Life at the Bay

Camp counselors have the most important role and are undoubtedly one of the most valuable assets to any summer camp. Their crazy, caring, fun and loving personalities are what campers keep coming back to camp for. However, their overly exciting and jam-packed schedules often leaving them smelling a little funky every now and then. Here are 5 things camp counselors smell like: 1. Sunscreen Due to campers being out and about in the exposure of the sun all day long, sun protection is a priority at summer camps. This means that counselors are responsible for applying and ensuring that all their campers are covered in sunblock. Sunblock isn’t particularly the best smelling type of lotion. It’s also rather sticky and is spread easily from one person to the next through body contact, which is why, through all the hugging and fun games, counselors end up smelling like a bottle of sunscreen. 2. Bug Spray You can’t expect to be in harmony with the bugs when you are invading their natural habitat...

Children are spending an increasing amount of time indoors due to all the technology that can be easily accessed inside their homes. The internet, television, mobile phones, gaming consoles and tablets have replaced traditional outdoor games, such as hopscotch, hide and go seek, tag and field sports. Outdoor play offers social, mental and physical benefits for children. Outdoor play is an essential part of summer camps, where technology isn’t allowed and children can overcome their “nature deficit disorder”. Here are five reasons why you should send your kids to summer camp for them to indulge in outdoor play:    1. Combat Obesity Due to technology turning our kids into couch potatoes, lack of exercise is the main reason why kids are becoming obese. Children should be active for at least an hour a day, which means they should be running, climbing and jumping in the outdoors. Summer camp programs have kids active in the outdoors all day long whilst still having ...

The reality is; not all kids are born water babies, swimming lessons don’t come cheap, not all of us can afford to maintain pools in our homes or a gym membership whereby you get access to a pool, and, most of us as parents are mortified about letting our children get in touch with water.    We really do have every right to be concerned about water safety, since all children care about is the amount of fun they’re having. Their own safety is not even a thought that crosses their mind, which makes it our responsibility as parents to ensure that they’re safe.    Most children come to Sugar Bay Resort, a holiday camp for kids and teens without the knowledge of what a beach is and leave having adapted expert skills in at least one type of water sport.   The camp, which is located on the dolphin coast of KwaZulu-Natal, has private access to the local lagoon and beach. The locations warm climate makes water temperatures great for swimming and variou...

  A simple task that gets your creative juices flowing definitely has to be chalk drawing. Our campers love this activity at Sugar Bay. It’s such a quick and easy way to keep them occupied should any of our programs run a little off-schedule, and, in the process, allows us to discover some remarkable talents.    Here’s some ideas on how to prepare for and run this class: The Art of Chalk Drawing   You will need: · Previously prepared artwork (Sourced from the internet and printed out) · Clean floor surface that isn’t too rough or too smooth · Chalk (in every colour) · Tape Measure Instructions: Step 1: Selecting an image You will need to provide your campers with a wide variety of previously prepared artwork that is inspirational and easy to duplicate. You can divide the artwork into three categories of difficulty: beginners, intermediate and expert, to accommodate the different age groups.   Step 2: Analyzing the image Once your...

At Sugar Bay, our campers love it when we get food involved in our Arts and Crafts classes. One of our popular Arts & Crafts activities with food has to be biscuit decorating.    After getting our campers to bake their own biscuits, we get them to decorate them with royal icing. Their creativity really comes out to play when they indulge in this activity.  Here are 3 very important techniques we taught our campers to use when icing biscuits: Technique 1 - Line Icing:   Tip: Ensure that your line icing is the same texture of toothpaste – slightly thick and gooey.   Line icing is basically an outline around a shape. People would use this technique if they are going to fill the inside of the outline with flood icing. You need to make sure that you create an outline that does not have any gaps. If there are any gaps, the flood icing will flow through and your biscuit will not look very attractive. A piping bag with a narrow cut is the best i...

These beautiful elastic bracelets are always catching our eyes, however, on close inspection, may seem rather difficult to make.    Surprisingly, they are really simple to create and a pretty cool version of the usual string friendship bracelets we make at camp. Create a loom band bracelet in 5 simple steps:   You will need: C-Clip (Which usually comes with a loom band kit) 20 – 30 bands in your choice of colour(s) Step 1: Pick your colour sequence. We noted that most of our campers love creating rainbow-themed loom bands.    Step 2: Twist one band into a figure "8" and fold it over so it forms a circle. Slide this circle inside the C-clip. This is the beginning of your bracelet. We'll call this band #1.    Step 3:    Pinch one band between your fingers. Slide this band (#2) halfway through the circle you made in Step 2. Pull the ends up and hold them together.    Step 4:    Pi...

Ever experienced those moments when you had to patiently wait for something without being bored? We all have those moments, especially at camp. Some things can go a little off-schedule like the time lunch is served or how long we may have to wait before the excursion bus arrives. This is why, the Sugar Bay Shoe Game is the perfect game to get campers energized and pass time with lots of fun. You can play this game by following these 5 simple steps: Step 1: Line up 4 chairs to form a plus sign with a two meter space between each pair. Step 2: Place a water bottle in the middle of the plus sign. Step 3: Place a shoe on each of the chairs. Step 4: Divide the campers into 4 equal groups. Each group would have to represent 1 chair. Give each camper a number according to the number of participants in each group. Step 5: Call up each number individually. These participants representing the numbers would have to hop onto their chair and use the shoe to try and knock over the bott...

  Life at Sugar Bay is just as the name describes it, sweet and sunshine filled all by the sea. We love creating camp crafts and tasty treats as part of our Arts & Crafts program run almost daily at camp.    One of our favourite DIY camp tasty treats has to be Sherbet Straws. They’re so simple to create and will give you a quick pop of sweetness whenever you’re feeling a little down.    Here’s how to create: Sugar Bay Sherbet Straws You will need: Ingredients: Candle, Matches or Lighter Plastic straws Sheet of paper Tablespoon Small round empty jar Citric acid (for sour sherbet) Icing sugar (for sweet sherbet) Super C candy Method: Step 1: Seal one end of your straw   Light up your candle using matches under adult supervision. Place a sheet of paper on a hard surface to avoid making a mess and make cleaning up easy. Heat up the tablespoon by placing it over the candle. Use the heated spoon to seal one end of the stra...

We know our campers have been working hard all year round to achieve great results in their academics and be rewarded with a holiday at Sugar Bay. This is why we’re giving you even greater discounts and have chosen the very best themes for these upcoming summer holidays. We have scheduled a total of five holiday camps for the upcoming December/January vacation and can’t wait to spend it with you!    The Justice League week – 9-16 December 2017   The DC Superheroes; Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg are coming to Sugar Bay this week. Help them save the world from the villains and become a Sugar Bay hero too.    Highlights: Each group of the Justice League has a special privilege for the week We will be learning how to do more "at home/DIY" Science experiments in honor of all the nerdy super heroes A Super Hero Story/Show night All camp game - Super Hero Battle Special VIP Party night for t...