What do you do on the bus?

[CAMPFRIEND]

When we have our campers on the bus our counselors sing songs and we also have some bus games.

What kind of things do you do on your bus trips?
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jailbroken (http://jailbroken.org)

[camper]

well we're a sleepaway camp so we have buses only twice- on the way to camp in june and on the way home in august. on the way to camp we spend a ton of time introducing new campers to one another and making sure everyone is happy. then we usually put in the camp yearbook video from the summer before and the kids sing the songs and find themselves on the video, plus eat their lunches and trade candy lol. then about 20 minutes before we get to camp everyone stops paying attention b/c they start seeing familiar camp landmarks and make the counselors point out ones that they might miss.

on the way home, the first 20 minutes everyone is crying and the crying turns into exhaustion, so most of the kids, especially the older ones, fall asleep. but we'll put in some kind of video for the ones that don't. then everyone wakes up as we get closer to the bus stop and is usually talking about what they're going to do when they get home and sometimes we'll sing some camp songs one last time.

[Dave]

Our bus would never last playing a game. :P Let's see. On our bus, it's pretty much chaos. Kids screaming running, climbing on seats, counselors yelling... It's not as bad as you might imagine, but it can get annoying. I'm not sure what the other busses are like at our camp, but ours is chaos. I mentioned in another thread about the huge fight that broke out on our bus on the second-to-last day of camp. Also, the kids on our bus form groups against each other. One group might have kids from one family, some from another, etc. Another group might have a few random kids... Then there's always the kid who everyone hates. All the kids tell on him and the counselors have to deal with it. We have to put up with the arguing, fighting, crying, etc. And we don't get paid for it! Only the bus counselor gets paid.

[CPCourtney]

A lot of the campers just listen to their ipods or the use the phones(they only get them on trip days). We never really have had to play games or sing songs...the girls stay pretty occupied with all their things.

[speedx5xracer]

Sing (any thing they know ) but basically since i have the younger kids they just sit there and talk to each other or go to sleep if its a long trip

[camplover86]

Since it is about a 3 hour bus ride to camp from most of the bus stops, on the way to camp we watch a movie and then teach songs, so they know them when they get to camp. On the way home, after the 10 day session we watch a movie and then take song requests as we get close to the different bus stops.

[Fleur]

In the mornings we make up bus cheers, sing songs, and play games (Never Can Tell clubs, 5 Minute Mysteries, etc). One year I made a wheel out of cardboard and a butterfly clip so our bus could play a Wheel-of-Fortune/Hangman type game. If it's a theme day, we spend the morning decorating the bus. We can also request other pre-made bus games from the program office.

In the afternoon, we do boondoggle, or the younger ones draw pictures. I try to avoid loud games on the trip home since some kids like to sleep.

[Dave]

I wish our bus was well-behaved enough to play games. It would make the rides so much easier. Unfortunately, our busses (well I can only speak for my bus) are chaos.

[CAMPFRIEND]

Fleur,

Thank you for the great ideas. I am going to share them with my bus staff for next summer!
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lolol (http://lolol.net)

[abfletch80]

we actually come up with activities to do on the bus OR let the kids sit wherever and spread the counselors out so there is no funny business going on! it is also important to have counselors sitting with the kids-they love to talk to the adults so be sure to not have them all sitting together and not interacting with the kids!

[Dave]

we actually come up with activities to do on the bus OR let the kids sit wherever and spread the counselors out so there is no funny business going on! it is also important to have counselors sitting with the kids-they love to talk to the adults so be sure to not have them all sitting together and not interacting with the kids!
There are a couple kids I don't mind sitting with. Those are the few kids who aren't annoying and who actually stay seating most of the ride. Other than them, I sit with hardly any kids. Only because most of them are annoying, especially on a really hot bus. Lets' see. There's one kid who likes to take naps on counselors, and, in the process, drool all over them. That's disgusting. There is a group of girls who like to annoy any counselor they can get a hold of by constantly doing stuff to them. There are quite a few kids who never sit down, and when they do sit down, they're usually arguing with other kids and that means you have to get involved.

As I said there are only a few kids who I will sit with. One kid just naps during the bus ride which is nice and quiet. The other kid just plays video games the entire bus ride. Those are really the only two kids I can think of who I don't mind sitting with. Any other kids I don't really let sit with me.

[camper]

haha dave. what you said about the girls made me think of 2 girls that are on my bus. i'm soooo glad we only have the bus thing twice all summer hahaha b/c these 2 kids are terrors...you'll be holding your cell phone and one of them will be like "oooh let me see your cell, hold it up! so you hold it up and they try to take it from you. or they just yell your name for the whole ride so you get up to see whats wrong and they're like "nothing, just want to say hi." for 2 and a half hours. haha.

[collissimon]

I've never been a bus counsellor when we pick up and collect the kids (that's usually for the specialists!), so don't know what happens there.

When the kids go on trip days though, we have a school bus, and have three rules: Bums on seats; Feet on floor; Talking not shouting!

It's usually a good chance for kids and counsellors to get some downtime. The kids are allowed to bring one thing on the bus (Game boy etc.) so play that. Some chat with counsellors, which is a great chance to get to know some of the kids better, and sometimes counsellors chat amongst themselves... I quite like the bus journeys!

[Dave]

haha dave. what you said about the girls made me think of 2 girls that are on my bus. i'm soooo glad we only have the bus thing twice all summer hahaha b/c these 2 kids are terrors...you'll be holding your cell phone and one of them will be like "oooh let me see your cell, hold it up! so you hold it up and they try to take it from you. or they just yell your name for the whole ride so you get up to see whats wrong and they're like "nothing, just want to say hi." for 2 and a half hours. haha.
No one on our bus dares to talk on a cell phone while on the bus! Every time someone does the kids all crowd around and start yelling into the phone. At least it keeps the kids occupied, but you have to feel sorry for the other counselor (and you have to break it up too unfortunately). I guess that's why they say no cell phones at camp.

[camper]

yeahhh cells don't work when we get to camp, but on the whole way to camp we're supposed to hold our cell phones and have them on the loudest possible setting plus vibrate so the camp can get in touch with us if they need to. we got in trouble last summer b/c all of our cells were in our bags on our seats and we were walking around checking on all of the kids on the bus and the camp called my cell 5 times trying to get in touch w/us and make sure we left ok. when we got to camp, the director met us and gave us a lecture on the importance of being reachable at all times on the bus lol. oops!

[ArtisticEric]

Yeah cells only worked on the soccer field which was up a hill so some couselors would try an use them up there but its hit or miss.... once on our bunk porch i had my phone in my pocket (because i misplaced my watch) then it made a loud beep because i had one little signal bar and i had to pretend i hadn't heard it when a couple of my campers looked in my direction because our cells are supposed to stay hidden on camp property oops:D

[shermanator]

to add to fleur on my bus when i was a bus captain so many years ago we would play ag ame called sweet and sour which is where you wave to people and try to get trucks to honk their horns if they did it they were sweet if not sour. we would write on the windows how many of each and keep track and try to beat it the next day. If you can occupy the kids so you don't get chaos. We did liscence plate bingo, twister where you put the dots on the seat, the camp gives us a binder with a whole bunch of ideas which are eluding me right now.

[ncfanton]

What I have done with the kids in a rowdy group I will pull out a book, and start to read to them. Now this usally only works in the k-1 age range, but it works. If anyone tries it with some of the older kids and it works let me know.

[Smudge]

When we had to take the kids off our res camp on a trip we would play music on the mini bus radio or play bus games like word games or sing camp songs.

[Giggles]

We don't do busses at all for the resident camp kids, but we do have a DC bus. Our ride is approximately 30-60 minutes depending on the stop they get off at. Ours is a short school bus so it has seatbelts and everyone must be buckled. I try to get them to sing songs in the mornings to get them all woken up and excited, though it usually ends up with everyone talking. As for staff we have the bus driver whos only purpose on the bus is to drive and keep us all safe (we aren't allowed to talk to her while the bus is on). Then there is one DC counselor and usually a Day Camp Assistant or two (junior counselors for DC, but they volunteer and go home at night). On the way home I figure I will let them talk and sleep if they want to. You can do bus games of course and sing songs. On the last day of the session we sing "Thank you Mrs. Bus Driver" to the driver once we get to camp!

[Aloha]

We have a day camp, and transportation is a big part of it. So we always tell the parents that riding the bus is part of the camp experience; in other words, the camp day starts and ends on the bus, not when the kids actually arrive at camp and leave in the afternoon. So we want to make the bus ride as fun as possible. We give the kids coloring books, mad libs, all that. We make sure our counselors are trained in leading games and songs and that they know they're responsible for entertaining the kids on the bus. It's important!