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

Hey Camp Fans!

Throwback with us once again to another Throwback Thursday Blog post in which we link back to a past post that we feel is so valuable we want to get its information in front of you again. Today’s Throwback post goes back to a post from last year in April, written by Dr. Thurber about keeping in touch with your kids during their camp stay.

This post prepares you for a couple weeks without seeing your kids, talking to them on the phone, or even texting them! Take Dr. Thurber’s advice on today’s Throwback Thursday Blog post.

- John

Hey, Campers!

Last week I posted the second installment of my ‘Making Friends at Camp’ series about how easy it is to make friends at summer camp whether you’re a little shy or dreadfully terrified of talking to others. The thing is, once you’re there at camp, you don’t even think about it. You’ll naturally start talking to other kids and become fast friends with them.

It’s just a given. That’s what happens at camp.

But it’s not all that happens at camp. Sure, spreading your social wings and making friends is what camp is all about, but it’s also about getting to know yourself better. See, a funny thing happens when you’re away at camp because when you’re away from mom and dad, you do things a little differently than you otherwise would.

You take some healthy risks that you find within your character, you make decisions based on different values, you even behave differently and may discover things about yourself that you never realized were there before. This is all a part of the summer camp experience. You’ll begin to get a sense of the boundaries you’ve set for yourself thanks to opportunities like making friends at camp.

Making new friends at camp is made possible by these discoveries, after all, we need to have some sense of our own personality in order to share it with somebody else. But the experience of making new friends at camp can also help to fuel those self-discoveries too and so goes the cycle goes as both actions help encourage the other.

Isn’t summer camp great?!

Be sure to come back to my Blog next Tuesday to read the last segment about making friends at summer camp and the lifelong benefits of the relationships you build when you’re there.

Thanks for reading.

- John