Every time I’m about to start a post, skost študiram…če bomo v slovenščina ali v angleščina as I worry about alienating both readers. Angleščina always wins out because
- It’s my mother tongue and the only way I know to fully express those rabid thoughts.
- I’m an English teacher 🙄 this is a blog about what I do, how I do it, and even worse,
- I’m a writing teacher and brevity is not necessary the soul of wit. So this, along with future posts will be long-winded. (Brace yourselves)
Not that I couldn’t make the attempt in Slovene, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish.
While my landing page brims with shiny, protracted (often verbose🧐😅) text that would give chat GPT and Google translate a run for their money, if you think I actually sat down to translate and proof-read the Slovenian page to utmost perfection, then I’ve got a bridge in Nigeria I’d looooove to sell you!
That, along with the building of this site, took an entire army (including grammar and spelling Nazis) of amazing people and a good several months- a price I couldn’t possibly fork out just to churn out a mere blogpost every now and then. So I will do this the best way I know how, and let pictures do the rest of the talking.
Down to the nitty-gritty‼️
As mentioned previously, 4 years in the thick of it, trying to make something of The Lemon Tree , I took the plunge last year and attempted my very first summer camp. This was against all outside voices filling me with fear about whether it would work, if I had enough kids, I’d burn out, and my personal fave, “won’t you go to the seaside? “ ( In Slovenia, something is seriously wrong with you if you’re at a party and not drinking, and if you don’t visit the seaside in the summer)
So Against these odds, and being a trier, (I swear, I will try anything at least once! Except skydiving, backpacking across any continent whatsoever and Kravavica🤢🤮) I rolled the dice, put together a flier with 4 dates, and left the rest to the camp gods.
4 registrations for July, 5 in August, and I was good to go, doing away with 2 other dates.
The first day of July camp (7:30 STAT!) started out on a sweet ,sweet note, with these 2 dollies gifting me an ice-cream machine I’m hoping will get some action this summer.
Next, we jumped right into a pre-set routine to keep things on track.
Circle time and warm-up Yoga stretches with a different kid taking the lead each day that elicited a ton of giggles. None of them could keep a straight face for longer than 2 seconds.
Then to the order of the day, GAMES! Shooting pom pom cannon balls off a pre-assembled pop-up pirate ship, with eye-patches for even more authenticity- Aye!😉
Only thing missing was a wooden peg leg and captain Jack Sparrow walking the plank.
Next, we headed out for a game of dobble on steroids- always a fave with the kids.
In the heat of the excitement, completely forgetting I’d advertised malica in the program, ( I too struggle with UK & US spellings of program and programme so use it interchangeably as the spirit leads🧐😅I’m unstable like that😎 ) by which time the kids were famished, so an early call to Picikato, the nearest and only open restaurant within a 3km radius was placed.
“eeewww, she’s feeding them junk food!”
Well, what was I supposed to do? Cook for them? Sadly, my super powers do not extend that far, and why would I risk poisoning them and catching a potential lawsuit?
“omg isn’t that expensive?”
Well, what was I supposed to do? Cook for them? Ain’t nobody got time for that🫤
To allay your fears, this year I’ve got that covered with another nearby restaurant that will be open for the summer and we’ve prepped a menu with somewhat healthier alternatives, but French fries will remain a constant✌🏽
Nevertheless, it was a great way for them to learn responsibility, taking initiative and live-action role playing.
Dessert, coffee to replenish my batteries, some more games, and before we could say Jack Robinson, it was 3:30 pm and time to call it a day!
The next day, after Iva’s mom had seen the tomfoolery I’d gotten up to on the parents’ Viber group where I’d been keeping them up to date with all our goings-on, she had mercy on my soul and packed a whole breakfast for us the following morning😍🥰
Next, we feasted like royalty.
We had eggs cooked in ocvirki mast ,(if you haven’t tried that, be sure to put it on your bucket list) jam, butter, cheese bread, spreads.. we could barely move by the time we were done.
Quick game of drop-it to reinforce shapes and colours before heading out to the great outdoors…
for even more games!
Where the time went, I have absolutely no clue because they were hungry AGAIN!
…mislim, what was I supposed to do? Cook for them?🤷🏽♀️
Next, we got artsy with camp diary posters
The next morning had us feasting on left-overs from the day before
Easy-breezy lemon squeezy clean-up
and off to the great outdoors we went…
The entire time , they were running about , I kept thinking “what if one of them falls and cracks open something? LAWSUIT LAWSUIT! LAWSUIT! I quickly bundled them right back indoors and made a mental note to play future running games in the fields on soft grass. But then, what if something bites them… oh God!😬 I swear, the what-ifs keep me up at night😩
Indoors had us putting finishing touches to our Summer Camp posters
and then… you guessed it… lunch!!
and a sweet treat to cool down…
Thursday morning, Alex came bearing muffins!!😍
By this time, on day 4, morning Yoga had completely taken on a life of its own😅
Settling into our routine just fine with another quick game of Fire in the hole before heading out to do a bit of exploring
And off we went!
More sights than sounds….
Back indoors for a quick nibble, by which time we’d nailed our routine down to a T…
Another game, because it is after all a board game summer camp…🙄
Thursday entries into our journal posters😃 as Friday was the grand finale at a secret location where we wouldn’t have been able to complete them…
and a photo-shoot to boot 📸
All together now:::
More games, lunch, and you know how the rest of the story goes😃
Grand finale Friday morning Yoga for the win,
Absolutely, utterly nuts for donuts.. WITH donuts😍
And a happy robot dance by Majči because we’re off to a secret location,
Campers at the ready! And off we went, to take in some more of Slovenia’s gorgeous natural beauty.
At some completely off the grid-no-signal-middle-of-nowhere-tresspassers will be shot on sight – private property.
As you can probably tell by now, Alex was the only boy enrolled at July camp, and none of the girls were particularly interested in playing football with him (a bummer I’ve managed to sort out with this year’s camp) so we had to trade-off with other activities everyone could participate in, as our secret location had lots of outdoor fun on tap!
A bit of exploring in the woods,
and back in time for a make-your-own- pizza party!
A real treat!
And a chance to finally put my feet up and get pampered a tad!
Some more games,
Ice cream😋
and a quick photo shoot📸😉
Thus, ended my first July camp on a sleep-deprived but super-exciting high note!
If I haven’t bored you to death with this lengthy post, then keep your eyes peeled for part two of the August 2023 camp.
Thanks for reading!
Hugs,
Y☀️
