Last week, during my training with camp staff about friendship skills, I showed them this video (Susan Pinker’s TED Talk: The Secret to Living Longer May Be Your Social Life): I then asked our staff to share what similarities they found between summer camp and the small village in Sardinia Pinker describes in her TED…
READ MORESubscribe for resources and ideas for happier, more connected families. In Episode 164, I’m chatting with my friend Sara Kuljis of Yosemite Sierra Summer Camp and Emerald Cove Day Camp. We talk about family gratitude practices and lessons from camp for having more grateful families. At Thanksgiving, it’s easy to remember to be grateful, but the…
READ MOREPart of the “magic” of camp is that from the first moment, we focus on building relationships and getting our cabin groups connected. We train our counselors to help kids develop social skills so they can form friendships and feel a bond with their peers. The minute kids arrive at camp (or get on the…
READ MOREWell, I don’t know the child that was returned to me on Saturday. It definitely wasn’t the child I dropped off two weeks earlier. The only logical explanation is that your camp is magic. Magic transformed my scared, sad, not always happy boy, into a confident, smiling, laughing young man. -Email from a Camp Parent I have…
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