June has arrived.
Around the country, children have hung their countdowns (only 38 hours and 21 minutes of torture left!) up on classroom walls and parents have begun to bid their heartfelt farewells.
Goodbye, school.
Goodbye, normal, blessed, routine.
How many hours until the chaotic, kids-home-all-day stretch ends and camp begins? (And how, pray-tell, will I even get these camp duffle bags packed with the kids at home?!)
Before you trudge off to make your own countdown (chin up!), take a moment to go over these end-of-school-year and start-of-summer tips.
Thanks a lot!
The end of the school year is the perfect opportunity to show the school staff what a difference they’ve made for your child. Small gifts go a long way in making your child’s teachers and therapists feel valued and appreciated for their efforts, as well as providing them with the motivation to continue giving their all to the other children they work with.
Appreciation gifts don’t need to be huge. If you want to be generous, send a fruit or pastry platter for the entire classroom staff to enjoy. Try to think of the many people who help your child daily, from the bus driver to the speech therapist, and if you can’t give something physical, at least make a phone call or send a message expressing your appreciation.
Most importantly, try to send a little something for your child’s main teacher and para(s). For female staff, practical items such as pretty coffee mugs or cosmetics bags are a nice choice. If you don’t have time to shop, a gift card — or simply cash — is always appreciated. You can include a cute picture of your child for an added touch, and of course, don’t forget the most important part — a warm, personalized thank you note!
Camp before Camp
What to do with a child who’s got a sizeable space between the last day of school and the first day of camp?
You’ve got a couple of options:
Keep your kid at home and watch in despair as he climbs the walls, fights with his siblings, and generally tears the house apart.
Send him to a day camp-before-camp program (if you’re lucky enough to have a local one).
Wait, day camp before camp is a thing? Yup! There are some perks to having kids with special needs 😉. Here are some options we’ve heard of:
Brooklyn
Otsar
Contact: (718) 946-7301 ext. 205
(Transportation available from Manhattan)
Queens
Spot of Dreams
Contact: (347) 924-6954
Five Towns
The Special Children’s Center
Contact: (516) 200-2234
(Transportation available from a meeting point in Brooklyn)
Monsey
Yedei Chessed
Contact: (845) 425-0887
Upstate NY
All Things Special (10-day Overnight camp before camp)
Contact: (347) 234-5576
Up, up, and away!
With most overnight camps beginning in just a couple of weeks, it’s time to start preparing practically by making lists and doing the pre-requisite shopping before you can get down to the actual packing. Not sure where to start? Our newsletter from this season last year is a good place. Click below to access these great packing tips for first-timers.
Everyone and their sister-in-law has at some point created a camp packing list so organized and comprehensive, they just had to share it for the greater good of the public. And these lists are great… for the typically developing child. For a kiddo with special needs, there are many additional necessary items that don’t make an appearance on that list. Hence, the Ezreinu camp packing list! Our list suggests various items that your child may actually need to bring to camp. (As each child will need different supplies according to their gender, age, and unique needs, this list should be used as a starting point and reference for creating your own.) Click the image below to download!
TIA
Just like showing appreciation at the end of the school year is a positive thing, it’s not a bad idea to show some gratitude to the camp staff at the start of the summer season. Nothing like a little envelope or note of appreciation to elicit some reciprocal positive feelings on the other end. When you show your confidence that your child is in good hands for the summer, you are both a) being a nice person, and b) giving the staff an expectation to measure up to.
I remember working in a camp for children with special needs and watching as a fellow counselor unpacked her camper’s suitcase to find mini chocolate bars in every corner — in the bag of socks, the pile of t-shirts, even the linen. Each bar had a little post-it with a cute message attached, making the job of unpacking a little sweeter: “Keep going, you’re almost there!”, “Chani is the best counselor!”, and so forth. It was a simple gesture that made a big difference in the counselor’s feelings towards her camper, even before the summer had begun.
Why am I doing this, again?
As you stare at the endless camp prep to-do list in front of you, you might be experiencing pangs of guilt or regret. Sending a child to camp, especially a young child, especially a child with special needs, is not a simple thing emotionally. Click the button below to watch our “In Preparation for Camp” series, where three camp directors share their perspectives on what the children and their families gain from the camp experience.
New support groups available!
Ezreinu has formed two new WhatsApp-based support groups, where mothers of children with visual impairments and mothers of children with hearing impairments can connect and share valuable information with each other.
Click the buttons below to join any of our existing WhatsApp-based support groups:
Looking for opportunities to give back to the community? Join one of our Holding Hands groups and help families of children with special needs get much-needed respite:
The Rosensteins were invited to join a family simcha one Shabbos, but they didn’t know how Shmili, their 12-year-old son with ASD, would be able to join them. They called Ezreinu and were put in touch with a family who was happy to take Shmili in for that Shabbos so that the Rosensteins could enjoy their family simcha. 🟦
For the last few summers, Mordy, a sweet, high functioning 9-year-old boy, had attended a local mainstream day camp with a para, but regrettably, that was not going to be an option for the upcoming summer. Unsure about the alternative options available, Mordy’s mother reached out to Ezreinu and was directed to several summer program which could be a good fit for him. 🟦
Identifying details have been changed to protect client confidentiality.