French Summer Camps

Our ambition is to give everyone a love for the French language and the French culture.

Our creative summer camps aim at teaching French through activities such as cooking, crafts and outdoor games. The idea is to recreate a small corner of France for Irish children.

SUMMER 2022:

We are not able to post details for summer 2022 activities as we are waiting to see how the Covid pandemic develops. We will post updates as soon as we possibly can.

You will find below how a typical summer camp operates.

Size of the group: 12 residential children (4 children / bedroom) who will stay in a bubble for 6 days.

Supervision: The children are under my supervision with the assistance of 2 adult francophone assistants.

Venue: Solenn's School, Bealady Farm, Rathdowney, Co. Laois, R32P2T8

Accommodation : There are 3 bedrooms for the children in the house. The boys sleep in the attic (4 beds). The girls are accommodated in 2 bedrooms downstairs (4 girls per bedroom). The house is spacious.

Allergy or fear of animals: We live on a farm and we are surrounded by animals (sheep, cows, horses, hens) including two dogs who live in the house. Please be aware of this if your child is allergic or is afraid of dogs. The livestock are in the fields around the house. The house and the garden are separated from the farm and the children are supervised at all time. They are not allowed to go to the farmyard on their own and they are under the supervision of an adult when they go to a field.

Meals: All the meals are prepared here with fresh food. The children have breakfast at 9.30am, a snack at 11am, a light lunch at 1pm, a snack at 4pm and a good dinner at 7/7.30pm. Coeliac and lactose intolerant children are welcome.

Use of mobile phone, tablet and computer: The children have access to their mobile phone or tablet only for half an hour in the evening to ring their parents. The phones or tablets are not allowed otherwise and will be held by me the rest of the time. The children who don’t have a phone can ring their parents at any time on my mobile phone. The use of computer, tablets or video games is forbidden during the whole stay at Solenn’s School.

COVID-19 regulations: We will comply with Covid-19 guidelines set by the HSE.

A typical day:

Half day or full day camp

10am-11am	Fun activities for learning new vocabulary . We use card games and activities specially designed for teaching French as a foreign language and for developing communication skills while having fun.
11am	Cooking (the children cook a French dish)
11:30am	Small breakfast
12-1pm 1-2pm	Outdoor games Songs, music Lunch
2- 4pm	– Craft activities under the hay shed – Games in the garden

Residential Camp

9am	Wake up call
9.30-10am	Breakfast
10am-4pm	Same as above
4pm	Snacks and drinks
4:20-5:30pm	Free time to kick a ball in the garden or in the fields, unwind in the garden or go for a walk with the assistants on the farm.
5:30- 5:45	Time to ring home and to do house chores (the children have to do one small task every day in order to help with the everyday house chores such as helping in the kitchen, feeding animals...)
5:45-7pm	-Work in groups with the assistants -Scrapbook about France and French culture/ Recipe book
7-7:30pm	Shower
7:30-8:15pm	Dinner
8:15-9:45pm	Movie time ! Selected French children movies with subtitles.
9:45pm	Bed time
10/10:30pm	Turn off lights

During the week, the children will become familiar with French culture by singing French songs, playing French games, cooking and tasting French food, filling a scrapbook about France and watching French movies.

They won’t have time to be bored or homesick!