A Day at Busy Bee Camp

June 17, 2011

Busy Bee Camp- Day 6

My day, today, was rather short lived at Busy Bee Camp. I was only at the school for the first hour before leaving to run errands with my cousin. So, for my entry today, I am going to describe a typical day at Busy Bee Camp.

Our Busy Bees excitedly arrive to camp at 9:00am.  Their parents’ cars line up outside of the school, and our counselors meet the children, one by one to escort them into our building. For the first 30 minutes of the day, the Busy Bees have the freedom to choose what activities they would like to pursue.  There is one station designated for puzzles, one for coloring, and one for working on the daily art project, which I have been heading almost everyday.  They can also head to what we call the Rainbow Room, which is a room filled with toys, or they can work in our art room where Playdo awaits molding. In true Montessori fashion it is up to the children to decide their paths.  But they must always remain busy Bees! At 9:30am it is time for cleanup. During my first day of camp I remember hearing the counselors shout, “Cleanup!” and watching the Busy Bees scatter  throughout the school and  work with a sense of urgency to put everything away.  They did an awesome job in just minutes.  After cleanup, everyone meets on the story time rug for singing and book reading.  The same songs are crooned everyday: Baby Beluga, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Five Little Monkeys, and Bringing Home My Baby Bumble Bee.  And our books will change with the day. Towards the end of story and song time the counselors dress the Busy Bees in little blue smocks.  The smocks are to be worn whenever we relocate the children to the park, which always occurs after story and song time. The little smocks have the name of the school on them so that everyone will know where a little Busy Bee came from if he or she was to get lost.  Now, not everyone gets to go to the park; the two year olds stay back at the school and play with two of the counselors. The rest of us counselors, though, will walk hand in hand with groups of three or so Busy Bees to the park.  I have to say, this is probably my least favorite part of the day. One of my pet peeves is slow walkers.  Kids are tripping everywhere because they don’t pay attention. They get distracted by flowers and butterflies and the freaking mailman. It probably takes 10 minutes to get to the park, which is less than three blocks away.  Once we have reached the park, we open the gate and allow the Busy Bees to go wild; we are at the park for about 10-15mintues.  My cousin will then ring a bell as a signal for the kids to line up at the gate. I love watching all of the nannies and moms at the park watch in awe as the Busy Bees flock at the sound the bell.  We then make the journey back to Busy Bee headquarters where a snack awaits the swarm. Snacks could be anything from gold fish crackers to vanilla wafers. After they take their snack the Busy Bees have about 15 minutes to once again do as they please. But at 11:15 it is time for the Busy Bees to start winding down.  They are once again summoned to the story time rug where a few last books are read before nannies and parents file in the alleyway to pick up the kids. By this time all of the counselors are absolutely exhausted.  A full day of playing, disciplining, singing, coddling, painting, and wrangling can take a lot out of a person. I can’t imagine doing that for more than a few hours a day, or for even more than a few weeks. All I have to say is that preschool and kindergarten teachers are rock stars.