interactive. We planned, attended zoom workshops, looked at other platforms, learned new techniques, gathered staff, created a Camp at Home logo and mascot, advertised, and launched an online camp for children ages preschool through 2nd grade.…on the very same day that New Jersey’s s Governor Murphy announced that childcare centers and day camps could open in July. Timing is everything!
Do we rethink our decision? Do we change the course? For many reasons, we moved forward as planned as a virtual camp, two-and-a-half-hours a day, five days a week for 10 weeks. And it worked. It was magical.
After a few tweaks to the timing of our schedule and finding activities that needed minimal supervision from parents, the children and their counselors sang, played, chatted, danced, learned yoga moves, explored ASL, and celebrated Shabbat. Sometimes we were in an all-camp zoom room and at other times ‘bunks’ were in small breakout rooms. No matter the activity or group size, administrators captured screenshots for a weekly slideshow for all to enjoy.
Did all the children stay onscreen with the group all day, every day? No. But, more often than not, when a counselor called a child’s name, the child popped up from the side of the computer. They were there all the time: coloring, building with blocks, snuggling with a lovey, etc.
Was camp successful? It depends on how you measure success. We didn’t make as much money as we have in the past, and we decided to close camp after 4 weeks when families opted to send their children to local on-site camps that had opened. However, if you measure success by seeing happy children, employed staff, and grateful parents, then we were rock stars!!
Carol Paster
Early Childhood Director
Iris Family Center for Early Childhood Education
South Orange, NJ
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