Bumbles Summer Camp 2023
We can’t quite believe that another Bumbles Summer Camp is over! As we reflect on what has been a triumphant 7 weeks of fun, adventures, learning and memory-making, we are overjoyed with the positive feedback from our team, parents and most importantly children.
The theme for Summer Camp 2023 was centred around building friendships, child well-being, our world around us and the great outdoors. Our Team devised an exciting programme for both younger and older children. This included a variety of daily activities throughout the weeks including yoga, football, junk art, free play, story times, board games, obstacle courses, drawing and lots more, led by the interests and desires of the children.
Adventure Days
Wednesday’s became our Adventure Days! We prepped our lunches, packed our bags and jumped on our waiting coach early morning to set off. Our bus driver Gary drove us to many wonderful and wild places for our further away locations.
Our first stop was Delamont Country Park back in July, full of nature trails, scavenger hunts and a trip on the Delamont Miniature Railway train! An outing to Cave Hill Country Park and the historic Belfast Castle had us all dancing in the rain! Although very wet, we had fun exploring the beautiful grounds of the Castle and taking part in ‘The Castle Cat’ treasure hunt. The spectacular views across Belfast Lough and the city never get old, even on a cloudy rainy day! It’s said, there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing! And all of our adventurers were appropriately dressed in rain dancing, puddle stomping attire.
A trip to the Titanic Quarter saw our children spend the day playing and exploring the 5 amazing levels of W5, whilst learning lots of cool and interesting facts about science and nature. Another Camp outing was to Carnfunnock Country Park in Antrim where the day was spent exploring its Walled Garden and losing ourselves in the Garden Maze. No country park adventure is complete without climbing the grassy hills and seeing who can roll down them the fastest!
On our trip to Stormont Estate, we were blessed with a lovely sunny day. Following a discovery walk around the woodlands and play in the adventure park, our groups cheered each other on as we hiked to the top of the hill to see the Parliament building. Our final Summer Camp Trip was an amazing day to Oxford Island. We built dens, learned rope skills and practiced archery!
Most of our outdoor adventures during Summer Camp included plenty of time in the many play parks, and all of our trips included a well-needed pit stop for a Bumbles packed lunch before tasty treats and snacks later on in the day.
Our younger Camp age group enjoyed walks to more local city spots like the Ormeau Library, Botanic Gardens and Tropical Ravine. The penultimate trip for our younger group was to Let’s Go Hydro and their Puddle Park!
Throughout the 7 weeks of Summer Camp, we also welcomed some very special people and organisations to our Camp setting including World of Owls, St John’s Ambulance, USCPA, Paramedikidz, Fitness Freddy, Sonal Sportz and Kelly’s Roller Disco!
Bumbles Buddy Badge
For the first time, we introduced the Bumbles Buddy Badge scheme. This friendly scheme allows our older children to become helpers in various aspects of Camp and in particular to support, help and teach our younger children all about Camp.
As expected, the children loved this and we had super helpers giving out snacks at snack time everyday, reading stories to their younger friends and completing their Bumbles Buddy Badge task sheet. Before starting the new school term, they all were delighted to receive their Bumbles Buddy Badge.
“The children loved reading stories to younger children and helping set up fun activities for their friends and tidy up also. They enjoyed serving snacks and knowing the importance of using tongs!”
– Sigourney, Deputy Manager
Visit our Fees information page to see Camp prices. We operate Camp during the school holidays throughout the year with flexible booking.