What is Sun + Sand Camp all about?
by Kim Scheidegger, Director of Child & Adolescent Services
This is our third year of Sun + Sand camp at Heartlife. This day camp creates a safe place for girls to learn about God and how to honor Him with their emotions. We are wildly complex beings created by a loving God.
In the passion translation, Psalm 139: 13 says, “You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside, and wove them all together in my mother's womb. I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking.”
Camp is designed to help rising 2nd-5th grade girls understand more about the mysterious complex way God made them. They get to know the world of emotions, thoughts, and how to cope. Camp helps point girls to the clarity offered by God.
Camp is a blast!! I look forward to camp all year long. We plan every last detail of the day to make it meaningful, hopeful, helpful, and fun! We work to create crafts that the girls will have for a long time to serve as a reminder of what they have learned.
We also have some downtime while the girls are shopping at the camp store. This provides an opportunity for individual one-on-one conversations with girls. By the end of day one, the girls are unified and having fun. It is crucial to us that we create an inclusive and encouraging space. Camp is a place of belonging and trying out new skills. Camp ended last year with the girls writing a song to commemorate all of the weeks experiences. A tune they will remember for years to come.
See a sample schedule:
Monday at Sun + Sand!
9 a. m. - Arrive and decorate binder
9:30 a.m. - Devotional and game!
10 a.m. - Teaching time 1: Emotional Expression
10:30 a.m. - Craft time: Watercolor flowers
11 a.m. Camp store and Snack time
11:30 a.m. - Teaching time 2: Emotional Temperature
12 p.m. - DIY Emotions Chart and jewelry making!
12:30 p.m. Time to go home! See you tomorrow!
Camps are a therapist-led week for the girl who is thriving and for the child who is experiencing tricky spots. Camp is a great start to therapy, a great addition to therapy, or for the child who is not currently in therapy.
So many of our clients look forward to this week-long program to walk alongside a counselor, make new friends, learn more about how to care for their mental health, and pocket fun resources and tools for the future!