Camp Journal - Leysin, Switzerland

3 July, 2008

We woke up this morning to a cold and dreary day.  The rains finally caused a change in the schedule but our counsellors are very flexible and have a number of back up plans for just about anything.  The English and French classes, of course, went on as scheduled and the Tennis Camp just moved into the indoor courts at the sports centre and continued on their path to playing on centre court in Wimbledon someday in the future.

 

We had a fire drill yesterday afternoon.  Happily all the campers made it out to their assigned places away from the buildings.  Campers were lead out by counsellors and then a count was taken to be sure that everyone was present (or accounted for).

 Tonight is Disco Night for Village Camps, Switzerland.  All the different groups get to participate in this grand event and we will have some disco pictures for you to view with tomorrow’s post.

 The "feature" story below is about yesterday evening's Casino Night.  This is one the traditional activities at Village Camps, Switzerland -- and is always a lot of fun.

Below that is another photo gallery with a number of pictures for you to see.

Have a great day -- we will have more pictures and news for you tomorrow.

This evening the dining room was transformed into a casino.  This activity is one of the traditions at Village Camps, Switzerland.  Lots of games and lots of fun.  Campers were given a supply of Village Camps "money" to use in playing the games.  The counsellors served as the dealers, croupiers, etc. and had as much fun as the campers. 

There was a chance to play roulette, or blackjack, or a number of other "games of chance."  The object, of course, was to win as much money as possible but there aren't many places where you can spend your winnings and the exchange rate is something fierce - but no one cares about that, the real goal was to have fun and that goal was met just like a Royal Flush will win at poker.

Click on the link below to see camp photos from 2 July, 2008

Gallery Folder 2 July

2 July, 2008

We had a little rain again yesterday evening -- this time it rained hard enough and long enough to make some changes in the schedule.  A number of groups were ready to go to Prafandaz for a campfire with toasted marshmallows and banana boats and, best of all, a chance to look down on Lake Geneva and watch the sunset.  I've added a picture from last year, but I know that we will get more chances to have this experience and just wait until you see a banana boat!

The weather today has been great -- this morning the views of the mountains were spectacular (again).  The weather forecasts seem to be pretty good -- let's hope they are correct.

The Yellow and Green groups had a "Blue Meany" activity Monday evening.  A number of counsellors dressed in outlandish costumes and the campers had to find them and collect their signatures -- unfortunately, another group of counsellors dressed in Blue tried as hard as they could to prevent the campers from getting the signatures -- hence the name Blue Meany -- lots of fun for all.

A couple of groups are having a casino night tonight -- it's not Monte Carlo but just as much fun.

There are a number of photos for 1 July in the photo gallary below below and then there is a story about the Village Camps Language Camp in Leysin.

Have a great day!

Click on the link below to see the photos for 1 July -- enjoy!!

When you have finished looking at photos - click on the "Main Journal Page"
in the navigation menu at the right

Gallery Folder 1 July

The Language programme at Village Camps, Switzerland, has 73 campers enrolled. This makes it the biggest programme at camp. On arrival day, every camper in the programme was tested and then placed into one of several ability groups – ranging from beginner to advanced. There are nine teachers and a language coordinator involved in the programme – four are teaching French and five teaching English.

That is a picture of the English teachers at the right - with Matt, the language coordinator in the front.  I promise that we will have a picture of French techers later -- all of the pictures in this section are available in a larger size in the photo gallery.

The Village Camps Language Programme involves 30 hours of intense, but enjoyable instruction, the main focus is on conversation – both speaking and comprehension. Language campers are encouraged in fun, challenging ways to utilize their language abilities throughout the entire day and evening. This insures better progress and means the children returning home will speak and understand English or French more effectively.

In the afternoons, campers from all programmes join together for a mixture of planned and elective activities from the many available.  Teachers also regularly take their classes on short excursions to restaurants, shopping, museums, etc where campers get a chance to use their new found abilities in different settings. Assessment is continual. A certificate is awarded at the end of camp and a written report is sent to the parents.

Today is 1 July - better known to our Canadian counsellors and campers as Canada Day. A number of them showed up a breakfast with the Maple Leaf flag and others were wearing clothes adored with a Maple Leaf.     

Had a little bit of rain yesterday evening -- but not enough to put a damper (pun intended) on the various activities scheduled for the evening.  The weather today has been delightful and the views of the mountains across the valley have been spectacular.  

We are slowly (but surely) getting used to the new procedures for putting these posts on-line and we will start putting counsellor profiles up in another couple of days -- a chance for you to see the type of people working with your children.  I think you will be impressed.

We have a story (below) about the Dance Programme at Village Camps, Switzerland and after that we have TWO sets of pictures for you to look at - one set from arrival day and one from yesterday, the first day of camp.                             

Last year Village Camps designed a brand-new approach to their very popular Multi-Activity Camps.  An approach that has proven to be very popular with campers. When campers register for this camp they are asked to pick one of three "clubs" that would be the focus of their stay at camp.  The three clubs are Outdoor Adventure Club, Sports Club, and Dance Club.  This way campers could concentrate on certain types of activities every morning, that are more aligned to their interests, while equally enjoying access to a wide variety of other afternoon activities for a well rounded, fun holiday.  Today we will put the spotlight on the Dance Club.

The Dance Club is under the very able direction of Lisa and for 3 hours every weekday morning the Dance Club campers meet in the grand salon to work on performances that will be presented to the rest of camp at various times during the session culminating with a Gala performance on our final Prom Night.  Depending on the dance, the costumes and face make-up are sometimes quite elaborate and sometimes quite simple.  The focus is on the dances as well as the performance aspect of dance as an art form.  

 In the afternoons and evenings the campers from the Dance Camp join the other campers participating in the variety of other camp activities on offer.

We will have feature stories about the other Clubs that are part of the Multi-Activity Camp later in the session

Click on the link below to see the photos -- enjoy!!

When you have finished looking at photos - click on the "Main Journal Page"
in the navigation menu at the right

Gallery Folder 30 June

Finally, we have some photos from Arrival Day ready for you to look at.

Click on the link below to see the photos -- enjoy!!

When you have finished looking at photos - click on the "Main Journal Page"
in the navigation menu at the right

Gallery Folder 29 June

Let's Get Going!

Today was first full day of Village Camps, Switzerland for 2008.  Everyone is registered and settled in and, after breakfast this morning, all the campers headed off to their respective assignments.

There are 19 campers in the morning group of tennis campers.  They had an early breakfast and then were off to the courts ready to begin the process that may lead to Wimbledon's famous Centre Court some day.  The second group of tennis campers - those that are also enrolled in a language program will leave for the courts right after lunch. The language classes are in full swing – teachers are checking to see if campers have been placed in the correct levels and changes may be made later in the day.  The multi-activity campers can choose from three different programmes - an outdoor adventure programme, a sports programme and a dance programme. The Junior Camp campers are on a scavanger hunt and then will be in the Arts & Crafts room.

For most afternoon activities during the coming two weeks, campers are grouped according to ages and placed in Colour Groups.  The breakdown for this session is as follows:

Green (7-9) -------24
Yellow (10-12) –- 66
Red (13-14) ------55
Blue (15-17)------37

Who Goes Where?

There are several different "camps" at Village Camps, Switzerland.  Every camper is enrolled in a programme that provides instruction as well as lots of fun. Here are the various camps and the enrollment of each one.

The largest camp by far is the Language Camp.  This session there are 73 campers in Language Camp -- 51 in English and 22 in French. 

The Tennis Camp has 39 campers enrolled. The morning session has 19 campers.  Another 19 campers are enrolled in both a language and tennis.  This group goes to language class in the morning and has tennis insturction in the afternoon.

The Multi-Activity Camp has nine campers enrolled in the Dance Club, 20 enrolled in the Adventure Club, and 20 enrolled in the Sports Club.

There are 24 Junior Campers (ages 7-9)   They are all housed in a separate wing of our building and spend ALL of their day as a group – they eat together, have the same counsellors throughout the day, and the counsellors live in the wing with the campers. The goal is to make this as much a home-like experience as possible.

 

Tables are set up in the Grand Salon for arriving campers to register.  Mr. Phil (airport manager) is with his groups of counsellors to meet campers arriving by air and escort them to Leysin.  Other counsellors are stationed here to help campers arriving by automobile with their parents.   We already have close to 20 campers who arrived yesterday.  We will add some pictures throughout the day and Joe Rikley, our camp director will add a welcome message later in the day.

It's been a wonderful day in the neighborhood. The weather has been beautiful -- a great day.  The kitchen staff set up a salad buffet with cold meats and cheese for arriving campers and parents.  There was also a hot meal with baked beans.  It is now 13h00 and campers have been arriving all day. We have just over 100 already registered, meaning that there are another 80 or so yet to arrive. 

They Came by Train, Plane, and Automobile!

    Welcome from the Camp Director   

After a busy and very enjoyable week of staff orientation, all of us are very happy that the campers are finally arriving. We are excited to be starting what we are sure will be another fantastic summer in Leysin.

Tomorrow we begin our first full day of activities and classes.  All the counsellors, teachers, and other staff have worked hard getting the building ready and we are all looking forward to a fun-filled, very active two weeks.  I hope you will follow the activities of our camp on this web log.  Jessie, our camp photographer, will be taking lots of pictures for us to share with you. We will try to give you information on what is happening at camp everyday and we will try to have 35-40 pictures on-line.

Joe
Joe Rikley, Camp Director

Camp starts on Sunday, 29 June so be sure to come back and enjoy our section of Campers Corner.  Throughout the summer you'll find lots of photos, stories, schedules, news and generally everything you need to know about camp life.  This will, of course, include seeing your children and their friends having the time of their life that always goes along with a Village Camps experience.

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• Session 4 - Day 14 (23 August, 2008)
• Departure Day at Village Camps, Switzerland
• A Note from the Camp Director
• Photos for 23 August, 2008
• Session 4 - Day 13
• Graduation Day and Prom Night at Village Camps, Switzerland
• Photos for 22 August, 2008
• Session 4 - Day 12 (21 August, 2008)
• International Night at Village Camps, Switzerland
• Photos for 21 August, 2008

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