Know Your Role
What is the job of the summer camp for the 10 months that camp is not in session? As a camp director I think of myself as an extension of the family doing my part to help raise a strong, active, vibrant, socially aware and confident kid. Because of this view I know my work does not end the last day of my summer camp session. I can’t spend the next 9 or 10 months just waiting for next summers campers to arrive.
So what should I be doing? I think a great job for camp staff is to be a resource of ideas to parents. Parenting is tough and so often parents either don’t know what to do or they are hearing from so many different voices that they don’t know what is the right thing to do. Be sure they hear from a trusted source, someone who already knows their child and who is an expert in creating fun opportunities for children(that would be you).
I have a great imagination and as I look back on my childhood that is one thing that has stayed pretty consistent over the course of my life. I lived in a dream world inside and outside my house. I was always creating adventure wherever I went, and luckily I had a dad and mom who encouraged this behavior. I think my adventurous spirit came from my dad who grew up very poor and so therefore had to create anything he wanted himself. His stories inspired me to build treehouses, carve swords from tree branches, explore the wooded (now a subdivision) area near our house, sleep under the stars (in my backyard) and dam up the gutter system after a rain storm to create raging rapids for my home made boats.
I think many parents today either didn’t have the experiences I had growing up, have forgotten how simply adventure is made to a child, are scared that children left to their own will get hurt or if not doing something structured they will not do well on End of Grade (EOG) testing and therefore not be successful later in life.
Give the parents of your campers ideas. Let them know the value of unstructured play. There are great resources out there on the web and great books with hundreds of ideas, but most importantly remind them to let their kids be kids. Children are not just shorter adults. Remind the parents to let the kids get dirty, get scratched, get a bee sting, fall down, laugh, cry and most importantly play!
