Camp Arowhon
Outdoor Education
Why outdoor discomfort is good for growth
The Globe and Mail Metro (Ontario Edition) 17 Jul 2017 MATT MOSTELLER PETER POWER/THE GLOBE AND MAILPeople stand to learn so much from challenging themselves in the outdoors. These experiences make us stronger and increase confidence, with myriad benefits to be gained in other facets of life. Six lessons gleaned from spending time out of […]
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Sun, Glorious Sun!
The weather gods finally decided to smile upon us today and everyone’s spirits soared as the clouds parted and the sun showed it’s face for the first time in days. Things are winding up after our second day of programming, which included the first day of our new Film program, dance battles around camp, shrinky […]
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The Mission of Camp
Our management team arrived at camp this week and hit the ground running to get camp ready for another amazing summer. We spent all day yesterday with a professional facilitator doing team building and goal setting exercises. Here’s what our amazing Head Counsellors came up with as their summer mission: “We want to provide all the […]
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Please don’t put that child in my child’s cabin…
Now is the time of year when camp directors most often receive calls from parents about their child’s cabin placement. The days lengthen, the mercury climbs, thoughts turn to summer and anxiety ramps up. This is about cabin placement, but let me digress briefly and talk about anxiety. They’re connected. You’ll see. Every year in […]
ContinueCamp Kids and Success
Parents want kids to be successful in life. Some of us indulge, sometimes, in the little white lie that says we just want them to be happy. Sure, and I resemble Angelina Jolie. We want our kids to be successful because we want them to have good lives, not hard lives. We want them to […]
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Why Camp?
Over the years we’ve shared dozens of articles with our community espousing the value of summer camp for kids, staff, and even sometimes parents. We’re thrilled that so much research is being done proving what we already knew, but we’re probably starting to sound like a broken record (and preaching to the choir) when we […]
Continue15 years at Arowhon, by Jonathan Newman, Program Director
Two nights ago, at the first campfire of 2016, where the entire camp gathered to sing songs and listen to each other perform songs and skits both soulful and funny, Jonathan Newman was honoured with the gift of a half an Arowhon canoe made into a bookshelf. He made a speech about his 15 years […]
ContinueCamp is my happy place
I was driving down the camp road on Sunday, en route to camp for the summer. For most of my 66 years I’ve driven down this same road, and every time I do it, the feelings are the same: Exultation! Big word, big feelings. I am a round peg in a round hole. When people […]
ContinueWhy young adults should be camp counsellors
My oldest and dearest friend was my counselor at camp when I was 14. And not an easy 14. I was deep in the slough of my parents’ acrimonious divorce. Our cabin was not easy, we liked to rebel, and we didn’t make anything easy on her. This young woman, who didn’t ask to work […]
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Why Overnight Camp?
We hear more and more about the pressure on kids (and accordingly parents) to get a head start on university and career-building activities instead of good old fashioned outdoor play. Although there is actually a lot of compelling evidence coming out that camp in fact DOES provide kids with the skills they’ll need to survive […]
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