Camp Arowhon

Parenting

April 18, 2023

8 Ways to Prepare your First Time Camper for a Successful Summer

Figure Out What Your Child Needs to Know Some parents think it will make their kids feel better to know everything possible about what camp will be like. And while knowing a bit goes a long way, too much info can be detrimental. If your kid has pictures of their cabin, knows everyone who’s going […]

Continue
September 29, 2022

(Lack of) Updates from Camp

6 years ago, I posted THIS blog about an article that Joanne wrote in The Globe and Mail explaining why Arowhon chooses not to post pictures of kids during the summer. Today, after a week of reading post-camp parent surveys, it rings just as true.  Being a new daycare mom I have a newfound appreciation […]

Continue
June 6, 2022

Do our graduating high schoolers need a victory lap?

Remember the old joke about the guy who finishes last in his med school class. What do people call him? Doctor! Tell that one to your Grade 11 or 12 child. Cause they weren’t listening a  few weeks ago when Steven Del Duca (who??) suggested that because high school students have suffered so many academic […]

Continue
May 2, 2022

Freelance COVID parenting spring 2022

It’s so wonderful to know for sure – and finally – that old women get ignored. By pretty much everybody. I like knowing for two reasons: One, I’m not paranoid, it’s real. Two, you hear interesting things when you’re being ignored. I was sauntering through the Village the other day and decided on a bagel […]

Continue
January 6, 2021

“I Don’t Like it!” (And Why We Do it Anyways)

Assistant Director Mara co-hosted a podcast on rules we have at camp that kids don’t like (and how and why we enforce them). Check it out HERE and let us know if there are any rules or policies we have that YOU don’t like and we’ll explain to you why we have them.

Continue
January 4, 2021

COVID Rules Were Made to Be….. 

“What you gonna do, report on me to the government?” Do we have a snitch line? If we had one, I’d be tempted. Why? Because the family politics of the COVID precautions are making the parenting of adolescents look like a walk in the park. A tea party with the queen at Buckingham Palace. A […]

Continue
October 8, 2020

Parenting a la Francaise

Looking for silver linings in the summer of COVID, I found the French style of parenting. I had read about it (Bringing Up Bebe etc.) and been unimpressed. I had experienced it when, years ago, we decamped with our then six-week-old daughter to the south of France for a year. We got a French doctor. […]

Continue
September 9, 2020

Friendship in the time of COVID

I felt lonely all summer. Sure I missed the camp kids, and yes, I found joy in my beloved family, my fabulous spouse, and the delightful new grandchild. Not to mention nature, the lake, yoga, blah blah blah. But I didn’t see my friends. Like most folks I know, my pod is my family. When […]

Continue
August 4, 2020

Parenting in the time of COVID

Parenting in the time of COVID reminds me of every time anybody ever told me: “You should do….” with my kids. It was always going to be more work, more trouble, more tiring – and  it made me feel guilty. Because there’s always more and better that a parent can do. And that was before […]

Continue
May 15, 2020

‘This Arowhon Life’ Episode 5 – Avoiding ‘Bridgies’ and Other Teaching Tips

Welcome to episode 5 of “This Arowhon Life”, Camp Arowhon’s weekly podcast that helps us feel connected, inspired, and supported by our beautiful wilderness home. I’m your host, and Camp Arowhon Tripping Director, Andre Amiro. In this episode, we’re talking about teaching, and the many challenges we, as parents, can face while trying to teach […]

Continue
×