Camp Arowhon
Parenting

Why tell camp the hard stuff about your child?
As a mother, I always shrunk from telling people what’s challenging or difficult about my children. Even now that they’re young adults, I desperately want everyone to see them as positively as I do. That’s normal for parents. Which can make filling out the camp forms tough. Do you REALLY have to tell camp about […]
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The magic of listening
I had a meeting with this kid the other day. I say kid because he’s 17 and he goes to high school. But out of this kid’s mouth came wisdom that I wish to hear from grownups. We were meeting because I interview all our returning staff every winter, to celebrate their successes and agree […]
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Keeping teens safe on-line
There’s a lot of talk about how vulnerable teens are on-line, and as parents we tend to respond to our worries about that as per usual, with a lecture about the perils of the internet. But, also as per usual, the lectures are pretty much guaranteed to be ineffectual. This is for two reasons: One, […]
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Really interesting piece on the effects of “cotton-wooling” (i.e. over-protecting) children: School Ditches Rules and Loses Bullies
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How can parents grow resourceful children? The role of failure is….
Sometimes kids allow their fear of failure to prevent them from taking on challenges… Some wise words on helping kids get through/past their fear of failure are here
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Milk, Cookies, and The Beauty Myth
Don’t just blame the media for the objectification of young girls. Some great advice from a mom on how each and every one of us can make a difference: Dear Santa…
ContinueCamp is a place where girls find their strength
Rachel Simmons, author of The Curse of the Good Girl and co-founder of Girls Leadership Institute, gave an interview to Camping Magazine about the opportunity for camps to grow girls’ leadership, self-confidence and voice. CLICK HERE for the interview.
ContinueReflections on Cabin Dis-Requests
This morning before we left for work, Leon and I rubbed each other the wrong way as follows: 1) He left the fridge open while doing something else. That always drives me crazy. 2) I passed him a Tupperware to pack our soup for lunch. He said it was too small. I said it wasn’t. 3) We […]
ContinueBullying Awareness Week is November 18 – 24
Members of the Arowhon family know about our camp commitment to stop bullying. We know from experience that the vast majority of bullying incidents are caused by problems kids are having in their relationships – so our commitment at Arowhon is first to know what’s going on in kids’ relationships and second to give them the help […]
ContinueBuilding a Giving Child
I cut my foot rather badly one day this fall. It was a stupid clumsy stumble -whilst carrying a large and heavy vase. The result was a lot of blood, and the partial severing of my big toe nail. It happened, by coincidence, while both my kids (ages 24 and 28) were nearby. The male […]
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