Five Reasons Great Parents Send Their Kids to Camp
My shy, quiet nine-year-old went to camp not knowing a soul. Two weeks later, she came home transformed. She blossomed. She made friends, learned a multitude of activities, felt safe, loved, confident, and happy — really, really happy. As hard as it was on me, it was all worth it for her. It was the single…
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Making Friends: Managing Difficult Emotions
Here are a few tough questions: • Has anyone ever accused your child of bullying or being mean to another child? • Have you ever seen your child lash out (physically or verbally) at another child? • Does your child react aggressively when upset by a sibling? • Have you noticed that other kids don’t seem…
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Friends: Finding Gold in a Plastic Era
“Friendship is the gold of childhood.” Michael Thompson’s statement stuck with me long after I attended his session on the social lives of millennial children at a recent American Camp Association conference. I would go even further and say that friendship is not just the gold of childhood, but also of life. And, unfortunately, our…
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Making Friends: 3 Communication Skills Your Child Needs
Leaving a soccer game last fall, a teammate called out to my son, “Great game today!” My son didn’t turn his head. He grunted something unintelligible, and he walked away. My husband and I were shocked. Did he not know that you RESPOND to a compliment by turning towards the person and saying, “Thanks!” or…
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Why Family Dinner is Important
I almost changed the title of this post to “Why my Kids won’t be Olympians,” since it seems appropriate this week. There are many reasons (mostly genetic and statistical) my kids won’t be in the Olympics, but one reason is that high-level sports commitments are just not as much of a priority for our family…
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Enjoy Your Teen Daughter
2014: Inspired by an email from a friend last week asking about parenting her soon-to-be-teen daughter, I found this post from a few years ago that still speaks to how I feel today about my teenage daughters. I hope it inspires you to listen less to negative talk about the teenage years and enjoy your…
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Practice What I Pin: Get Organized!
I’m like a lot of other moms in that I have A LOT of different projects and tasks going on simultaneously. There are moments when I can’t remember all of the things I have to do or figure out what I should work on. I find myself frozen, staring at the piles on my desk,…
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5 Reasons to UNPLUG
Oh, how I love my nightly Pinterest sessions. I look forward to that mindless scrolling and pinning of recipes I’ll never make and quotes that inspire. And I love seeing pictures friends have posted and what everybody’s doing on Facebook. And, of course, I love the great articles I link to from Twitter. The downside…
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Hug Your Teen Today
“The most important assignment a mom has is to nurture her children.” Tim Sanford, M.A. (Losing Control & Liking It) Significant research has shown that babies need a lot of nurturing in order to thrive. But I think that nurturing is just as vital for our older kids and teenagers as it is was when…
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4 Parenting Challenges and How Camp Can Help
In today’s digital, fast-moving, ultra-competitive world, raising kids who grow into happy, independent adults has become more challenging for parents. Quality summer camp programs offer an experience that many parents have found to benefit their child’s development of important life skills. Independence, perseverance, and social skills are just a few of the skills that campers learn…
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My SMART Goal: Encouraging Notes to my Kids
I love thinking about and writing down my goals for each year. I used to set unrealistic, vague, way-too-big goals and resolutions – the kind that barely last beyond the start of the New Year. My mom and I laugh about her yearly goal, which has always been to “Learn to speak French.” It’s sounded…
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Two Ways to Be a Better Parent
This weekend, I had the pleasure of listening to Madeline Levine, PhD. (author of The Price of Privilege, Teach Your Children Well) speak at my favorite annual camp conference. Dr. Levine has insight as to why so many of our children are suffering from terrible mental health issues (anxiety, depression, eating disorders, sleeping issues, self-mutilation, etc.). …
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