Handmade From the Heart!

My name is Claudia Quintana, and I moved to the United States from Guatemala 25 years ago and completed my Masters in ESL at CW Post. One of my favorite activities is to read! My favorite author is Gabriel Garcia Marquez. When I am not at camp, I teach English as a Second Language in the East Hampton School District. I have students from all over the country including Central and South America, Europe and Asia!  It’s truly a fascinating job!

After spending four summers traveling to South America and Europe, I decided to find a summer job, but, I wanted the job to be a fun job. I wanted something that had to do with education but in a different way; and I found Hampton Country Day Camp!

I started at HCDC working with the nursery school aged campers in the camp’s Stepping Stones program. As a mother to a 3-year-old boy, I had quite a bit of experience with that particular age group, so I knew it would be a good fit for me. After three years as a Stepping Stones counselor, I moved on to the Stepping Stones Arts & Crafts area.

I absolutely LOVE working with the Stepping Stones in the Arts & Crafts area.  Every parent becomes so proud of their little ones when they come home with something that their child has worked on and that is clearly handmade from the heart. Those little art projects become our trophies. I carefully research months ahead of time, before camp begins, for age appropriate crafts that I can guide my campers through.  Some of the best ways to foster creativity require only the simplest materials and few complicated directions. Each craft project is carefully selected.   To see my campers’ little faces feeling cheerful, delighted and filled with pride from what they have accomplished (even if it is just a simple line on a piece of construction paper) is truly priceless.

I am already gathering new project ideas for this coming summer and I can’t wait to share them with my new incoming campers!