I am sending my boys (age 6) to day camp for the first time this summer. Here is our checklist to help keep track of all of the essentials and make our camp mornings easy and stress-free. Print your own copy and tuck into your child’s bag so they can check off everything they should bring home. Add your own suggestions in the comments below.

This list of items for day camp should fit into your child’s backpack.

___ Sunscreen with an SPF rating of at least 45 (I think the roll-on kind is easier for younger kids to re-apply it themselves.)

___ Insect repellant wipes and/or insect repellent wristband (Do not send an aerosol can of insect repellant—the spray will sting if it gets in your child’s eyes.)

___ Bathing suit and towel (I recommend the cheap, super thin ones—less bulk in the backpack.)

___ Water bottle filled with ice-cold water

___ Hat

___ Comfortable running shoes or closed-toe sports sandals WITH socks

___ Extra set of clothes (especially a pair of socks and shirt if they get wet from the rain)

___ Raincoat

___ Medication: All camps should have your child’s medical information on file. Having an extra note with details in their backpack and attached to their Prescription medication and/or Epi-Pen is helpful.

___ Food: Most day camps will provide lunch and snacks. If you pack a lunch it should be easy to eat on the ground. A sandwich (avoid peanut butter since most camps are nut-free), fruit and a juice box or water makes for a healthy lunch. Granola bars make an excellent snack. Some camps may have snack bars – find out the rules and cost of items ahead of time so you can plan if and how much money you want your child to have everyday. I recommend putting money in a zippered change purse or Ziploc baggy. Notify the camp of any food allergies your child may have.

Photo Credit: Children’s Critter Pack from LLBean

Our new Kido contest is sponsored by Pawtucket Day Child Development Center.

School is almost out. Do you know what your children are doing this summer yet? Pawtucket Day offers programs designed specifically for toddlers, pre-schoolers, and children before and after school up to age 12, including all-day camp during the summer. In their modern building and large, secure play yard, children learn from teachers educated in child development. The chef serves breakfast, lunch and a snack every day. This “hidden gem” is located on a secluded one-way street in Pawtucket, convenient to Route 95.

Click to enter the contest and see details regarding prize!

Today I welcome Melissa Brusso, a mom from Pawtucket, as a new contributing writer for Kidoinfo. In her column, Home Plate: Reflections of a Sportsparent, she shares her wit, wisdom, and experience regarding the world of sports with her husband, “SportsDad”, their daughter “Stretch”, age 10 and their son, “LittleMan”, age 7.

As the weather warms and spring is really here (come on, suspend judgement), I can hear Coach Paul Janaway booming in his English-accented voice about the importance of sun lotion and drinking plenty of water, and the very real threat of squirrels helping themselves to your poorly wrapped lunches. I remember the huge, mesh bags of soccer balls waiting on the dewy grass, the requisite Sergio Mendes’s “Mas Que Nada” playing in the car (yes, every morning), and the LittleMan jumping out of the car and racing off before I can manage to park. Yep, it’s almost summer.

And that means camp, particularly the handful of sports camps that my children have enjoyed the past few summers.

For a city of our size, we have a terrific selection of sports camps located in a ten-mile (or so) radius of say, Seven Stars Bakery. Many of these camps are excellent and run by some quality individuals from the education and athletic communities. Whatever your child’s sports interest or ability level, there is a sports camp that would be suitable and age appropriate.

The following is an anecdotal and freely editorialized roundup of some of the sports camps that my two children have experienced first-hand and that we look forward to attending again. It is not a complete listing, but hopefully, it will provide an angle on the camps that a newspaper listing does not. It will become more complete as readers add comments about other excellent sports camps—especially camps outside the Providence area—so please add to the list in the comments section!

• The above-mentioned Coach Janaway of Proactive Soccer can be found at Moses Brown Plus camp all summer—and at Henry Barnard School during the school year. Because he is a physical education teacher as well as an athlete (check out his soccer cred on his site!), Janaway brings to soccer camp an understanding of children and development, as well as a passion for soccer. So even the youngest and most inexperienced campers feel at home with age-appropriate and fun drills that never feel over their heads. And rest assured, more experienced soccer players are also challenged at their level. Everyone is expected to play hard and do his or her best—and everyone does.

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I would like to introduce Jaci Arnone, a new contributing writer for Kidoinfo. Having grown up in Southeastern Massachusetts, Jaci chose the Ocean State to raise her family after stints on the West Coast, Southern Florida, and a few cities in between. Although she works part time as a prospect researcher in the nonprofit world, most of her time is spent trying to keep up with her four active kids, ages 10, 5, and 3-year-old twins. With the slivers of spare time she finds, Jaci enjoys writing, taking peaceful runs (ideally, not pushing the triple jogger), and combing local thrift stores for treasures. I welcome her perspective on life and kids.

With the summer just weeks away, it’s time to start lining up activities to make the most of our kids’ summer vacation… camp, beach trips, opportunities to make our world a better place. Well, maybe the last one’s a stretch, but it’s something I try to include in our annual summer to-do list.

Community service has always been an important part of my life, one I hope to share with my children. And the summer is a great time to focus on a community service project, since our schedule is less chaotic. As the mom of four kids, however, it’s a daunting task to find projects that are manageable, educational, and most importantly, age appropriate (in our case, for ages 3 – 10).

Fortunately, there are various local resources which help match volunteers with opportunities that suit their family’s needs. A great place to start is databases such as Volunteer Match, the Volunteer Center of Rhode Island, and Volunteer Solutions. These sites allow volunteers to search opportunities by particular age ranges and areas of interest. In addition, the Providence Journal lists volunteer opportunities in their LifeBeat section.

Some of our family favorites:

Rhode Island Community Farms: We visited one of the state’s eight Community Farm sites, which provide fresh produce for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. Although volunteers must be 14 years or older to volunteer in the Food Bank itself, the Community Farm is a fun way for younger children to join in the effort. My kids were thrilled to see their baskets bursting with fresh vegetables, soon to be shared with Rhode Island families in need. For more information visit www.rifoodbank.org.

Suitcases for Kids: Through the RI Council of Resource Providers for Children, Youth, and Families’ (RICORP) website, we learned about the ‘Suitcases for Kids’ program, which provides gently used luggage for children in residential placement. Otherwise, most foster children carry their belongings in plastic garbage bags, a degrading message for any child. In the summer of ’06, we made this project our focus. The kids painted a sign for our front lawn notifying neighbors we would be collecting suitcases throughout the summer. In addition, we set up a lemonade stand and used the proceeds to buy toiletries and other small items to be donated along with our suitcases. Our older sons were especially proud to deliver their hard-earned suitcases to the foster care facility. For more information visit www.ricorp.net.

Our goal for this summer, Coastline Conservation!

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Our previous summers have included a mix of necessary childcare and warm weather family fun. In order to carve out some time for my work, we arranged for my boys to spend part of each week at the fabulous home daycare they had attended since they were 18 months old, and then we enjoyed a family membership to a swim club and many visits to local beaches and trips to see family on Cape Cod and in Maine. Now that my boys are six (almost seven this summer), they have outgrown the home daycare—but since I still work, some form of childcare is a necessity. My job as an online publisher and freelance designer allows me the luxury of flexible work hours, so I am in the market for a camp or childcare that will take us through the summer but does not require a five-day-a-week commitment. Not so easy, I have discovered.

I would like to share my research and insight, and I welcome your ideas on what to do with children during the summer in regards to childcare. (There will be lots more opportunities to trade tips on fun summer activities and family daytrips in other posts.)

Summer options for children include: go to summer camp; continue the year-round childcare/daycare they already have; hire a nanny, au pair or babysitter; join a swim club with a babysitter; spend time with grandparents; or swap childcare with friends. Let me know if I am forgetting anything.

Which one of these ideas or combination works best for your family will depend on your child’s personality, your work schedule, and your budget. Here is a list of helpful suggestions to make this process a bit easier:

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Looking for a playground in Providence? Want to have a picnic in Bristol? Check out the new Kidoinfo Parks + Playgrounds guide. Where is the closest toy store? How about a list of preschools? Our Resource section is brimming with information about Shopping, Education and Childcare and many more resources to follow. Kidoinfo makes it easy to find what you need. Tell your friends. Visit often.

Summer Fun: camps, swimclubs, and your own backyard…

Hard to believe it’s already time to think about summer. If you plan on sending your kids to camp or join a pool & tennis club this July, see links below.

If you want to head to the beach or visit the local waterparks, we’ll post this information closer to summertime - when the temperature starts rising.

Pool Clubs
• Seekonk Swim and Tennis CLub
• Gristmill Pool and Tennis Club
• Highridge Swim & Tennis Club

Summer Camp
• The Camp Association of New England
• kidscamp.com (online national directory of summer camps)
• Audobon Society of Rhode Island
• Roger Williams Park Zoo Camp
• search camps at Projo.com (login as a member first)
• search camps under kidoinfo resources

more summer fun
• Community Boating

Click comments below this article, and tell us about other camps to list or tell us about your camp experiences.