Everything! From start to finish: extended care, lunch, snack, occupational therapy, speech therapy in the afternoon, teacher time, etc. Just bring a labeled refillable water bottle!
We ALWAYS have fun! If kiddos are having fun = they’re learning! We instruct our teachers to connect with the kiddos and have fun in the classroom, but we also include bounce houses, Jungle Gardens where they’re holing and petting the animals, we have robotics and STEM! SO many fun things that captures their attention and makes them want to come back!
We strategically group around 15-18 students per class, just like in a typical school. We group students by ability, parent and teacher feedback and with their friends if it’s possible! This is their summer too and if they’d like to be with their friends, we do our best to accommodate that as well!
A typical day at SSI starts with Attitude of Gratitude! After they’ve arrived and played for a little bit, right at 8:45am we start Attitude of Gratitude because who doesn’t want to start the day with a grateful heart? After that their teachers take them right to their classroom for 2 hours of Academic Teacher Time! They love this time in the morning because they love feeling like they’re being productive with the core subjects: reading, science, math & writing! Next is recess where they get their wiggles out running and playing outside for about a 20-minutes, depending on the weather and heat. We come back in to wash hands and use the restroom then head to our Community Presenter. We have about 26 different presenters like The Beekeeper, Park Rangers, Sarasota K-9 Unit, Jungle Gardens and more! Then they have our beautiful catered lunches that the kids love. Our afternoons are SO much fun where every day is different. We host Rotations with four 40-minute rotations like Dance, Theater, all the Arts, Music Production with instruments, STEM, Robotics, Sewing, Tube Knitting, and so much more, as they rotate class to class. At the end of the day at 3:30, we reassemble for our daily wrap up discussing our Favorite Part of the Day. Again, we started the day with an attitude of gratitude and end the day with what we loved the most. It provides us great feedback so that we can adjust and reorder things that they love and allows the kiddos to recap and remember what they did during the day right before they head home. Dismissal takes place from 3:45-4:00pm. Any students staying in aftercare have their choice of inside activities or outside games until they are picked up by 5:30pm.
Kid tested and mother approved! We have pizza on Mondays & Fridays and sandwiches catered in on Tuesday through Thursday (and they’re delicious). The kids love them as we tried to get fancy in previous years, but we found the kids just love these options. Of course, we have delicious sides too like fresh fruits vegetables, cheese sticks, applesauce, yogurts and things like that. Parents are always welcome to have students bring their own snacks or lunches at any time.
Our camp is for just about EVERYONE! We have kids from Pineview, gifted schools/gifted programs, kids that just need a little extra help, but also kids that really need the instruction and could use it every day! What’s great is that we differentiate the instruction when they’re in the classroom and group them according to ability. This allows us to hone in on those skills that they really need or help propel them forward making us a great option in the summer for your child!
Kids should bring a labeled refillable water bottle everyday! We have our refill stations throughout campus as it’s super important to stay hydrated. So just a refillable water bottle and a smile!
We are not technically affiliated with Suncoast Church or Suncoast Academy, but we are best friends! They open up and share the campus with us and all the things inside. The school is really wonderful about letting us use the library, the copy machine, all the classrooms, and have full access to the computers. Of course, the church is amazing. We partner with them to give back to a lot of nonprofits organizations as a part of our community giving.
You can register by going on our website and clicking on “Apply Now” at the top right-hand corner. It will take you all the way through the whole application process. You’ll get a phone call from us once you’re approved and it’s as simple as that!
There are SO many things to love about SSI! We hire certified master’s degree teachers that are watching and teaching the kids the whole day, so that’s who’s eyes are on the kids all day long. I also love that we have a huge character development piece that really is a huge blanket that goes across the whole day. We inspire the kids to be better in all that they do and to unlock their potential! We are all-inclusive for the working professionals! We have before care, after care, snacks, lunches – who wants to pack a lunch in the summer?! We have guidance counselors on staff that work with the kids and get them to open up and build that confidence that they deserve. We have a lot to be thankful for and we have lots of things that differentiate our space, not to mention 81 acres is quite a bit!