Although each year is a little different depending on who is on staff and what creative new ideas the programmer has planned for us, below you will find some of the routines and traditions that tend to persist from year to year.
Sunday arrival (except for Work Trade crew) will be in the afternoon, giving you a chance to move into your room, sign up for a daily chore, and meet people before dinner and the evening dance.
Saturday morning departure is right after breakfast. Work Trade crew will need to stay a bit longer to make sure we do a thorough camp cleanup.
Daily Routines
Morning
Monday through Thursday, camp life follows the same basic pattern. Breakfast provided by Monte Toyon staff starts the day, followed by separate adult and kid classes.
Kids are matched up in groups by age. Except for preschoolers, who stay with the same teacher the whole 3 hours, there are three 1-hour classes, mandatory for children 17 and under and optional for adults. Kids 6-12 will have one craft class, one dance class, and one singing or music class.
Teens have the option of attending the teen programming or the adult classes. Depending on the number of kids in each age group and the teacher’s needs, there may also be an opportunity for teens to help out in a younger kids’ class.
Some regularly offered classes adults can take include Contra dance (using Larks/Robins), English country dance, and Rapper sword dance. Related non-dancing activities include joining the camper band, learning to call, singing, or getting an introduction to audio engineering.
Afternoon
The whole camp reconvenes for lunch and Round Up, which is a chance to tell jokes, hear announcements, and learn about any special activities that afternoon. After Round Up, afternoons are much less structured, with opportunities to learn stilting, play volleyball, ping pong or basketball, climb trees, take a nap, jam, sing, craft, puzzle, play a board game, take a hike, buy an afternoon ice cream snack or cappuccino, or just run around in the woods with new friends. Campers are welcome to lead activities during this time. Some activities we’ve seen in the recent past include juggling, paper rockets, tie dye, adapting and performing Romeo and Juliet, glow stick party, and circus arts.
Camper Chores
Once a day, each camper 8 and over will be expected to do a camper chore. Signup for these chores occurs during check-in on Sunday. Tasks generally don’t exceed 30 minutes and include jobs such as setting up tables and chairs for meals, wiping down tables after meals, sweeping the dining hall or dance hall, setting up morning coffee and tea, and setting out and cleaning up late night snacks.
Evening
After dinner, we again meet in the dance hall for physical games and a session of family dance followed by whole camp activities such as skits and songs culminating in a performance by a professional story-teller. At the end of the story, the whole community participates in the camp tradition of Pied Piper, where we serenade the younger children (by name) up to the dorms.
A word about bedtimes…
Camp bedtimes are 8:30 PM for campers 9 & under, 9:30 PM for ages 10–12, and 11:30 PM for teens. Please prepare your children for the camp bedtimes. We are aware that some children have later bedtimes while at home, but please trust our experience that camp life is very busy and is far more successful when the children get their rest. Likewise, if the bedtime is too late for your children, you are encouraged to take them to bed sooner. As one 9-year-old explained to a younger child, “I know it seems early at first, but bedtime here is actually fun.”
Once kids are settled in their rooms, Roving Babysitters make rounds checking in on the kids so that parents and guardians can come back to the dance hall for several more hours of evening dance, music, and socializing.
Special Traditions & Activities
In addition to the daily classes, meals, and dances, there are several optional special activities that occur each year for which campers may want to bring extra supplies. The Teddy Bear Picnic is a favorite event for those with a music-loving stuffy, and the staff-led evening night hike is popular among the teens and hikers.
Auction
Midweek we hold a live and silent auction. The kids love going around bidding on items in the silent auction. The evening live auction not only raises money for camp, but gives an excuse to have a glass of wine and laugh as the auctioneer finds out who really wants each item.
Camper Night
Thursday night is typically Camper Night, where at the beginning of the evening dance, those in the camper band class will get a chance to be the musicians up on stage and those in the calling class will get a chance to call a dance. The supportive environment makes for a very safe space to try out one of these activities under the mentorship of our staff.
Friday Parade and Maypole
On Friday, the normal schedule is slightly condensed in the morning so that much of the afternoon can be enjoyed dressing up in festive wear, parading down to the meadow (with many showing off their stilting abilities), and weaving the ribbons of the maypole over and under each other in spell-binding patterns. Any classes that have a performance component such as singing or improv or dance will have a chance to show other campers what they’ve learned over the week.
