Hey, Summer Lovers!

Okay, okay, so the summer season may be officially over at this point—but there’s still a flood of beautiful weather to soak up here in northern Wisconsin. To follow suit with the last three Mondays on the Everything Summer Camp Blog, today I’d like to give one last idea for squeezing every last drop of fun out of our fine September weather.

I’ve already mentioned great activities like apple-picking, enjoying campfires, and going on a hike. Lastly, allow me to present you with…

Idea #4: Backyard camping. Sleepovers/slumber parties are a great way to say goodbye to the summer season. Do it up in style and break out the tent one, last time—weather (and parents) permitting—to spend the night in the outdoors before it gets too cold!   

Even if you don’t end up spending the whole night out there, it’ll still be well worth it to share a spooky story or a juicy game of truth or dare before falling asleep in the backyard. It offers the thrill of camping with a fraction of the effort when there’s a clean bathroom and full refrigerator a few steps away.

Brighten up your tent after dark with the great Camping Lantern from Luminaid (available right here at Everything Summer Camp) and you can play cards, Battleship, Chess, and board game you like as long as you have enough room in your tent.

Summer may be over, but you don’t have to say goodbye to camping quite yet. Since we only sleep in them occasionally, tents are inevitably fun and exciting shelters in which to spend the night. Great memories are made inside of them! Who knew the backyard could be so thrilling?

Well, that’s the last of our ideas for summertime activities in September! Good luck wringing the season dry of its fun, Summer Lovers! And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Parents!

It’s that time of year when your camper is coming home from camp. The season is come and gone. You spent months out of the year planning and saving for these several weeks of summer and now it’s time to hear how it went. And hear about it you will—whether you like it or not.

That’s the situation with most kids, anyway. They want to tell you all about anything and everything concerning summer camp immediately because of what a great time they had. You may or may not like some of the things you hear, but keep in mind that this isn’t necessarily an accurate account of what actually happened.

Also, you should take comfort in the realization that you’re such an important person in your kid’s life that they want to share with you the entire experience that they had without you.

It isn’t every kid that will respond this way with such expressive excitement. But if your kid is more reserved, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they didn’t enjoy their time at camp (or that you’re unimportant to them). It’s just that the camp experience hits everyone differently. Some kids are more reserved because they’re mildly depressed to see it come to an end.

Some kids are even drawn to tears when it comes time to leave camp. But you shouldn’t be alarmed by this behavior. Your kid may want to leave quickly so as not to draw the situation out or they may want to stick around for a while. Make sure to talk to your kid to see how they want to proceed.

Whether your kid can’t stop talking or if they’ve barely started, the stories will eventually come out when the time is right. However, if you don’t want to wait, Cabin Leaders are great sources to talk to. Get the skivvy from them and ask how your kid liked the camp experience.

Enjoy the rest of your summer and, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans.

- John

Should camp friends hop online in the off-season?

Rustic, outdoor living has always been a core value of summer camp. Even Alexander Graham Bell complimented camp directors for not bringing his invention into their woods. Really.

But if all goes well, one outcome of your son or daughter’s electronics-free experience this summer will be a handful of close friends. And starting around age 11, those youngsters will want to stay in touch after camp, during the school year. Handwritten letters were once the only way to maintain an off-season camp friendship. And although I contend it’s still the best way, I concede that texting, Facebook, Tumblr and other social media are here to stay.

The primary social dangers that exist at camp—cliques and bullying—also exist online. The difference is that at camp, social interactions are supervised. A well-trained camp counselor (such as one who has completed a course with ExpertOnlineTraining.com) can spot social aggression and redirect it immediately.

Online, such monitoring is challenging, though not impossible. The trouble is, few parents bother to read their children’s texts or monitor their Facebook posts.At some point, probably around age 16, teenagers who have been brought up to behave with integrity online need to be trusted to function autonomously on the Internet. Prior to that age—or whatever age you, as a parent, determine is appropriate—parents should actively monitor their progeny’s behavior on social media websites.

But what are you looking for, exactly? Well, each year, there are a few camp directors who discover exclusive or downright nasty online groups that have formed around a nascent camp clique. Typically, these come to light when the excluded children complain to their parents. But before your own son or daughter is on the giving or receiving end of cyberbullying, you can:

•    Talk with your child about your expectations for virtual-world behavior, just as you have been guiding his or her real-world behavior since birth.
•    Discuss the importance of inclusion in friendship groups, whether they are online or offline. In this context, ask them about their plans to keep in touch with camp friends.
•    Ask the camp’s director whether there is an officially sanctioned online forum, Facebook page, Twitter feed or bulletin board where camp friends can gather and share.
•    Put the computer your youngster is using in a public space in your home, such as the kitchen. That way, you can keep an eye on their online behavior. You want see everything they are doing, of course, but they are less likely to misbehave in your presence.
•    Parents who let their youngsters have phones should randomly check text messages, simply to verify what their children are saying to their friends. Yes, your kids are smart and they can hide things from you, but again, the goal is to make them less likely to misbehave.

As newfangled technology emerges, such as leave-no-trace text messages that vanish one minute after they are opened, the importance of old-fashioned face-to-face conversations between parents and their children becomes even more important. Keeping camp friendships alive online means keeping family connections strong on the home front.

Enjoy the summer!

Dr. Christopher Thurber

Hey Camp Fans!

Throwback with Everything Summer Camp’s Throwback Thursday Blog post from about a year ago. We feel that today’s Throwback post was so valuable we want to get it in front of you again. Today’s Throwback post goes back to a post from last year in June, written by Dr. Thurber about visiting your kids during their summer camp stay.

In today’s Throwback post, he shares pointers and good advice on rolling with the punches of visiting day.

Click here to read Dr. Chris Thurber’s article about visiting day.

- John

Hey, Friendly Folks!

Welcome to my fourth and final segment on the topic of making friends at summer camp. Over the course of the previous three posts in this series, I’ve talked a lot about how friendship is an effortless and certain affair in the world of summer camp. You’ll naturally start talking to other kids and become fast friends with them.

Making friends is simply what happens at camp—a given.

Today I want to talk about the lifelong benefits of the assured friendships you’re going to build at camp. Having a network of friends can create opportunities of a lifetime for you. I know of a married couple who first met one another at—you guessed it—summer camp!

That’s probably one of the more extreme cases, but nevertheless, it’s true! There are plenty of other opportunities besides finding your future spouse that can open up to you by making friends with the right people at camp.

For instance, if you make friends with someone at camp who lives on the other side of the country, you might learn a thing or two about wherever your friend is from—you might even be able to arrange a visit to your friend’s house and see life in someone else’s neck of the woods.

Not everyone can find ways to hang out with the friends they made at summer camp OUTside of camp. But that doesn’t mean that making those friends was pointless and a waste of time—NO! That was just giving you some practice at what you’ll be doing all throughout your life.

No matter where you are, there are always going to be other people around you. Camp offers you a great experience to become a part of a community. This is what you’ll do come high school (if that hasn’t come already), it’s what you’ll do in college, and what you’ll do all throughout adulthood.

And that’s a good thing too, because one thing you’ll always need around is a friend.

Thanks for reading, Campers.

- John