Resource Roundup for Camp Professionals

Parents traditionally look to teachers, school counselors, and religious leaders for guidance and resources about raising kids. Typically, parents wouldn’t think to seek resources and guidance from summer camp professionals. It’s time to take seriously our important role in partnering with parents by sharing resources about child development, youth trends, and best practices when working with young people.

Why Teens Need Summer Camp More Than Ever

Being at camp gives me this sense of belonging that I’ve never felt anywhere else. I know that I can be myself and that my cabin mates will love me for who I am, and I’ve brought that to my life outside of camp.-Hannah

Begin with the End in Mind

The first thing summer camp counselors should do going into camp season is decide how they want campers to remember them once the season ends.

What's the Best Age for Camp?

You probably want a number here.  If you’re only going to read these first two sentences, then I’ll pick the age of nine.

Parenting Trends and Challenges Facing Youth: What Camp Professionals Need to Know

In the middle of last summer, we received an update from our camp insurance agent about one of the biggest challenges facing camps in 2018 — camper and staff mental health issues. At that point in the season, we already had four teenage campers who had discussed suicidal thoughts with their counselors. We'd been conferring with parents, therapists, and social workers at the local hospital to ensure the campers' safety, and ultimately, we were able to navigate each situation successfully. These incidents, however, highlight an alarming and uncomfortable trend.

Too Much Screen Time? Four Ways Summer Camp Can Help

Children between eight and ten years old currently spend nearly eight hours a day on media. Adolescents average nearly eleven hours per day, seven days a week, on screens. The negative impact of this digital lifestyle is evident in kids’ expanding waistlines as well as their growing lack of interest in being outdoors. Now there’s an additional worry about the impact of our kids’ excessive screen use: anxiety.

Want an Independent, Confident, Resilient Kid? Camp Can Help!

While it’s easy to think of ways to teach our kids to do laundry or solve math problems, finding a way to instill important character traits isn’t as simple.

5 Tips for Surviving Your Child’s First Overnight Camp Experience

Your child’s at summer camp?

That’s so exciting!

And hard.

For some of you, an internal “WA HOO!” went off as the bus filled with excited campers and their duffle bags pulled away. But for others, this whole experience of your child not being home is really hard and causes some emotional distress.

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