STEP 5 Determine your capacity. Much of this will be determined by how many leaders you have and/or space available. Important things to consider: a. Number of kids per class. We chose to have 8 kids and 2 leaders per class to stay within the limit of 10 meeting in groups. We kept them separate throughout the day. The number of leaders will drive how many kids you can have. Note: Background checks are a must for ALL leaders. In addition, 2 non-related leaders per class is highly encouraged. b. Keeping facilities clean. We have an ongoing schedule for our custodians to continually clean our facilities and “high touch” surfaces throughout the day. Each day, we give the custodians a list of every room we use... even if it’s brief. The more kids you have, the more space used and the greater need for custodial staff. c. School work. This is complicated because the kids aren’t all one grade or even from one school. We divided our kids into 2 groups, K-2 and 3-5th. We asked them to bring assignments with them as well as their own devices to work on as needed. Parents understood that kids might not finish all their work each day (though they have all been able to so far). The more kids, the harder this is. Note: Also, make sure Wi-Fi is available and can handle the number of kids you plan to have, as all kids will require access to Internet to do their work. STEP 6 Create a schedule. We try to incorporate time for school work, time for physical activity, time for art/ craft, and lunch as well as bible/worship time. Important things to consider: a. Lunch. We ask our kids to bring their own lunch each day. Our church members have jumped on board and provided lunches for leaders each day. They bring in individually boxed lunches from local restaurants each day. This allows them to be a part of ministry, blesses our leaders, and helps our local restaurants. b. Bible Curriculum. We found that the kids we have enrolled have little to no exposure to church. We feel it is imperative that we use this time to share Christ with them. We have recycled old curriculum to make this work rather than recreate it. We treat it much like a Sunday morning with a bible story, activities, and crafts that center on the story for the day. c. Playgrounds, equipment, etc., all need to be included in cleaning regiment. d. Hours for your Day Camp/Children. We opted to fill the gap left by school closures. Most hospital staff work 12-hour shifts, 7 AM to 7 PM. We could not offer childcare for that length of time, so we opted to offer it from 7:30 AM to 4:15 PM, to cover the times the kids would normally be in school. We also only offer screening until 10 AM. No child or leader can come after that time. STEP 7 Security. This can vary according to each church’s preference. However, some sort of check in/out process needs to be in place. We require parents to sign kids in/out each day and only authorized people can pick up and they can only pick up if they have the security tag provided at check in. Beyond this we have armed security on property at all times. STEP 8 Have FUN... love on the kids and families. Be the hands and feet of Jesus... God can use this in amazing ways in your church and community. OTHER IDEAS TO CONSIDER: 01 Add your families to your email lists to receive your Sunday content for kids and adults. 02 Our church families have provided gift bags each day to send home with the parents with encouraging notes, and various gifts like candy, popcorn, red box download cards, etc. 13
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