What's a Junior?

Juniors are our youngest campers.  These are campers entering 2nd grade through 4th grade as of the September (after the camp season).  Campers entering the 5th grade are called “Super Juniors”. 

The big difference between super juniors and regular juniors is that our 5th graders are offered the option of joining our Intermediates (6th and 7th graders) in Lohikan’s Individualized Elective Program.   This program allows the camper to select his or her own activities.  The 1st through 4th graders participate in a Cabin-Structured Program where they travel as a group with their counselors to a schedule of activities designed for the gender and age of the cabin.

All of our campers at Lohikan are special but juniors are the best!  They make the best audiences at story time; they are the best at getting up at reveille; and they never stop looking for fun things to do!  Most of our campers start as juniors or inters and return for years.  Many continue in our Junior Staff Program and eventually become counselors.  Some of our former juniors are members of our senior staff today!   These are the real camp pros – they love camp and know it well!

Juniors are well cared for at Camp Lohikan.  We assign at least 3 counselors to a junior cabin.  One of these counselors will be an experienced Lohikan counselor who has worked with our young campers the previous summer.  At least 2 of the counselors will be sophomores or better in college.  The third counselor may be a junior staff member or another college-enrolled staff member.

Counselors assigned to our junior division are hand-picked for their assignment. Young campers require more attention than do our older campers.  Counselor of our juniors must be warm, kind and very patient.  They do everything from making sure that the campers take showers and change their clothes to tying shoes and seeing that they eat well.

Cabin counselors are supported by the camp’s senior staff.  The senior staff member who works directly with members of the junior cabin group is the group leader/division director.  The group leader/division director is the adult staff member who monitors the camper’s daily progress in the camp program and maintains contact with the camper’s parents.  The group leader/division director is a teacher or child-care professional during the school year.

THE JUNIOR PROGRAM

- 1st to 4th Graders -

Junior campers entering the 2nd through 4th grade participate in a Cabin-Structured Counselor Supervised Daily Program.  They travel as a cabin group with their counselors to a schedule of activities designed for the gender and age of the cabin.  Their cabin schedule includes one period of swimming instruction and free swim 6 days a week (Our pool is heated!), one period of horseback riding each week and 3 periods of tennis instruction every week.  Land and water sports, arts and adventure activities are scheduled every day.  Other activities appear 1 to 4 times a week depending upon the age, gender and interest of the cabin group. 

Activities scheduled in the typical junior cabin’s weekly program include:

• Creative Arts: Pottery, Woodworking, Arts & Crafts Workshops, T-Shirt Factory, Rocketry,
• Performing Arts: Dance, Drama
• Circus Arts: Flying Trapeze, Acrobatics, Circus Arts
• Land Sports: Soccer, Baseball, Softball, Basketball, Tennis, Gymnastics, Roller Hockey, Kickball, Flag Football, Volleyball, Newcomb, Martial Arts, Wrestling
• Target Sports: Archery, Riflery  (BB guns are used in the NRA program for juniors.)
• Skate Park: Skateboarding, Inline Skating
• Water Sports: Swimming, Canoeing, Sailing, Windsurfing, Paddle Boating, Water Skiing, Knee Boarding, Kayaking, Boating, Lake Park Activities, Fishing
• Adventure:  Low Ropes, Rock Climbing, Bungee Trampoline, Hiking
• Other: Horseback Riding,

The close supervision that junior campers require is only possible with a cabin structured format.   But what happens if the child isn’t interested in the activity offered?  What’s unique about Lohikan’s cabin-structured format is that it’s designed to allow for individual choice (electives) within the structured format.  If a camper isn’t particularly interested in one activity operated at the site perhaps the other 2 or 3 activities will do the trick!   And giving the camper some choice is always a good thing.  It’s builds enthusiasm, maintains camper interest and promotes independence.

The way we’re able to accomplish electives within the cabin-structured, counselor-supervised format is by locating certain activity sites in close proximity and staffing certain activity departments so as to offer a number of activities at the same time.  No matter what activity is scheduled the campers are always within the sight of their counselors.

Activity Departments offering choices within the cabin-structured format include:

Field Sports Electives: Soccer, baseball, softball, flag football, kickball, Frisbee.  A number of junior cabins are scheduled field sports at the same time.  This guarantees that we’ll have enough interest in the separate elective activities to operate instructional classes and to insure that the recreational games are interesting and fun!

Creative Arts Activity Electives: Pottery/Ceramics, Woodworking, T-Shirt Factory, Woodworking, Rocketry, Arts & Crafts Workshops, i.e., painting, drawing, leather crafts, enameling, mosaics, beading, paper making, lanyards, stained glass, basket weaving, mask making, etc.

Performing Arts Activity Electives: Dance, music, drama, circus arts (Circus Arts and Flying Trapeze are also separately scheduled activities.)

Waterfront Activity Electives: Canoeing, kayaking, sailing, windsurfing, water skiing, paddle boats, boating, fishing and lake park, i.e., water trampoline, rolling log, Tarzan swing, lake iceberg, etc.

Arena Sports Activity Electives: Gymnastics, basketball (Basketball is also a separately scheduled junior cabin activity), roller hockey, volleyball, newcomb, and ga ga.

All of the elective activities are separately staffed with specialists; instructors certified to teach the activity.

THE SUPER JUNIOR PROGRAM

- Campers entering the 5^th Grade -

Campers entering the 5th grade (in September) are super juniors and start their activity program in the cabin-structured, counselor-supervised format.  We do this to make sure that these young campers get to know the campsite, facilities, the program and their counselors and bunkmates before they make the jump and opt into the “individualized elective program”.  Some of our 5^th graders find the cabin-structured program with its electives component satisfying and don’t opt into the elective program.  Others want to participate in the elective program from day #1.  We can accommodate whatever request is made by the parent but it is our recommendation that our super juniors participate in the cabin-structured program at least their first week in camp.

Click here for more information regarding Camp Lohikan’s Individualized Elective Program.