The energy has returned to the Ohio Craft Museum! This week’s theme was “Out Of This World!”, and some of the campers leaned in it, wearing space-themed clothing every day of the week! I even decided to play space trivia with the campers during snack time, which they very much enjoyed. 

During the planning period for the lessons this week, we decided to make a few of the projects span across multiple days to keep the campers engaged and to create an extra detailed final product. One such project was a three-day endeavor to create astronaut helmets. The process began with the campers laying strips of plaster over an inflated balloon to achieve the perfect-sized shell for their helmet. The next day, after the plaster had dried, the kids got to pop the balloons and line the edges of the neck and viewing openings with different colored duct tape. On the final day of camp before the art show, the campers were guided through attaching the visor of the helmet. The visor was able to slide up and down thanks to the copper brads affixed to each side of the helmet, leaving the campers with their own functional helmet! It was so fun to watch the kids excitedly put on their helmets and squeal with joy at the final product. 

Another one of the projects that we completed this week was a mission control panel made of Styrofoam and recycled materials. It was a challenge to the camper’s creative thinking skills, using old bottle caps and different bits of plastic packaging as knobs and buttons for their controls, but they all took the challenge in stride! 

Once again, the art show on Friday was my favorite part of the week. I love seeing all the campers get so excited to share their favorite projects from the week, and how proud they are of their hard work. Most of the feedback that the staff received from the parents centered around how impressed they were with the quantity and quality of the projects, and how much fun their kids had, which is always nice to hear. 

I very much enjoyed getting back into the swing of things with the Young Masters Camp. It can be challenging at times to adapt to the needs of the individual campers, but I learn more and more each week about how to adjust to make the most of each situation for the kids, and how to make them comfortable in a new and sometimes hectic environment. It will be low energy next week, as the first two days of the week there will be no campers, and the last three days of the week are Teen Camp. I look forward to working with the new campers and teachers next week, as well as taking the time to reorganize and reset the space for the next session.