Scheduling - New Camper Blog Series
Campers look forward to taking classes more than almost anything else at camp. Greystone has SO MANY class options available for you…it is often hard to narrow down your options, as so many campers want to try everything! Today, we’re going to talk about how to make the very best camp schedule for your summer at Greystone!
Junior campers:
I feel like our Junior campers get the best of both worlds…you get to try out some of our most popular class options with your cabin group while also choosing classes you want to take on your own. The first weekend of Junior camp will be filled with our very best activities – jumping in the pool, Waterpark, Greystone Groove…you’ll love it! Then, starting Monday of Junior Camp, you will take a total of 6 classes everyday for the remainder of the week. This spring you will pre-register for those classes so that you will be ready to jump right into your schedule when you arrive…with no delay!
June, Main, and August campers:
At the rest of our sessions, you will sign up for your classes on Opening Day after the swim check. After you hug your parents goodbye, your counselor will help you make your schedule. She will have a list of all of the classes available at your session and when they are offered; she will help you to make the very best schedule for you! Then, after your swim check, your cabin group will stop by our scheduling station to enter all of your classes into our computer. You will then be all set to go!
Number of classes: June and Main campers take a total of 14 classes, with 7 on Monday/Wednesday/Friday and 7 on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. August campers take a total of 7 classes everyday.
Switching classes: We want you to LOVE your schedule, so if you try a class on the first few days of camp, and you just do not like it, no big deal…we will be happy to switch you into another class that you will enjoy more.
Class sizes: One of the best parts about Greystone is that we never “close” a class due to class size. You can sign up for whatever you would like to take at whatever time it is available. What we do try to do is to help you find smaller class sizes so that you can be a more active participant in the class. Your counselor, and then our scheduling station, will let you know if a class is getting really big so that you can see if it might work to take that class at a different time. Insider tip? Ask your counselor when classes may be smaller as those smaller classes are better chance to get the most out of each class!
Class age-ranges: Some of our classes have different age-ranges for particular classes. For example, our oldest campers at each session can take Glass Beads, while our younger campers can take Glass Fusion. These age-ranges are to help make sure you are in the right skill level for your grade. We will let you know the age ranges before your session when we send out our activity descriptions.
Things you can be doing now: So what can you be doing now as you wait to schedule?
- Check out our Explore section of our website to see all of the different classes we offer – you can get a great idea of what’s available and what might interest you.
- Look out for the Activity Descriptions we will be sending prior to your session so that you can know what classes will be offered while you are here.
- Consider taking a mix of different types of classes; while you may be really “artsy” or really “sporty”, it is great to try some new things while you are here. Plus, you don’t want to only take sports classes – you’ll be worn out at the end of each day!
Insider scheduling tips:
Tip #1: Check out the map on our Explore page or the one we are sending in your New Camper package. One of the things your counselor will help you do is to make sure you don’t choose classes back to back that are really far apart. For example, Archery is on one side of camp and High Adventure is on the other. It is really helpful to try to take classes that are closer together…you can eventually get from Archery to High Adventure, but probably don’t want to be walking back and forth all day long. Your counselor will help you with this, but feel free to start getting an idea of where things are located on our camp map.
Tip #2: Think about taking a lot of your wet activities together. If you want to take Kayaking, Swimming, Waterpark, and Canoeing, it might help to have these back to back. It’s hard to be soaking wet from the pool, then have to put on a climbing harness at the Wall, then to jump in the lake at Waterpark, and then to have to hop on a horse…your counselor will help you with this as well, but just an insider tip as you are thinking about your schedule.
We will help you every step of the way while you are making your schedule this summer. And, we’ll help you change any of your classes that just aren’t working for you. Get excited…you are going to love your activities at camp!
Have any questions in the meantime? Post below, give us a call, or feel free to shoot me an e-mail. Until next week…