9 Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults
9 Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults camp secret#1 Connection Comes First Creating a close and connected family culture that promotes positive, lifelong relationships is the most important thing we can do for our children.Social connections, more than athletic or academic accomplishments, predict happiness and success.Forming a positive, nurturing relationship with your child…
READ MORE
100 Family Memories
100 Family Memories Every December our family makes a list of 100 family memories from the year. This year marks our 11th year of doing this year-end remembrance activity, and we all look forward to it. Now that the majority of the “kids” are adults living away from home, it’s extra fun to hear from everyone…
READ MORE
Ep. 64: Home for the Holidays: Preparing for Your College Kid to Come Home
I think when you’re talking about your kids coming home for a longer period of time, whether it is for Christmas or summer, setting that expectation up is really important because otherwise, you get frustrated with them on the couch and we don’t always use our best parenting skills when we are frustrated. Maria Horner…
READ MORE
Challenging Our Definition of “Success”
Last week I attended a talk by Mary Hofstedt of Challenge Success, an organization dedicated to redefining success and promoting children’s well-being. I’ve been following the work of Challenge Success for several years and love their message. My husband and I got to be in a skit that Mary coordinated called “Andy Bishus.” Andy is a…
READ MORE
Three Strategies for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults
What do you want for your child in 10 years? 20 years? What dreams do you have for him/her? These are the questions I often ask parents to reflect upon before I begin talking with them about positive parenting strategies or children’s friendships. I’ve also started clearly articulating the main idea behind the work I…
READ MORE
7 Ways to Help Your Daughter Become a Thriving Adult
Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with a group of moms of elementary-age daughters. I shared with them some friendship concepts (which I’ll share in a later post), as well as these seven ideas for helping their daughters grow into thriving adults. I had so much to share, and I ran out of…
READ MORE
Helpful Books for Raising Daughters
I wish these books had been available when my girls were younger, but they’re here now. I’ve learned from these books what it’s like to be a girl growing up in the 2010s. This is a hard time to be a girl. Our girls feel expectations to be perfect in all areas – appearance, academics,…
READ MORE
More of, Less of, Same of (MO, LO, SO)
This is my August installment of my One Simple Thing tip for having a happier and more connected family. Each month this year, I’ve been sharing something I’ve learned from my years at camp that families can try at home to create some of the fun, happiness, and connection that we create at summer camp…
READ MORE
The Wisdom of High School Girls
One highlight of my summer has been meeting with our oldest female campers to discuss relationships, goals, and life. These girls have so much wisdom to share with each other and with adults. We meet on the middle Sunday of their two-week camp session. We spend two hours doing activities together and sharing ideas about…
READ MORE
4 Ways to Focus on our Kids’ Strengths
One of my highlights of last week was meeting with our Junior Counselors (17-year-olds heading into their senior year of high school) and talking about their strengths. After spending a morning sharing the strengths they saw in each other, reading about the strengths their parents see in them, and viewing their results of the VIA…
READ MORE
Helping Kids Find Their “Green Zone” (and Finding our Own!)
The simple concept of red, green, and blue zones from The Yes Brain has stuck with me and is helpful to anyone who is a human being or works with them. The red, blue, and green zones describe the emotional characteristics or states our children (and we!) are in at any given time. The “green…
READ MORE
7 Ways to Help Kids Through their Teen Years
A focus of our staff training is helping counselors learn to connect with kids, empathize with them, and give them positive, supportive guidance. A powerful exercise we do is to ask our staff (19-24 year olds) to reflect on what they remember as being their most difficult time growing up. This summer, as has been…
READ MORE