The first organization of summer holidays for children and adolescents dates back to the 1950s. During this long period, summer holidays have developed and been reorganized according to the needs of society. Today, we know three most common forms of summer holidays: social summer holidays, health summer holidays and self-paid summer holidays. One of the most recognizable summer holiday organizers is the Association of Friends of Youth of Slovenia (ZPMS), which, together with their 109 members (associations), organizes summer holidays for children from program called A wink to the sun (Pomežik soncu). The Jurček Youth Friends Association (DPMJ) is an association that covers the area of municipality Trebnje which is administrative unit with the municipalities of Trebnje, Mirna, Mokronog-Trebelno and Šentrupert.
The main goal of my master’s thesis is to investigate to what extent summer holidays organized in the past differ from organised summer holidays today. In the theoretical part, I reviewed the history and beginning of summer holidays in Slovenia in existing literature and the DPMJ archive. I paid special attention to articles published in the media.
In the theoretical part, I presented the form of social tourism, types of summer camps, a historical overview of the development of summer camps, summer camp organizers, the history of the Association of Friends of Youth of Slovenia (ZPMS) with an emphasis on the development of summer camps, summer camp planning, connection summer camp content with national curriculum, the history of the DPMJ and the inclusivity of summer camps. In the empirical part, I compared the experiences of summer camps in the DPMJ organization with the help of thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews that I conducted with past and current vacationers. Namely, vacations reflect informal educational work with an emphasis on social skills, responsibility and inclusion of children. It is also a guided leisure time, the effects of which are also reflected in personal and social development. I conclude that this area is also important for young teachers and future pedagogical workers, because in such organized activities they can gain valuable experience for their careers.
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