10 Friendship Skills Every Kid Needs
As parents and adults who work with youth, we can positively impact kids’ lives through helping them build good social skills, which are, I believe, more important than academic or athletic skills. At school, very little—if any—time is spent teaching these important skills, but for youth who struggle with social skills deficits, this attention is…
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Three Good Things
Sharing three good things with each other during daily family sharing is a great way to connect AND grow gratitude. It’s simple. During sharing time, each person shares three good things that happened in their day OR three things they’re grateful for. This gratitude exercise (when written down) has been proven to reduce depression symptoms.…
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Connection Tip #2: Start a Daily Family Sharing Habit
“Just like at camp, connections are the result of intentionally chosen, day-to-day family habits that create feelings of warmth and belonging.” –Happy Campers Secret #1: Connection Comes First One of my favorite connection tips (besides unplugging) is having a daily family sharing habit. I’ve honed my ideas on this topic over many years of practice around…
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Highs, Lows, and Buffaloes
What do kids choose to share about their friendships, camp experiences, time at school, and other life experiences? Sometimes, not much. An activity we do during nightly campfires at camp is an excellent way to get kids to share, and it’s also an easy family sharing habit that leads to better communication and connection. Highs…
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Making Family Dinner like a Campfire
An activity we do at campfires at camp has been helpful in our family at getting our kids to communicate about both positive and negative events in their lives. For children who don’t normally share their struggles and keep them bottled up, it helps them open up. And for those who don’t naturally focus…
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