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…
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Ep. 33: Jedi Mom Tricks (Part 2) with Maria Horner
You decide as a family what’s important…Every single thing can’t be important. You have to pick a few things that are in alignment with your family’s values and then really, really be consistent with them. Maria Horner In Episode 33, I’m with Maria Horner talking about more of her “Jedi Mom Tricks!” Listen here if you…
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Ep. 32: 10 Benefits of Summer Camp for Teens
It’s those deep relationships that are formed at summer camp that really have a dramatic influence on them. -Stephen Gray Wallace In Episode 32, I’m talking with Stephen Gray Wallace about his recent article for Teen Life : 10 Reasons Why High School Students Will Get a Lot from Summer Camp. Adolescents’ Three Primary Developmental Tasks Forming an…
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How to get Closer to your Kid in 5 Minutes a Day
One-on-Ones On our counselor job description, one of their duties is to “check in with each camper, every day.” We call these check-in meetings “One-on-Ones.” Counselors ask campers specific, open-ended questions to elicit how campers are feeling. The counselors ask about their friendships, activities, how much they’re missing home, what’s going well, and if they…
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Ep. 27: Raising Teens who Thrive with Stephen Wallace
“We are highly focused on promoting favorable youth outcomes, things like positive identity formation, character development, leadership, civic engagement, social entrepreneurship, media and financial literacy, conflict resolution…. and we’re focused on prevention, working on issues like youth suicide, prescription drug use by young people, the opioid epidemic, those types of things.” Stephen Wallace Center for…
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One Simple Thing: Monthly Parenting Challenges for a Happier, More Connected Family
Each month this year, I’m sharing One Simple Thing to try to create a happier, more connected family! January: Daily Family Sharing February: Calm the Morning Chaos March: Discovering Your “Authentic” Self April: How to get Closer to your Kid in 5 Minutes a Day May: 3 Reasons to Give Your Kid a “WOW” Today:…
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Ep. 22 Jedi Mom Tricks (Part 1) with Maria Horner
These really aren’t ‘tricks.’… In order for any of this stuff to work…you have to have a strong relationship with the kids you’re trying to use these on. -Maria Horner In Episode 22, Maria Horner shares some of the important lessons she’s learned as a mom and now passes along to her summer staff each…
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The Five Most Common Parenting Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Before I was a parent, I worked with hundreds of kids as a camp counselor and then as a camp director. As an idealistic youth development professional, I was very opinionated about parenting techniques, and I was critical of what I saw parents doing and saying to their kids. I had a lot of “always”…
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11 Ways to Help Kids Create REAL Connections
A 75 year longitudinal study of adult development at Harvard Medical School had two main findings. Researchers George Vaillant and Sheldon Glueck determined that “good relationships”—not wealth or accolades or privilege—“keep us happier and healthier.” Their second, almost tongue-in-cheek finding was that “if alcoholism is not the root of all evil, it is closely correlated…
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Ep. 5: Using a Growth Mindset with Jeff Cheley
In Episode 5 of the Sunshine Parenting Podcast, I interview Jeff Cheley, the 4th generation director of Cheley Colorado Camps, a world-renowned summer camp founded in 1921 in Estes Park, Colorado, by Jeff’s great-grandfather. Jeff is in his 18th year as director at Cheley and with his wife Erika is parenting three young sons. He has a…
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Helping Kids through their “Low Point”
During one of our final training sessions with counselors, we ask them to think back to their “low point” as a child or adolescent and remember what, if anything, caring adults did to help them through. It’s a great reminder to counselors to think about the developmental stage of the campers they’ll be working with…
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The Uncool Mom
One of the numerous times I’ve made my son mad this year was the day I told him he had to go to school when a bunch of other parents were not making their kids go. Here’s the story: My son’s soccer team had a tournament on the last Friday of school before a break.…
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