Bears’ Adventure – Session 4
A highlight of the two-week session for our youngest campers (grades K-3), and their version of “backpacking,” is Bears’ Adventure. This one-night trip allows campers to experience sleeping outdoors under the stars and cooking over a campfire. Campers’ luggage is taken for them to the campsite, so they are not technically “backpacking,” because they have no pack to carry. With just their water bottle and their positive attitudes, they set out from camp singing and talking on their hike.
The best part of Bears’ Adventure is the free time kids get to play and explore the area. For many campers, the longer sticks provide the perfect start to a fort. Others enjoy laying on their sleeping bags talking with friends or silently watching clouds move overhead. Some participate in crafts and games while enjoying being outdoors. For many of these kids, Bears’ Adventure is their first experience “roughing it,” and they absolutely love it.
When they hike back into camp the morning after their Adventure, our Bears’ campers stand a little taller. And their dirty, smiling faces are the best indication that they have experienced the awe of nature.
Video & Photo Highlights from Session 3 Bears Adventure
WHADDA WEEK! August 14, 2021
Bravo, Soap, and the members of Cabin 24 (with a guest appearance by some of Cabin 22) host this week’s episode of WHADDA WEEK! Find out what’s happening at GAC this second week of Session #4, learn about some highlights of camp so far for these kids, and hear about some of the friendship skills that they’ve been practicing.
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Session 3 Highlights Video & Slideshow
Enjoy these memories from Session 3!
Win a FREE COPY of Sunshine’s Book, HAPPY CAMPERS!
With summer coming to a close, and another challenging school year ahead for our kids (and for us parents), we want to remind you about a resource Audrey “Sunshine” Monke created to help parents bring home some of the happiness, connection, and character growth of GAC: Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults.
Happy Campers is now available from Audible!
Listen to or read a free sample from Happy Campers:
Download the audio of Camp Secret #1: Connection Comes First
Download the print version of Camp Secret #1: Connection Comes First
Join Sunshine to chat about coaching your kids to improved social skills and better friendships:
Tuesday, August 31 (12-1pm PT) discussion of Camp Secret #9 (from Happy Campers): Coach Kids to Better Friendships.
We’ll talk about the skills kids need to make and keep friends AND how you can coach your child to better friendships and relationships.
Register for the lunch chat by August 21, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for one of five FREE AUDIO OR PRINT COPIES (your choice) of my book HAPPY CAMPERS! Register here.
Audrey “Sunshine” Monke, MA, has been the owner of Gold Arrow Camp since 1989 and currently serves as the Chief Visionary Officer. In addition to her vision-casting and mentoring at GAC, Sunshine is an author (Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults), podcast host, speaker and coach on the topics of parenting, social skills, and happiness. Find out more at her website, Sunshine Parenting.
Visit Sunshine Parenting for more social skills, parenting & summer camp resources.
Whadda Week! August 2, 2021
Bravo and Cabin 24 host this week’s episode of Whadda Week. Find out what’s going on this second week of Session #3, 2021!
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All in the Family: GAC Staff Siblings 2021
Many of our GAC camper families include multiple siblings who attend camp each summer, so it’s not surprising that when campers return as camp counselors, they often overlap with their siblings who work at GAC, as well. This summer, we’re grateful to have an especially large group of staff siblings, including:
Sneaks & Shred
Flaps & Otter
Peanut Butter & Agave
Magic & Maps
Ski & Sis
Butter & Jam
Quest & Jupiter
Mariachi & Liono
Gatsby & Vinci
Falls & Aqua
Foxtrot & Squid
Hood & Odin
Donatello & Anmut
Skillet & Catavee
Spock & Lyric
Astro & Minty
Truffle & Spotlight
Gem, Latte, & Goat (not pictured)
To learn more about each of these amazing GAC staffers, check out MEET OUR STAFF.
Session 2 Video Highlights & Slideshow
We have so many great memories from Session 2. Here are a few highlights as recorded by our awesome media team (AKA the “GACarazzi”):
Grit is Grown Outside the Comfort Zone
Listen to Sunshine Parenting Ep. 85: Grit is Grown Outside the Comfort Zone:
Episode 85 of the Sunshine Parenting Podcast, was recorded live at Pegasus School in Huntington Beach as part of their PEGtalks Parent Education Series. I’m with my frequent guest, Sara Kuljis, the owner and director of Yosemite Sierra Summer Camp and Emerald Cove Day Camp. We talk about my book, Happy Campers and discuss Camp Secret #5, Grit Is Grown Outside the Comfort Zone.
Read more in 5 Ways Camp Grows Grit.
BIG IDEAS
- Kids tend to be more courageous and try more things when their parents are not around.
- It’s important for parents to learn how to help their kids to become resilient human beings and take risks even when they’re near us.
- It’s really important for kids to grow their grit-muscle.
- Parents need to fight the tendency to overprotect their kids because too much protection makes kids fragile.
- When parents jump in to rescue their kids it doesn’t usually work out too well.
- Kids need to see their parents as real, authentic people. This reassures them.
QUOTES
Sara: “This book is just packed full with so many awesome parenting tools drawn from the camp environment.”
Audrey: “I found myself talking to camp parents a lot more about things that were going on with their kids at home, about things that we do at camp that they could try to make their kids feel better and happier at home.”
Audrey: “I also found that a lot of the training we did with our counselors, about just basic positive behavior management techniques, friendship skills, was really applicable to parents.”
Audrey: “We believe in summer camp for kids, but even more so, I believe in the great experience it is for camp counselors. The experiences of having to lead a group, manage kids, learn how to speak and lead positively, learn how to manage conflicts, clean up throw up–these are skills that are really beneficial when you do become a parent at some point later in life.”
Audrey: “Kids tend to be more courageous and try more new things when parents aren’t sitting right there. We are really fortunate to see a ton of growth in this area at camp because we get to have these kids in this environment where they are suddenly feeling like, ‘OK maybe I can try this’.”
Audrey: “We must learn how to help them become resilient human beings, even when they’re near us. We’re seeing a lot of the results of kids who aren’t growing that kind of resilience. It comes out when they’re teenagers or young adults as serious mental health issues because they don’t feel that they have the capacity to bounce back from the normal setbacks and problems of life.”
Sara: “Think of grit as a muscle. You don’t start lifting 400 lbs at the gym; you start small. Little by little, you bump up that weight on the bench press. It’s fun to think of ways that even our little humans can start to grow their grit muscles. When, in time, you’re sending that big human off to college, hopefully, they have grown some good muscle. That freshmen year isn’t so overwhelming because they have practiced folding their clothes and doing their laundry. They have gone to talk to their teacher and can advocate for themselves. They have had to suffer through a disappointing grade. They can make new friends and say ‘I’m sorry’ to a friend. All those little grit-muscle growth opportunities are essential.”
Audrey: “I first heard the term ‘grit’ in Paul Tough’s How Children Succeed. In their research, the trait that they found that was most predictive of successfully completing college was grit or resilience. It’s a really important trait in all areas of life.”
Audrey: “As a parent, it’s our natural inclination to want to protect (our children) their whole life. If we keep protecting them too long and too much, we end up making them fragile. You have to be blown around and have some hardships to get strong. If you keep your child too protected from any kind of physical, emotional, or social pain for too long they can be blown over by little things.”
Audrey: “Think about what you used to do at different ages. That should really give you the confidence to know that your kids can probably be doing more than what you think they can right now.”
Sara: “When your kids are small you’re a caretaker. But then you transition into being their coach. And ultimately, you transition into being their consultant.”
Audrey: “It’s very tempting when something goes wrong to want to fight our kids’ battles. Instead, turn it around so they’re not a victim. Explain that it’s not all about them but it’s the other person’s bad behavior. Tell your kids, ‘I know you can handle this’ because–as we all know–when mom or dad does step in or talks to the teacher, it doesn’t usually work out very well.”
Audrey: “It’s never as clear as it looks. We all have our moments and all of our kids have the capacity when their feelings are hurt, or when they feel left out, to say something or do something that’s not kind.”
Audrey: “We can do so much for our kids, and build their social resilience and grit, by letting them know that it is normal to have people do rude things. It happens every day in life. If your kids are really young, you can empower them and give them the confidence that they have strategies to deal with it. That’s the kind of resilience you want your kids to have.”
Sara: “We often ask, ‘What do you think is the other side of the story?’ Just building that bit of empathy for the other side is so helpful. When we don’t crumble when our kids go through hard things and when we don’t panic and rush to rescue them, it teaches our kids that they can handle it too. They see us modeling our confidence and peace, trust in each other and in good decisions. Borrowing courage until you have your own is a pretty groovy tool to have. Sometimes as parents we have to reach out to friends and peers and borrow courage, as well. We are all human and need to help each other raise our kids.”
Audrey: “Remember stories from childhood and share them with your kids, especially the struggles you experienced. They need to see us as authentic, real people who had these same kinds of things happen to us because it’s really reassuring to them.”
Audrey: “You grow grit from trying new things. There’s this model to teaching: first you do it for them, then, second, you do it with them. Then, you’re watching them and helping them do it, and then, finally, they’re doing it independently. You can think about that with anything from driving, to social stuff, to new sports that you’re teaching, riding a bike. That is how you help them to learn new things with your support.”
Audrey: “At camp we have to make everything fun, even putting sunscreen on. We’ve mastered the art of making mundane things fun. When you make mundane things fun at home, that just creates a really fun culture.”
Audrey: “Setting goals is a great grit-building idea. It’s something you can do as a family. You can all set a goal of something you want to try. Model for your child that you’re setting a goal and working towards it. My kids have learned much more from watching me do things than from me telling them to do something.”
Audrey: “I like the idea of a courage box where each person tries something they’re afraid of, or something new–it can be anything–but each person sets a goal to overcome that fear, of pushing their comfort zone. The idea is celebrating courage with your kids.”
Sara: “Take the heat out of having to be an expert the first time you try something. We don’t try a new sport to be on varsity or to be the best. Sometimes we try it because it’s fun, or we’re curious or just to try something new. We need to take away the pressure to excel that is so prevalent in our culture. It keeps kids from trying things. It is not about being excellent; It’s about going out and trying.”
Audrey: “Leadership, parenting, it’s all the same.”
Whadda Week! July 25, 2021
Our Session 3 JCs (Junior Counselors) host this week’s episode of Whadda Week!
Get to know them and hear their goals for Session 3.
Links:
Subscribe to Gold Arrow Camp’s Whadda Day Podcast.
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Why is Kindness Important?
Listen to Sunshine Parenting Episode 165: Cultivating Kindness
Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.
Marian Wright Edelman
Being a considerate, kind person who thinks about others is a character trait that helps children form good relationships and leads to a happier and more successful life as an adult.
What does this mean for super competitive parents who want their children to succeed at all costs, even if it means cheating and being mean to others? It could be helpful for parents to know that research has clearly shown that kind people are happier people, and happier people, in turn, are more successful in life. In jobs and in future relationships, kindness will take our children “further in life than any college degree.”
Focusing on kindness needs to be a higher priority for everyone who cares about children.
In our cut-throat, competitive culture, where assertiveness and achievement are glorified and valued, focusing on developing kindness is often overlooked.
There are anti-bullying posters and speakers at most schools, but where is the message about the powerfully positive impact of kindness?
Parents and youth development professionals, including teachers, coaches, and camp staff, know that wording things positively and telling kids what we DO want them to do is far more effective than a list of “don’ts” and “nos.” So, why hasn’t this message translated into how we teach children to treat one another?
We’re talking with children a lot about not bullying each other, but we’re not talking with them enough about what we want them to be doing instead — which is, of course, to treat each other with respect and kindness. I propose that as parents and youth development professionals we flip the “anti-bullying” message into a “pro-kindness” one.
Ways to model and practice kindness
- Get kids to focus on kindnesses that they have seen by asking them to point out kind acts they have witnessed or done.
- Brainstorm with kids kind things they can do for others and help them follow through. Focus on small, easy kindnesses rather than huge things.
- Talk with kids about how they feel after someone has done something kind for them or after they’ve done something kind for another person.
- Questions to Ask Kids to Spur Conversations about Kindness:
• Share something kind they’ve seen someone else do this past week.
• What’s the kindest thing someone has ever done for you?
• What are kind things we can do for our friends? Siblings? Parents? People we don’t know?
• How do you want to be remembered by your classmates and friends?
“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”
— John Wooden
This topic is so important to Gold Arrow Camp and to Sunshine that she dedicated an entire chapter of her book, Happy Campers, to it: Camp Secret #8: Make it Cool to be Kind. Each chapter of Happy Campers ends with five different “Bringing Camp Home” activities to consider trying in your family.
More Kindness Ideas & Resources
Read (or listen to) Wonder by R.J. Palacio
One of GAC counselors’ favorite read-aloud books is R.J. Palacio’s Wonder. Consider reading (or listening – Audible version is free right now if you sign up for a free Audible trial) to Wonder individually or as a family read-aloud. Get some popcorn and have a family movie night to watch the movie version after you finish reading.
Do you like Pinterest? Check out Sunshine’s Kindness board.
Being Kind Makes Kids Happy, Greater Good Science Center
The Power of Kindness, American Camp Association
Happiness Tip: Commit to Kindness (Christine Carter, Raising Happiness)