Merryhill Summer Program

Children Scream For Ice Cream

By Eliza Hallabeck

During one of the first days of the summer camp program, children from the oldest class at the Merryhill Childcare Center rode a bus over a couple of streets to the Ice Cream Shop.

This is the fourth year the summer camp program has been available. Children already in the preschool program do not have to sign up for the summer camp program, but others can sign up specifically for the special summer session. The Merryhill Childcare Center, which is a nonprofit child care center, is located on Queen Street.

The summer camp lasts for nine weeks, and each week has a special theme. Sue Tarshis, the head teacher in the preschool room, said the children particularly like themes like Dinosaur Week and Science and Nature Week.

She said for Science and Nature Week, “We do all kinds of experiments, and we play with gooey things.”

Experiments, Ms Tarshis said, can include making bubble solution and blowing large bubbles. They have also made volcanoes with the children before.

During Dinosaur Week the children create their own dinosaur footprints and pretend to be the prehistoric creatures themselves.

“We have a kind of pretend archeological dig,” Ms Tarshis said, explaining one of the Dinosaur Week events. Children search for dinosaur toys in the sand, she said.

The first day of this year’s summer camp program was June 23, and on the third day the children got to experience the Ice Cream Shop through the eyes of the owners, Lenny and Paula Schaible.

The children saw inside the big freezer, saw how ice cream hardens and learned how ice cream is made, according to Ms Tarshis.

“We had a picnic lunch outside,” she said. The children ate on the tables outside of the Ice Cream Shop after they got the tour of the inside.

The children’s ages range from 3 to 6, and Ms Tarshis said, “They just love it.”

Two years ago, according to Ms Tarshis, they did the same field trip. The Merryhill Childcare Center summer camp program does different events and field trips each year, and, she said, it helps the children who are enrolled yearly to feel they are experiencing different things each summer.