Water Safety Alert

How a conversation at home could save your child’s life at camp

Drowning is a leading cause of accidental death among young people. So whether your son or daughter is headed to day camp or overnight camp this summer, you’ll want to teach them basic water safety at home, before opening day.

Yes, high-quality camps should train all of their staff in emergency water rescue. They should categorize swimmers and place them in appropriate instructional groups and water depths. They should insist that children swim in buddy pairs…and follow other essential safety practices. They should. But they don’t. Not always. They’re human, so their attention wanes and their judgment falters.

I’ve been a camp waterfront director for nearly 25 years, so I’ve seen or made just about every aquatic mistake well-trained lifeguards make. And that experience has taught me the importance of redundancy. Safety systems need back-up safety systems. And that’s where you, as a parent, come in.

When moms and dads participate in basic water safety preparation at home, campers behave more safely at camp. At a minimum, these are the steps you should take prior to opening day:

• Teach your child that playing in the water is fun, but should never be enjoyed alone. There must always be a properly-trained adult lifeguard present.

• Teach your child to enjoy the water in buddy pairs, never as singletons. This might be a parent-child buddy pair at the beach, under the watchful eye of a trained lifeguard. Or, it might be a pool party in the backyard, where every young guest has a swimming buddy.

• Teach your child to swim. Even the youngest day campers can learn to swim. Before the camp season starts, bring your child to some lessons at the local municipal pool, YMCA or club. Sure, children will become better swimmers at camp, but learning the basics prior to camp is a plus.

• Teach your child to swim only during daylight hours. Accidents are more likely when campers cannot judge depth, direction or bottom conditions in the darkness.

• Teach your child to tread water and perform the survival float, as well as to respond to a distressed swimmer with a reaching assist or a throwing assist. Even a kindergartener can save a life with a working knowledge of basic rescue techniques.

• Reinforce your expectation that your son or daughter will follow all of the camp’s aquatic rules, such as: No Diving in Shallow Water, No Running on the Dock or Deck, Always Wear a Life Jacket in Boats, etc.

Like wearing a seatbelt in the car or donning a helmet when riding a bicycle, following waterfront safety rules makes an exciting—but potentially dangerous—activity safer. What you start in your own bathtub, backyard pool or nearby shore can then be reinforced by your child’s counselor or cabin leader. Or, if a distracted staff member fails to remind your child to don a life preserver before he or she launches out in a canoe, it won’t matter. A properly-sized preserver will already be buckled on, thanks to you.

Enjoy the summer!

Dr. Christopher Thurber

Bullying has received a lot of recent press, especially as more and more schools adopt anti-bullying programs in their curriculum. Witnessing school shootings that were, in part, retaliation for relentless bullying may have increased our empathy toward both bullies and their targets, as well as our motivation to change. But tragic events, additions to curricula and press coverage have all made it seem as if bullying is new. It might surprise you to learn that camping professionals have been taking a systematic, proactive role in preventing bullying since 1929. That year marked the publication of Camping and Character: A Camp Experiment in Character Education.

In Camping and Character, authors Hedley Dimock and Charles Hendry reported on the results of a multi-year study conducted at Camp Ahmek in Ontario. The study sought to uncover the changes evidenced in campers’ behavior during six weeks at camp and to understand the mechanisms behind those changes. Among the more than 50 behaviors the authors tracked was bullying. Dimock and Hendry recognized that even small increases in bullying behavior needed to be addressed by the camp leadership. They were also encouraged by huge increases in many prosocial behaviors, such as “Making a friendly approach to [an] unlikable boy.”

Nearly 80 years later, what are the most important things we’ve learned about bullying? The answer has three parts. First, bullying itself is only half the picture. For every bully, there is at least one target. Second, bullying is cyclic. A recent study by the Center for Disease Control confirmed that about three quarters of bullies are also targets and about three quarters of targets turn around to bully another child. Third, bullying is social. Antisocial, to be sure, but it represents a dynamic, complex, interaction whose origins lie in unhealthy relationships. Therefore, the solutions lie not in simple punishment, but in the formation of healthy relationships.

Summer camps are uniquely suited to deal with bullying because they are such healthy social environments. At camp, leaders supervise children and have opportunities to educate bullies and targets. Leaders can teach the kinds of prosocial behaviors Dimock, Hendry and their pioneering predecessors saw so often at camps. This is easier to do than most people think, partly because bullying is so often a misguided attempt to make a social connection. If you can teach a bully how to make a social connection without using coercion, threats or violence, you have actually met that child’s needs instead of simply punishing his or her misbehavior.

Specifically, camps help children in the following ways:

• By having the camp staff set a sterling interpersonal example for all children to follow.

• By seeing beyond the bully alone and including his or her target in an intervention.

• By strengthening bullies’ fragile sense of themselves by providing opportunities for authentic achievement and human connection in various athletic or artistic domains.

• By teaching bullies to make social connections through healthy interaction.

• By teaching targets to stand up to bullies in ways that makes bullying unrewarding.

• By setting, early and often in the camp session, strict guidelines for kindness and generosity…and then heaping on the praise when staff witness prosocial behaviors.

• By providing the kind of close supervision that allows both bullies and targets to replay unacceptable or unassertive interactions under the guidance of experienced adult staff.

• By deliberately creating a culture of caring that is perhaps different from school or the neighborhood at home…and then immersing children in that culture.

• By allowing positive peer pressure to exert itself such that children feel appreciated and rewarded for gentleness, honesty, kindness and unselfishness.

Camps are not a bullying panacea. Outside of camp, there are powerful forces, such as violent media, that infuse children with the notion that violent, even lethal solutions to vexing social problems are both effective and glorious. Nevertheless, camp is a powerful, positive force for change. Educating bullies and their targets is just one of the many ways camp enriches lives and changes the world.

So next time you’re talking with your child’s camp director, don’t ask whether they have a bullying prevention program. If all your camp is doing is trying to prevent bullying, that’s not enough. Instead, ask, “When instances of bullying occur, what are the ways your camp’s leaders teach bullies and their targets alternative, prosocial behaviors?” and “How does your camp create a culture that exerts positive peer pressure?”

Enjoy the summer!

Dr. Christopher Thurber

How to Ensure Success by Taking Care of Your Own Stress

It’s normal to be anxious about how your son or daughter will do at camp. Yes. That’s right. So relax. It’s normal. And if you’ve read my blogs on homesickness prevention and followed my advice, then chances are your child will thrive at camp. (Behind on your prep? No time to read more? Check out this anti-homesickness DVD: EverythingSummerCamp.com.)

I know you. You’re still worried. Will Sam make friends? Will Pat pass his swim check? Will Robin change his underwear? Will Francis take his medication? I’m a parent, too. I know what it’s like to fret about your kiddo’s future. I also know that fretting openly generally ramps up my kids’ angst.

If you’d perused clinical psychology journals in the late 1990’s, you’d have read Lisa Capps’s research on anxiety transmission from parent to child. Her studies showed that when parents spoke nervously to their elementary school children about things that could go wrong on the walk to and from school, the kids developed school phobias of varying intensity. Worry, as it turns out, can be contagious.

The key for parents who may be worrying about what might go wrong at camp (and that’s all of you reading this) is to share those concerns with another adult. Your son or daughter needs to hear a consistently positive message of confidence and optimism, such as: “You’ll love camp” and “I know you’ll do great” and “It’s gonna be a terrific experience” and “I can’t wait to hear about your new friends and the new things you try.”

With your spouse, partner, colleague or best friend, you can say, “I won’t sleep soundly until I get his first letter” or “I’ll be checking the camp’s website every hour” or “I don’t know what I’ll do without him” or “I’m not ready for her to go away this year…I should have waited until next summer.” But beware of sharing those thoughts—and other nervous notions—with your child. You’ll create worry where there wasn’t any.

If I’ve convinced you to keep your public pronouncements positive, I’m pleased. But now you’re wondering, “What if—after all I’ve done to keep my concerns among trusted peers—it’s actually my child who rings the alarm bells?” I’ve already told you the answer: Express confidence, optimism and positivity. The trick is being ready to respond.

Almost every child headed to summer camp for the first time will ask, “What if I feel homesick?” Well-intentioned parents will sometimes make the monumental mistake of saying, “If you feel homesick, I’ll come and get you.” But think about the subtext of that remark. What you’re really saying is, “I have so little confidence in your ability to cope with this normal feeling, that I think the only solution is for me to come and rescue you.”

That shaky message is not what any youngster needs to hear, directly or indirectly. So be ready with: “There are many things you love about home, and I’m sure you’ll miss some of them. You’ll probably be having so much fun, that you’ll barely notice any homesick feelings. But if anything starts to bother you, I’m sure you’ll know what to do. And remember, your counselor or cabin leader is also there to help.”

Still have a few unanswered questions? You’ll feel better if you had the answers. So now is the time to read everything the camp has sent you. And check out the website one more times. Then call the camp director if there are still lingering pre-season queries. Remember, information is the best antidote to your own anxiety. And when that’s under control, your child will sense your calm. That, too, is contagious.

Enjoy the summer!

Hey, Summer Camp Preppers!

For today’s blog post I want to give you a few tips and pointers about having fun in the sun this summer camp season. As wonderful as it is to feel those glowing rays beaming down on your smiling face, it’s important to take the necessary precautions for hanging out in the sun.

Everything Summer Camp has a plethora of available products containing 100% natural oils and plant-based extracts that ensure your protection from harmful UV rays while being totally skin-healthy themselves.

Remember, it’s a general rule of thumb that you should apply your sunscreen a full twenty minutes before venturing out into those bright, sunny days. Also, sun screen is just as valuable on hot, overcast days in the summer.

Just because you can’t see the sun doesn’t mean it isn’t there. UV rays can still pass through a cloudy sky, so it’s just as important to use your sunscreen even when it seems like you don’t actually need it.

If you’re on a multi-day hike, you’ll definitely need to reapply throughout your time outdoors in the sun. Some sunscreens remain active longer than others so you’ll need to read the information on the back of the sunscreen product you purchase. Everything Summer Camp has sprays, lotions, wipes—we even have sun protective clothing!

Clothing with built-in sun protection is a fairly new idea in the United States. Many people wonder why you would need clothes to be sun protective when the clothing itself is already shielding you from sunrays. That’s just it, though. Everyday clothing doesn’t shield you from sunrays—not harmful UV rays, anyway.

But most people don’t realize this fact. In fact, lots of summer styles usually leave a lot of skin exposed—naturally. However, clothing with built-in sun protection is intended to cover a large amount of skin. The point in this is to keep the majority of your body protected from harmful UV rays. You won’t get too hot, though as sun protective clothing is designed to keep you cool underneath.

Have your fun in the sun. But do it the smart way and walk outside protected with sun care! And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Preppers!

I hope you’re getting more and more excited as the summer camp season draws near! In preparation, you may be looking for the right sleeping bag for your camper; and, in doing so, you may be finding it confusing to know just which kind of sleeping bag will be best—what with how many different types of sleeping bags there are.

When it comes down to a sleeping-bag, we’ve got everything you could want…which doesn’t exactly make it easy to decide on the one that’s just right for your camper. Read on and you can use this post as a guide to helping you narrow your sights on the appropriate kids sleeping bags for your kids’ camp stay.

Your first decision will come down to the style of sleeping bag. Here you have two options: you can go with the traditional Rectangle Style Bag or you can go with the Mummy Style.

For a longer camp stay that guarantees some night’s spent under the stars, a mummy style sleeping bag is what you’re looking for. It’s shape will naturally keep it warmer inside and its better equipped to protect your camper against the elements.

If your kid’s camp stay is a week long, however, and isn’t going to involve much actual camping, the traditional rectangular style sleeping bag will do just fine. It’s better for a restless sleeper as well who tosses and turns throughout the night.

Your next decision arrives at temperature ratings. Know the weather forecast for your camper’s camp stay. How cool is it going to get? The temperature ratings let you know how cool of a night it’s intended to handle. If the nights are pretty cold, you’ll want to look for a lower rating.

Next, you’ll want to give some thought toward using synthetic material or real down. Though more expensive, real down is typically your better option. It’s light, highly compressible, and long-lasting. It holds its loft longer than synthetic down and maintains its insulation well over time.

A sleeping bag made with Synthetic Insulation is going to be bigger and it’s going to be heavier. Synthetic Insulation doesn’t absorb water making it a great choice for campers who plans on roughin’ it rain or shine. These bags are also less expensive than sleeping bags made with Real Down.

Lastly, you need to decide if you want a regular size sleeping bag or one that expands from a youth size sleeping bag to and adult. An expandable twelve inches at the end of the bag ensures that your camper won’t be outgrowing this bag any time soon!

That’s all for today, Camp Fans. Hope this helped clarify which type of sleeping bag would be best for your camper! And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John