https://www.acacamps.org/blog/want-improve-your-response-mental-health-challenges

Camp professionals often ask what they might do to more effectively respond to staff and camper mental, emotional and social health (MESH) needs. This often arises from a desire to be as inclusive as...

https://www.acacamps.org/blog/moderating-childhood-stress-through-camp

Exposure to adverse childhood events (ACE) can lead children to drinking alcohol, smoking, illicit drug use, overeating, and other maladaptive behaviors (Stevens, 2015). These children can experience...

https://www.acacamps.org/blog/instilling-meshages-marginalizes-toxic-stress-camp

As the Healthy Camp Education and Monitoring Program (HCEMP) committee studies MESH and its implications, I was interested to see some foundational work in this area. In...

https://www.acacamps.org/blog/school-breaks-shouldnt-be-break-learning

School breaks are not the time to take a break from learning. Unfortunately, this is what often happens, resulting in a significant drop in students’ mastery of core concepts. The ...

https://www.acacamps.org/blog/3-weeks-summer-camp-what-i-learned-educator-being-camp-parent

I feel like I just spent three weeks at Jewish summer camp. I experienced the highs of color war, the exhilaration of kayaking in the lake, the fear of the high ropes course, and the spirit of...

https://www.acacamps.org/blog/thank-you-helping-change-childrens-lives

As the holiday season approaches, we at the American Camp Association (ACA) realize we have many reasons to be grateful. In the camp world, there are so many people who make an impact, and we are...

https://www.acacamps.org/blog/whats-best-age-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. But my real answer is a bit more complex. When...

https://www.acacamps.org/blog/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...

https://www.acacamps.org/blog/want-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. The way we model traits we want our...

https://www.acacamps.org/blog/conversation-about-fatigue-camp

Before fatigue becomes a serious problem, here are four suggestions for addressing fatigue at this point in the summer.