We have a program at camp called Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA). It happens everyday and we have no idea what it will be each week. It changes week to week – and we are so proud of that.
Our camp staff have a variety of passions. Some of them love to write poetry, or bake cookies, or play soccer, or fold origami, or build forts, or play guitar – many different skills that we, as a summer camp, may not ask them to share.
CYOA gives our camp staff the opportunity to choose one of their passions, create a program based on that passion and then get the opportunity to share that program with campers who have signed up because they are curious about learning that skill/passion/activity.
Campers come to camp for a week and they will attend their chosen CYOA each day for that week – so they get 5 activity periods on how to play guitar, or how to sketch, or how to juggle. The main push of doing things this way is that the campers get to learn a skill that is unique and that they may not have the opportunity to learn about anywhere else.
CYOA is based on the session layout from the Buckeye Leadership Workshop (BLW) – a great conference that I attend each year with some of our camp staff. Unlike other conferences, BLW has you choose one morning session and one afternoon session then you attend that same session each morning and afternoon of the conference. The goal of this layout is that you will learn a skill over the course of the four days of the conference versus just learning and idea in an hour long session.
CYOA has been called Counsellors Have Another Outstanding Skill (CHAOS) by other camps – but I’m not sure how those programs are set up.