How do I know if spilled milk is the right summer camp for my family?

spilled milk social club is the perfect camp for parents who want traditional summer activities (field trips, arts-n-crafts, water play, etc.) mixed with “specialty” activities and projects (cooking, musical theater, creative/athletic competition!) at an affordable cost, and with flexible hours. We have a little something for everyone, and as long as your kid is up for trying new things, we feel confident that we are a great program that caters to many interests!

While our program is widely appealing, there are a few things to consider when deciding whether or not to send your child to smsc:

smsc is not JUST “day care”. In addition to the free time that kids need on a daily basis, we go on field trips AND work on group projects and activities throughout the week. We take great care in planning themes and curriculum that are worthwhile and fun, and executing them requires some amount of focus and self-discipline on the part of our campers. While we don't force participation in projects and activities, we also believe that the experience is best if all parties (kids and staff) WANT to be present and participate. If you are looking for a camp where your child can be free to run around all day without the structure of group projects, small amounts of quiet “carpet time,” and daily outings, smsc might not be the best place for your child to be all summer.

Our curriculum and expectations are age appropriate for your child's assigned group. If you are concerned about your child’s ability to adapt at camp, please don’t worry! Contact the directors so we can work together to figure out what will work best for your family. If you are unsure how your child will handle being at spilled milk, consider signing them up for just 2 or 3 weeks, instead of the entire summer.

Parents, along with their kids, have an important role! In order to keep the highest quality for our program, we count on parents to do their part- greet and get to know our staff and directors, read signs and schedules, bring what is needed each day, BE ON TIME according to your child's activity schedule, volunteer to help when available, etc. Give yourself 5-10 extra minutes in the morning (ESPECIALLY on your child’s first day of camp) to come in and chat with us. We want to get to know your child AND you!

What should I do if my child will be absent any day?

If you know your child will be absent, arriving late, or leaving at an odd time, please send us an email by 9a the day of, in order for us to plan accordingly. During the crazy months of summer, we don’t call families who haven’t arrived in time for a field trip or activity. If your child isn’t here by the arrival time on your weekly schedule, we’ll assume they are absent. That said, letting us know ahead of time makes our lives easier and happier.

We had a last-minute change to our summer schedule. What’s your cancellation policy?

For all of our programming, we have a 30-day cancellation policy. During summer camp, cancellations or schedule changes must occur at least 30 days prior to the start of any given session. We realize that things come up, but we reserve the right to hold you responsible for full tuition if you cancel within 30 days of the session in question. We'll reach out to families on the waiting list, and we'll give each family 24 hours to respond. Depending on how far in advance you cancel, many waiting list families will have made other plans, so give us as much advance notice as you can!

When is tuition due? What method of payment should I use?

Tuition is due by the 5th of every month. We’ll email you a statement before the 1st, and your bill will include charges for all sessions that fall within that month. Our preferred methods of payment are auto-draft or bank transfer through the link on your tuition invoice. If your family needs to pay using a credit card, we ask that you schedule a time to pay us over the phone or in person. Please understand that we are trying to move away from taking credit cards due to the increasinly excessive cost for us as a small organization. Auto-draft forms and instructions can be found on our "Forms" page under the "Grown Up Stuff" tab!

If you cannot pay by the 5th or wish to pay bi-weekly, please let us know so that we can make a plan with your family.

What should I keep in mind about your tuition rates?

Child care is not a lucrative industry, and child care workers are historically underpaid and undervalued for the experts and professionals that they are. spilled milk social club rejects those ideas and seeks to disrupt that narrative, even if just in our own tiny corner of the industry. We strive to pay our employees a living wage, maintain our convenient location in the increasingly unafforable Central Austin, as well as keep our rates as afforable and accessible as possible.

Do you offer partial-week care?

During the summer, we do not offer partial-week care. Because many of our projects take place over the course of an entire week/two-week session, and because we always anticipate full enrollment, our program is best for campers who plan to attend every day.

What are the hours within which my child MUST arrive and get picked up each day?

DROP OFF: We open at 8a each day, but your weekly schedule will tell you by what exact time each day you must arrive, (usually between 9:00 and 9:45a).

PICK UP: Monday through Thursday, you may pick your child up any time between 3:45 and 5:30p. On Fridays, you MUST pick your child up by 4p. SET AN ALARM! LEAVE YOURSELF A NOTE! DON'T BE LATE!

**IF YOU ARRIVE LATE TO PICK UP YOUR CHILD, BE PREPARED TO PAY THE LATE FEE IN PERSON THAT DAY. The late pick-up fee is $1 per minute. (If you call us on the day of to let us know that you’re running late, we are more inclined to be flexible. That said, please don’t be late. We’ve been here all day.)

Do you offer extended care?

Effective Summer 2024, we will no longer be offering extended care. We will, however, be extending our operating hours to 5:30p at no additional charge.

What's with the early closure on Fridays?

In order for us to offer the highest quality care AND a compelling and enriching curriculum, it is crucial that we have time to come together as a team for planning and development purposes. Due to the very busy (and exhausting) nature of our summer camp program, we think it's most fair to our hard working employees to build that time into the week rather than asking them to work extra hours for planning.

With that, PLEASE be on time for pick up every Friday. If we are waiting around for families to show up, we start our staff meeting late, end it late, etc. Set a reminder for yourself, so you don't forget!

What are your child:staff ratios?

Under normal circumstances, we keep the following child:staff ratios:

At our facility- 15:1

Field trips- 12:1 (for ages 6+) and 10:1 (for age 5)

Swimming pools- 8:1

You just said “swimming”. What do I need to know/bring?

On your child’s swim days, kids should arrive with a swimsuit, towel and sandals/water shoes/flip flops, in addition to his/her dry clothes. Feel free to send an extra cover-up or shirt, as all kids are required to wear some sort of clothing over their swimsuits, when traveling to the pool. Kids may bring goggles and/or diving toys, but please leave any water-squirting toys at home.

We understand and expect that many campers (especially the younger campers) cannot swim. All our staff are certified in CPR/First Aid/Basic Water Rescue, and we keep very low child:staff ratios at pools, on top of the city lifeguards who are also present.

FOR THE PINTS AND QUARTS, we choose pools with an ample shallow section, and we never allow our campers to wander outside of our strict (and shallow) boundaries, whether they’re strong or weak swimmers. Parents are welcome to send life-vests or floaties, but all children should be able to stand with the water at shoulder-level.

For the Gallons, we extend the boundaries to include the “deep end,” but only for campers who have passed a “deep water swimming” test, administered by our staff. Generally, more than half of the older campers aren’t deep water swimmers, and we keep the strict and shallow boundary for those campers.

What kind of sunscreen and insect repellant do you use?

We use HEB Solutions Sunscreen, (spf 50). In the last couple of years, we’ve encountered a small handful of kids who develop mild skin reactions to the sunscreen. If you know your child should use a special sunscreen that you want to provide, please let our staff know on your child’s first day of camp. Unless we get special instructions from you, we insist that our adult counselors apply sunscreen to all children before swimming and other outdoor field trips. Again, let us know if this presents a problem for your family.

We keep DEET-based insect repellant on site, but you are welcome to send a different kind or opt out of insect repellant for your child. Talk to our staff on your child’s first day of camp if you have concerns.

Do you provide any snacks?

Aside from a few special projects/field trips that involve food (read your weekly schedule!) you are required to send all food-- lunch AND snacks-- to last all day for your child. If your child runs out of food, we’ll contact you and do our best to make sure your child has enough to eat, though we do not have a kitchen and don't keep a lot of extra food at our facility. Starting with the second occurrence, we’ll charge you a $5 “insufficient food” fee each time we are forced to supplement your child’s lunch/snack supply.

In the Pints and Quarts classrooms, there will be snack tubs labeled for the morning and afternoon. When you arrive each day, place a snack (labeled with your child's name) in each tub, and we'll distribute at the appropriate time. You're encouraged to send extra snacks, as campers are allowed to eat outside of the regular snack times, if they're hungry.

Besides food, what should I send each day?

Each day, send a water bottle, lunch and snacks, and anything needed for projects or field trips, as detailed on your weekly activity schedule. We highly encourage campers to bring an extra change of clothes in a zip-lock bag, to keep in their cubby all week long in case of accidents or messy play.

P.S. Be smart. Label anything you expect to return home.

Are you a nut-free facility? What about other allergies?

Currently, we are NOT a nut-free facility! We do have a few nut allergies among our kiddos, but in each case, the family is fine with other kids consuming nuts. We'll notify everyone if we end up enrolling any new students with allergies that require us to become nut-free.

If your child has a nut allergy or any severe allergy that we should be aware of, you should make note on your family info form. That said, please also email the directors once your spot is confirmed, so we can make a plan ahead of camp, in case it will affect other campers (such as restricting certain items from being allowed in lunches).

What is your discipline/guidance policy?

Please read our OPERATIONAL POLICIES to understand our philosophy and general policy towards behavior and discipline. We make efforts to help children solve conflicts through peaceful communication and self-reflection.

In certain situations, (violent behavior, running away/hiding, etc.) or when less problematic behaviors become patterns, we will contact the child’s parent and set up a time to talk and create a behavior plan. If the undesirable behavior persists beyond a parent meeting and behavior plan, we may ask you to withdraw your child, though we'll do our best to give you a reasonable amount of notice, (usually 1-2 weeks,) depending on the situation.

Are all kids required to participate in all projects?

We do not require that every kid participate in all projects. If you know your child might not be interested in the week’s project, please know that while we’ll make every effort to include your child, we won’t force it.

Project time occurs over roughly 2 hours each day. During this time, children are expected to either be participating in the day’s project or occupying themself in the room (which is divided into centers: art, games, Lego, dramatic play, etc.) Please consider this when deciding whether or not smsc is right for your child.

Can my child bring their own toys? Phone? Electronic devices?

At spilled milk, we operate with a “no electronics or devices” policy for kids. Since the inception of our program, we have sought to create an experience similar to those of our own childhoods, where creative play reigns supreme. While on our campus and in our care, kids have access to a multitude of resources with which to play and occupy their time, as well as fun, creative adults to help them generate ideas and guide their explorations.

This policy is similar for our staff as well. The use of electronic devices while children are in care is limited to Slack (our communication platform), cueing music, and the occasional search for “pictures of red-tailed hawks” or “how to fold an origami bullfrog” or “when is the next solar eclipse.”

We understand that an increasing number of children have devices (phones, watches, tablets, etc.) that allow them to contact and communicate with their parents. We ask that these devices be left at home or (if worn on their person) be set to “school mode” or an equivalent mode that does not allow calls, texts, social media or games while present at our facility. We will always assist a child in communicating with parents if the necessity arises, but we strongly prefer to do so through our own systems. Communication, independence, and an ability to advocate for oneself are all values that are embedded into our policies and procedures at spilled milk, and we have found that constant and immediate contact with parents can undermine our ability to support the development of those skills.

If it is crucial to your family that your child have a device with which to communicate with parents while at our facility, this must be brought to the attention of and discussed with the directors prior to your child attending spilled milk.

We're spilled milk first timers! Can we visit the facility prior to our first day of camp?

We will host a Meet & Greet at our facility in May so that you have an opportunity for your kiddo to check out the space and meet our awesome team. Look for more details about this in your summer camp confirmation email!

I submitted my registration application on Valentine's Day. When can I expect to receive a response?

We process applications and enroll campers on a first-come, first-served basis (we promise). That said, we have to go through all applications manually, in order to prevent mistakes that have occurred in years past. This is why it might take up to a week for us to send you a confirmation email. We apologize for the delay, and we appreciate your patience.

Oh no! The week(s) we wanted are full. How do we get on the waiting list?

When you submit a camp application, we'll reach out to you within a week to confirm your enrollment OR to let you know we've added you to the waiting list-- which we'll automatically do once the session fills up, in order of when applications are received. As spots in any given session come available, we will reach out to whomever is next on the waitlist to offer the spot until it is filled.

How do I earn a gold star for “Exceptional Camp Parent”?

We’ve mentioned all of the following more than once, but you have NO IDEA how dreamy our lives would be if every camper’s family always adhered to these expectations, so we’ll tell you again:

Fill out your child’s family info form (AKA "enrollment form") correctly! This means you CANNOT leave anything blank. Our childcare licensing inspections include representatives checking our forms. If you don’t complete your forms, we are in violation. Enough said.

Label EVERYTHING! Your child’s lunchbox, backpack, clothing, water bottle, towel, goggles… EVERYTHING! It’s incredibly hard to keep up with everyone’s stuff. If it’s all labeled, your child is WAY less likely to lose anything.

Don’t be late! Pay attention to your child’s schedule so that you arrive on time each day. Arrive early enough to give them a few minutes to CLEAN UP THEIR OWN MESS before leaving! Pick up no later than 5:30p, M-Th. Pick up no later than 4p on Friday!

Read all signs and your child’s schedule! You’ll know when/where to show up, what to bring, and how to prepare. You’ll be happy. We’ll be happy.