W E D N E S D A Y  W E E K L Y
Bi-Weekly Summer Edition - June 24, 2015
In This Issue


Upcoming Events

June 29-July 2
Camp Week 3 
Specialty Camps -
Tennis
British Invasion
Archery I 

July 1
Deadline for submission of 2015-16 back-to-school forms

July 3
Building Closed
No camp or child-care.

July 6-9
Camp Week 4
Dance Dream Discovery
Egypt Adventure LEGO
Showstoppers

July 8
Learning Together program begins
(five-week for parents & children ages 6 months to 2 1/2 years)

July 9
Field Trip
Rooms 24, 25, 27 & 30 to White Clay Creek State Park

July 13-17
Camp Week 5
Specialty Camps - 
New Zoo Revue
Spanish Adventure
Baila Conmigo
 
Scenes from Week 1 of Camp Montessori - more photos available on Facebook

Message from 
Director of Extended Day Programs
Cass Winner
 
Cass Winner

The longest day of the year came and went over the weekend, but at Camp Montessori, we've only just begun. The first field trip on the summer calendar was for the oldest campers, the Dragons. Campers and counselors alike were excited to head to Guppy Gulch Adventure Camp, a natural water park and aquatic climbing gym on a 13-acre quarry in Delta, PA. We'd never taken a trip there before, but one of the counselors had been there and said it was "awesome."

 

The day of the trip dawned, well, wet. Gray and wet.  Gray and wet and cool, without much hope for sunshine. I got a call from the front desk asking whether we were canceling the trip. But I know our head counselor, Mark Bomgardner, and I know that his twenty-plus years of camp leadership have taught him how to make just about any situation fun and educational for kids.  "Oh, they'll go," I told Nancy.

 

Go they did, and they had a spectacular time.  The early report from one of the counselors--after they'd boarded the bus to come home--was that every single camper said, "Best. Trip. Ever." They were still saying it when their parents picked them up. 

 

Did it rain? A little bit, off and on. Was it a little chilly, sometimes?  It was. But the kids were climbing and jumping and swinging and swimming and laughing, and the counselors were keeping everyone safe and well-taken-care-of. The adults modeled a "we're going to have an adventure and we're going to have a great time" attitude, and the kids were happy to follow their lead.  

 

At its best, camp is about finding the perfect balance between the new and the familiar, the comfortable and the stretch - just enough - to make a new friend or to learn to do something you've never done before.  Whether the campers are 2 years old or 13 years old, we celebrate traditions and we innovate. Camp is a place to explore, to experiment, to be brave and to be happy, and it never fails to remind me why I have the best job in the world.

 

 

 
News & NotesNews
Toddlers explore our new natural playground/outdoor classroom.
Limited Spaces Available for the 2015-16 School Year
Did you know that there is currently a waiting list for our 6-9 and 9-12 programs? Our 3-6 Program is also close to being full, and we are continuing to fill the remaining spaces in our Toddler Program.

If you know someone who might be interested in WMS, please encourage them to schedule a visit today by calling Theresa Conaty, Admissions Officer, at 302-475-0555 or emailing admissions@wmsde.org - don't let them miss out on our fantastic educational programs!
learningtogether
Back-to-School Forms
Due July 1, 2015

 WMS families that are enrolled for the 2015-16 school year should have received an email yesterday explaining how to access all back-to-school forms using Magnus. 

If you did not receive this email (or if you believe you received this email in error), please contact Noel Dietrich, Director of Communications. If you have difficult logging into the Magnus system, please contact Nurse Paige. 

silver-keyboard.jpg

Learning Together - Summer Session 

 

WMS's popular Learning Together program is back for a five-week summer session, running on Wednesdays (9:15-10:45 a.m.) from July 8 through August 5. The cost for the summer session is only $50 - a bargain for more than seven hours (total) of fun and learning with your child!
 

Learning Together is an adult-child workshop series in which children (ages 6 months-2 1/2 years) are free to learn, explore and interact with others in a classroom designed especially for them. Parents, grandparents, guardians and other consistent caregivers are welcome to serve as adult partners in the program. Enrollment is open to current WMS families with younger children as well as families outside the WMS community, so be sure to tell your friends!

 

Space is limited to ensure that the class will be flexible and individualized. Full information and online registration is available at www.wmsde.org/learningtogether.

 
Tick Season Tips

It's not uncommon to find a tick on a child - or an adult for that matter. While most tick bites are harmless and don't require medical treatment, some ticks do carry harmful germs. Lyme disease is only carried by the deer tick, or western black-legged tick. These ticks are harder to detect than dog ticks, because they are much smaller (about the size of a sesame seed).

 

Safe Tick Removal What to do if the tick has attached itself to the skin:

  1. Using tweezers, grasp the head of the tick close to the skin. 
  2. Firmly and steadily pull the tick straight out of the skin.  Do not twist the tick or rock it back and forth while moving. 
  3. Release into a jar of rubbing alcohol, a baggie or onto a piece of scotch tape.
  4. Wash your hands and the site of the bite with soap and water.
  5. Swab the site with rubbing alcohol.

Call your child's doctor if any of the following issues occur:

  • The tick may have been on the skin for more than 24 hours (is it engorged?).
  • Part of the tick remains in the skin after attempted removal.
  • The child develops a rash of any kind.
  • The area looks infected (increasing redness, warmth, swelling, pain or oozing).
  • The child develops symptoms like fever, headache, fatigue, chills, stiff neck or back, or muscle or joint aches.
Dog Tick
Dog Tick
Think Prevention!

When playing in wooded areas, children should wear light-colored long sleeves and pants.  Use an insect repellent containing Picaridin (also known as KBR 3023), oil of lemon eucalyptus (also known as PMD - an effective plant-based repellent), or 10-30% DEET, which should be applied sparingly to clothing only.  

 

Other helpful information can be found at www.kidshealth.org and www.cdc.gov. For more information, contact Nurse Paige.
Today's LearnersLearner
Archery Program Aims to Teach Campers Focus, Body Awareness & More

 

"Take your stance. Nock your arrow. Pre-draw, draw, fire at will!"

 

Archery is an activity with a vocabulary all its own. Fletching, nock, shaft, quiver, arrowhead; the campers know all of these before they take aim at the target for the first time.

 

Day camp has a reputation of being synonymous with day care, but at Camp Montessori, we aim to give children some of the essential experiences of a classic summer camp: swimming and water play, hiking, nature study, cookouts, and, for the Dragons - campers entering fifth through ninth grades in the fall - archery. 

 

Our young archers begin by learning the parts of the arrow and the bow, essential safety rules, proper stance and drawing motion, and the order in which things are going to happen. These steps set them up for safety and success, and archery is one of the activities that campers look forward to all year. Counselors coach them throughout the summer, cheering them on as their skill improves. 

 

Five of our counselors completed the Archery Level One Instructor Course in early June, and Mark has been teaching the sport for decades. Archery is unusual in that neither speed nor agility - the characteristics that most of us think of when we think of sports - are important. Archers develop patience, focus and an acute awareness of how each change in the position of a hand, a leg or an eye changes the trajectory of the arrow. Within the hard boundaries of the safety rules and procedures, campers learn to quiet their minds and bodies, focus on their goal, focus on preparing themselves to reach it, and let the arrow fly.

 

They learn to care for and repair the bows, arrows and other equipment, and they learn to set up and break down the range. At the end of each summer, the Dragons have an archery tournament, which includes both traditional shooting and creative archery games. The top scorers proudly burn their names into a wooden plaque to be displayed in the hallway for years to come. Every camper ends the year with a unique skill, increased self-awareness and the sense of connection that participation in camp traditions creates. 
Tomorrow's LeadersLeaders
WMS Alumni - Share your summer news!

We know that many of our alumni are working at Camp Montessori this summer (more on that in an upcoming issue), and we would also love to know what others are up to. Do you have an interesting summer job or internship? Are you traveling the world? Drop us an email (and a photo) at alumni@wmsde.org for possible inclusion in an upcoming issue of the Wednesday Weekly, on our website, or on our Facebook page.
The Wednesday Weekly shares WMS news and events that are relevant to the families in our community.  

Please send submissions to wednesday-weekly@wmsde.org by 4:30 p.m. on the Friday prior to the issue in which you wish to include your information. Content may be edited for length  and style and may be held for a future issue due to space constraints.  

For more information, contact Noel Dietrich, Director of Communications.
Copyright © 2015. All Rights Reserved.