Hey, Blog Buddies!

It’s always good to be friends—but today it’s even better since it’s World Friendship Day! What fun is a trip to the movie theater when you’re going all by yourself? Isn’t a hike a lot more fun when there’s somebody else with you to share the experience? You can’t play Hide-and-Go-Seek without a friend!

Making friends comes as natural as your ABC’s. A couple months ago I posted a series on this Blog about the ease of making friends at summer camp. Whether you’re a little shy or dreadfully terrified of talking to others, 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 camp isn’t the only place where it’s easy to make friends! You can do it at school, at the beach, at the park, at your brother’s birthday party…the world is brimming with friendly, smiling faces, all ripe for the befriending.

Though the United Nations did not officially recognize World Friendship Day until 2011, the history of this day dates back all the way to 1919 when the greeting card company Hallmark first founded it. It wasn’t an international holiday at that point—just a day Hallmark invented. The day was meant for friends to send each other greeting cards noting the friendship between one another.

When World War II came, it extinguished the market and a little after 1940, the day had gone completely extinct!

It was over 50 years later in 1998 that the United Nations (very curiously) appointed Winnie the Pooh as the World’s Ambassador of Friendship. And by 2011, Friendship Day was resurrected now as an officially recognized international holiday.

Happy World Friendship Day to everyone 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

Hey there, Summer Campers!

For today’s Blog post from Everything Summer Camp, I’m telling you about a famous woman who was once a summer camper just like all of you. Her name is Jewel Kilcher. But you probably know her better as just, Jewel. This incredibly famous singer and songwriter has lived a rather interesting, surprising life. No one ever would have thought that this young girl would grow up to be as famous as she turned out to be!

Though she was born in Payson, Utah, Jewel grew up in Homer, Alaska where she lived with her father as well as her grandfather for some time. Her grandfather had been a state senator and a delegate to the Alaska State Constitutional Convention. Living in Alaska meant living in a very different lifestyle than what most of us are probably used to.

The home where she was raised had no indoor plumbing. Her and her father used an outhouse whenever nature called. They also earned their living going around and singing in local bars and taverns—this is where Jewel picked up on her singing voice (not to mention her yodeling skills).

She attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, majoring in operatic voice. Interlochen Center for the Arts also offers a summer camp experience which Jewel attended as well. It was at this time that Jewel picked up the guitar and learned to play the instrument. By the time she was 16, she was writing songs.

After school, Jewel embarked upon her journeys, traveling all around the country and living out of her car all the while. She made her money performing on the street and doing small gigs. She started gaining recognition here and there in coffee shops. As her popularity grew, she began collaborating with other artists and in time, Jewel made her way to the top.

She’s received four Grammy Award nominations. Her album “Pieces of You” went 15 times platinum! All this from the Alaskan girl who yodeled with her father in local taverns! What will you become?

- 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 there, Moms and Dads!

Today is a very special day. What makes it so special, you ask? It’s special because it’s all about you! Happy Parents’ Day, Parents! Today celebrates you: that proud, loving, and often times very tired group—the parents of our world! Though it may be a little hard for some of us to admit it at times, at some point in our lives our parents were most likely the most important people in it.

You’d think this day has been celebrated all throughout history since moms and dad have been around since…FOREVER, but actually it came around in the much more recent past. Its interesting history goes back only to the 1920’s or so when one Ms. Sonora Smart Dodd from Spokane fought to make an equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents—Father’s Day.

As was covered on the previous Father’s Day post, most fathers confronted the idea of Father’s Day unfavorably, displeased with its celebration of a domesticated male figure being gifted with flowers and other frills. One response was a movement that lasted about a decade that tried to get rid of both Mother’s AND Father’s Day entirely to make just one, unified Parents’ Day.

Parents’ Day was fought for with the rationale that both parents should be respected and admired equally, however, the Great Depression put an end to the fight as retailers did their best to promote ‘manly’ gifts like neckties, hats, and golf clubs for Father’s Day. With that, Father’s Day won the battle.

It took nearly 65 years before anything happened with Parent’s Day, until 1994 when President Clinton noted that Mother’s Day landed on the second Sunday of May and Father’s Day on the third Sunday of July. So following suit, he decided that the fourth Sunday in July had ought to be Parents’ Day.

From everyone at Everything Summer Camp, happy Parents’ Day! As always, thanks for reading.

- John