![\"\"](\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/summercamp.jpg\")
\nLike every year, at the start of the summer holidays, hundreds of thousands of young people will prepare their suitcases (or their backpacks) to go to summer camp.<\/p>\n
\nLike every year, at the start of the summer holidays, hundreds of thousands of young people will prepare their suitcases (or their backpacks) to go to summer camp.<\/p>\n
We commonly call “holiday camp” (this term is no longer legal) stays organized during school holidays for children aged 3 to 17. These stays, without parents, lasting one to three weeks are organized by associations, communities, companies, etc. and supervised by qualified personnel under the responsibility of the State.<\/p>\n
These summer camps have existed for almost 150 years. The number of days\/children (6-14 years) was increasing\u00a0until the 1960s-1970s<\/a>\u00a0. After that, the summer camps lost opening days and even participants every year.<\/p>\n To facilitate departures and relaunch the dynamic of stays, the \u201cPass colo\u201d<\/a>\u00a0was created in 2024\u00a0, financial aid for children aged 11 (born in 2013) ranging from \u20ac200 to \u20ac350.<\/p>\n Summer camps were born at the end of the 19th\u00a0century<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0. While some researchers propose different origins for\u00a0summer camps<\/a>\u00a0based on previously existing structures, Pastor Bion is often presented as their inventor. It is also he who gave them their name, “Ferienkolonien”.<\/p>\n In 1876, this pastor from Zurich, Switzerland, noticed that children in the city were puny, sickly\u2026 while children in the countryside were healthier. He then decided to bring 68 children from Zurich to the Appenzell plateau during the summer months. He continued in the following years and initiated a movement in many countries in Europe.<\/p>\n Very quickly, there were two types of colonies: family placement, in groups of two or three children in a family, most often peasant; the collective colony, the children all lodged in the same structure. They operated at the same time until the 1940s, when family placement almost disappeared.<\/span><\/p>\n At camp, you had to grow and get bigger. That\u2019s why the children were weighed and measured at the beginning and end of their stay. That\u2019s also why the camp had to last a long time \u2013 from three weeks to two months, depending on the organizers.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1881,\u00a0<\/span>Pastor Lorriaux<\/span><\/a>\u00a0organized the first French holiday camp (of the family placement type). He was followed by School Funds, notably in Paris under the name of school colonies. They were secular. Catholics, in turn, created holiday camps by taking children from their patronages and schools. There were then camps with political origins (from the 1930s), mainly left-wing, but also far-right.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, some companies, even before the creation of works councils, organized stays, as did various administrations for their staff or beneficiaries, and then more independent initiatives such as neighborhood associations…<\/span><\/p>\n The first holiday camps<\/span><\/a>\u00a0were organized near the organizing municipalities, sometimes only 10-15 km away. It must be said that the countryside was not far from the cities. With the improvement of transport, collective train tickets… the camps were able to move further away, thus making it possible to go to the sea or the mountains.<\/span><\/p>\n It was not until the\u00a0<\/span>decree-law of June 17, 1938<\/span><\/a>\u00a0, that a text was issued constituting the basis of their regulation. Article 1\u00a0<\/span>specifies<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0that children accommodated in a holiday camp are placed under the protection of the public authority. This text does not indicate the duration or the minimum numbers to be a holiday camp.<\/span><\/p>\n The current text no longer refers to holiday camps, but to holiday stays. It has kept the same principle: the child is placed under the protection of the State, represented by the ministry in charge of youth. On the other hand, the stays include at least seven minors, the duration of the accommodation is more than three consecutive nights. There are specific regulations (buildings, food, supervision, etc.) in order to ensure the safety of the stays.<\/span><\/p>\n The colonies are supervised by a director and animators. They must\u00a0<\/span>hold specific certificates<\/span><\/a>\u00a0, the best known of which is the animator certificate: the\u00a0<\/span>BAFA<\/span><\/a>\u00a0. which has been awarded in some years to more than\u00a0<\/span>50,000 people<\/span><\/a>\u00a0. This short training course has recently become accessible from the age of 16. To validate it, you must have completed two theoretical sessions of eight and six days and a practical course of fourteen days.<\/span><\/p>\n The activities we did changed over time.<\/span><\/p>\n The children took part in outdoor sports, including gymnastics, but also outdoor games, such as the\u00a0<\/span>“bar game”<\/span><\/a>\u00a0, then the big games (treasure hunts, trail games) with various themes (Middle Ages, space, famous people, etc.).<\/span><\/p>\n The walks allowed you to go to a site or simply to walk. The hikes including lunch were like excursions that allowed you to see a particular place, a summit\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n During workshops, participants made many objects. It started with sewing work, objects carved out of wood. In the 1950s, summer camps invested in materials such as plaster, earth (pottery), wood (cutting and pyrography), paint, raffia, etc. In the 1970s, manual activities were enriched with rattan (small basketwork), scoubidous, candles, etc. The 1990s saw the introduction of “salt dough”.<\/span><\/p>\n During the evenings, the vigils were frequent, even daily. There were little games, mimes, puppets, shadow theater, reading\u2026 There was a lot of singing.<\/span>The invention of summer camps<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Outdoor sports and fun activities<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n