Camp Arowhon
Parenting
The Home Curriculum
I did well in school. My kids did well in school. They went to good schools and so did I. But none of us found meaning in school. It was a means to an end. Get good grades so you can get into a good university. School presented the challenge of doing the least possible […]
ContinueWhy 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 […]
ContinueGetting Parents Ready for Camp
Parenting news these days is about how to get your kids ready for camp, how to know if they’re ready, and what to pack. You know that already. But how about getting parents ready for camp? We all understand that sending a child to camp is a huge developmental challenge for them. Leaving home for […]
ContinueA camper parent in New York who worries about the excesses of some summer camps sent us this
Click HERE to read about how crazy camps can become on Visiting Day
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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 […]
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How do we help our daughters have healthy body image?
How do we teach our daughters to love their bodies? Why must we? Because they are bombarded with imagery, from social media, movies and TV. The pictures tell them that the only woman worth paying attention to has big (store-bought?) breasts and a tiny waist. The pictures tell them that their own perfectly normal body […]
ContinueTo Live with Fear… or not
I was in New York last week, and while talking to a 10-year-old girl and her mother, the mom told me that her daughter had a nightmare the night before, that the UN building got blown up by terrorists. This is what 10-year-olds are thinking about. Is it only 10-year-olds in New York? Not a […]
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 […]
ContinueParenting Through the Digital Communication Crisis
Every since Ontario rolled out its new Sex Ed curriculum, there’s been a sense in the public eye that parents can have one of two responses to their kids’ curriculum: Agree with it or protest. Both after the fact once a curriculum is released. Silence or disagreement. This is a very passive response when you […]
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