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10 Parenting Tips from Camp Counselors

10 Parenting Tips from Camp Counselors

At one time in their lives, many of the parents I know were camp counselors. Those same people have told me that their time spent as counselors was great training ground for parenting. Among other things, they learned to comfort, encourage, set goals, and resolve disputes — all things we experience daily in our lives as moms and dads.
However, not every parent has had the benefit of camp counselor training. In fact, most parents have had NO training at all. Perhaps they took a Lamaze class or two, but we all know that having the kid is not the hardest part! I’ve often lamented that all parents should be required to go through some training, at least the same training camp counselors do (a minimum of one week at most camps). Unfortunately, that is not the case, nor is it realistic. So the best we can do for those who were never camp counselors is offer a few tried and true tips from a few outstanding folks who were: 1. Practice catching kids doing the right thing. 2. Check in with each child one-on-one every day. 3. Establish fun daily traditions: share highs & lows at dinner or bedtime, do riddles, read a book out loud, play games together, collect family memories. 4. Sing and dance together ... Read more

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Random Acts of Kindness

Random Acts of Kindness

The work to create a kinder world never ends. There is no limit on the amount of goodness we can put into the world, but we need your help! We invite you to join the annual Random Acts of Kindness Day (RAK DAY) celebration on Friday, February 17, 2023 and help #MakeKindnesstheNorm. Random Acts of Kindness Day is Friday, February 17, 2023! Random Acts of Kindness Week is February 12-18, 2023! Click here for more ways to get inspired and for more information about the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation!

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National Day of Unplugging

National Day of Unplugging

We invite all of our friends and family to join Gold Arrow Camp in participating in the National Day of Unplugging from sundown on March 3 to sundown on March 4. This time of being unplugged is a movement to encourage people to get a "24-hour respite from technology." If you have experienced a summer at GAC then you know the importance of unplugging and connecting face-to-face, which is why we don't allow cell phones at camp. The National Day of Unplugging encourages people to use 24 hours free from technology to connect with "ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities." Wow. That sounds an awful lot like camp! We love the idea of unplugging (just for a little bit) at home so that we can reforge the kind of connections there that we forge at camp, where we're totally free from the burden of technology. You can join us in celebrating by pledging to #unplug on social media, sharing this news story, or even planning an unplugged event with your family! You could have an old-fashioned dinner party, spend that Saturday working on puzzles or playing board games. If you need more ideas, check out the NDU 2023 Ideas List and sign up to become a FREE member! If you have plans to unplug, please tag us in those on your social media. We'd love to share your plans (and what you did, after the fact, of course) on our social media!

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2023 Theme: Count on Me!

2023 Theme: Count on Me!

https://youtu.be/2eDNVD26ZNw This year's summer theme, chosen to help guide campers to be trustworthy and dependable friends, cabin mates, and family members, is "Count on Me." Our first summer theme was in 2012 when we chose the theme of gratitude. We followed that theme with kindness (Cool 2B Kind), relationship building (Creating Connections), helpfulness (Give a Hand), grit (Growing Grit), positivity (The Energy Bus), a focus on friendship (Find-a-Friend), building up others (Filling Buckets), being our best selves (Be You ), appreciating our community (Better Together), and Choosing Kindness (2022). An important character trait of a good friend is being reliable, dependable, and trustworthy. We know that it's important that our campers develop these traits. This year at Gold Arrow Camp, we will be learning how to be people our friends can count on. We're thrilled to make our GAC community stronger by helping campers understand the importance of being a person their cabin mates, friends, and family can count on. There are many opportunities at camp to be dependable and reliable. "Counting on Me" means using our words and actions to show others they can count on us: