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January 20, 2009December 29, 2020 • Summer Camp • Jeff Carter

Top 5 Summer Summer Camp Directories

When searching for summer camps, it’s always good to look at several to compare them and learn about which might best fit your child. You can spend a lot of time searching the Internet and reading different camps’ individual websites, but you can also visit one of the many summer camp directories out there. These are special sites designed to help sift through all the options. You can narrow the complete list of camps by region, by activity specialty, by gender, by type (sleepaway vs. day, e.g.), even by religion. As you enter your preferences, you’ll be presented with a more manageable list of camps to research in more detail, for example by requesting their catalogs and promotional DVDs.

Summer Camp Directories

Ah, but there are lots of summer camp directories out there too! So here are what we consider the top 5 camp directories to visit. Each is organized a little differently and will therefore yield somewhat different search results. Looking for a residential girls camp in the southeast? In addition to Rockbrook, each of these directories will reveal a range of options. After spending some time on these sites, you’ll have an excellent idea about which summer camp will be right for your child.

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December 15, 2008June 1, 2020 • Rock Climbing • rbc

Rockbrook Camp’s Ropes Course

Youth girls climbing adventure ropes course

“Does Rockbrook have a ropes course?”

Yes, we have an Alpine Tower. This is a special challenge course camp structure that combines both low ropes course elements and really cool high ropes course events. If you haven’t seen one of these, they are amazing. From this photo you can see a little that they are made of huge telephone poles bolted and lashed together in the shape of two inverted pyramids. This allows the youth girls to climb up three different sides, swing on ropes, balance on logs, scramble up cargo nets, and pull up on all sorts of climbing holds. There’s the “corporate ladder,” the “missing link,” the “swinging logs,” and the “bump out” to name just a few of the ropes course climbing elements on the Tower. You can imagine how popular climbing is at camp, and with all these different ways to climb, girls can come back all the time and have something new to try.

P.S. Did you know Rockbrook’s Alpine Tower is unique among youth camps because it is the only one with a roof?!

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September 12, 2008May 29, 2020 • Campers • rbc

Letters Home from Camp

Here’s an interesting article that caught our eye over at the Christian Science Monitor, “Mom to Dad: ‘Think Jimmy’s Doing O.K. at Camp?'” It’s a short piece written by Dave Horn about his time as an overnight camp counselor in the 60s. While parents today have online photo galleries and blogs to see how their children are doing at camp, he notes just a few years ago there were only letters. Parents had to mostly wonder and wait to find out about their camper’s camp experience.

But what if the campers didn’t write home much? After all, they’re having too much fun to stop and write a letter. Camps helped by asking the camper’s counselors to write quick notes to parents, reassuring them that all is well at camp (a tradition Rockbrook still follows). To help his young campers even more, Dave Horn turned this letter writing into a game. He had each camper take turns playing the “boss” and dictating a letter home. The camper would sit down and recite what he wanted to tell his parents and Dave would type it out on his portable typewriter. In this case, 1960s technology helping kids communicate from overnight camp.

I wonder if he mentioned hula hooping in your bathrobe? 🙂

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March 24, 2008May 28, 2020 • Arts • rbc

Tie Dyes are Always in Fashion!

One craft at summer camps like Rockbrook that’s always popular is making a tie dye t-shirt. It’s certainly a classic thing to do, and while you might think of swirls and colors on shirts from the 1970s, tying and dyeing cloth is common all over the world. For example, there is adire tie dyeing in Nigeria (Africa), shibori dyeing in Japan, and mudmee dyeing in Thailand, just to name a few.

In the Rockbrook craft activity called “Hodge Podge,” the girls use rubber bands to tie up the cloth. Folding, twisting, bunching, pinching, and wrinkling the material you make all sorts of different patterns. Then with the rubber bands, you keep everything tight. The tighter the fold, the more resistant to the dye that part will be. That’s part of the creativity involved— deciding what to make tight (resisting the dye) and what to leave loose (taking on the color of the dye). Plus, there’s the fun of picking what colors to use, and in what areas. With so much variation, it’s neat to see how each shirt turns out different.

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February 29, 2008March 18, 2024 • Arts • rbc

Knitting Camp Girls

knitting camp girl wearing a hat she made

“Like your hat Maddie.”

Knitting! It’s just one of the fiber arts needlecraft activities available at Rockbrook each and every camp session.

With so many arts and crafts opportunities, you get to make some pretty cool stuff when you come to camp… like this hat for instance. Maddie knitted it when she first got to camp last summer, and from then on was rarely seen without it. A camp arts project that she used every single day!

It’s true; knitting has become an increasingly popular activity at camp. The Rockbrook girls are learning that it isn’t all that difficult (once you master the basic stitches!) to knit, is really a lot of fun, and is so satisfying when you see what you’ve made. Some girls describe the feeling of it, the process of twisting, looping and tying yarn in patterns of knots, to be relaxing, even meditative.

It’s the kind of thing that can become addicting. As soon as you finish one project, it’s easy and exciting to imagine and start another. In the long run knitting can then continue after camp at Home. It can become a life-long hobby!

P.S. That’s Looking Glass Falls in the background.

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January 18, 2008May 24, 2020 • Summer Camp • Jessi Nixon

A Crazy Camp of Grannies

A bathrobe
A wig
A couple of hair curlers
Lots of powder for all over
Glasses, preferably small ones on the end of your nose
Pillows or other stuffing for certain areas 😉
A walking cane
Loose, baggy nylon stockings
Big puffy slippers
Really red, and a little messy, lipstick
A scratchy or frail sounding voice

“Put them altogether, and you’ve got a Rockbrook…” Well, a granny of course! And not just one, but a couple of hundred! It’s one of our favorite special evening programs at camp— to get dressed up like old ladies and play bingo. “Granny Bingo.” The thrill of the game, the awesome prizes, the costumes, and all the laughing. Sure it’s silly, it’s crazy, it’s goofy, but it’s also excellent fun.

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November 16, 2007May 25, 2020 • Gymnastics • rbc

Girls Gymnastics Camps

The gymnastics camp activity at Rockbrook is designed for girls who want to explore gymnastics as a sport for recreation and personal growth. It is one activity offered as part of our overall traditional summer camp program and is not really for girls who want to train for gymnastics competitions.

Instead we focus on offering instruction in fundamental gymnastic skills and techniques, activities that will be both fun and helpful no matter what your gymnastics background. Our instructors teach children’s gymnastics classes throughout the school year, so they are well prepared to design different lessons for the different age groups and ability levels. Ready… flip!

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November 5, 2007July 30, 2020 • Children • rbc

Kindergarten Camp

Rockbrook is a camp for kindergarten children too. How old are the youngest children that attend Rockbrook? That question does come up now and then, and at times the answer is surprising. If a girl has completed kindergraten, she can come to camp, assuming of course both she and her parents are ready for camp. An outgoing and social personality, an excitement for trying new activities, a growing sense of independence and self-conifidence are all helpful qualities. And with encouragment from their parents, there are always a few kindergarteners in our camp sessions. This is why the youngest campers, who we call “juniors,” can be six or even five years old. Rockbrook has a long tradition of camp activities and programs specially suited for children this young.

The stone building in the photo is the Junior Lodge, our assembly building for special Junior Line programs.

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September 28, 2007May 11, 2020 • Summer Camp • rbc

Camps in the South

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been making our fall travel plans, scheduling Rockbrook Camp parties all over the south. Several are set on the calendar. Chances are we’re coming to your city or some place close by, so check out the schedule here: Camp Party Schedule. If you haven’t come to one of these parties before, they’re great fun. We watch a movie and see some slides from last summer, see each other again 🙂 and meet loads of new people interested in camp for next summer. We’ll be going to more places in the winter also, so stay tuned!

Every year Rockbrook girls all across the the south get re-energized about attending camp. These parties spark that energy in the fall and early spring, so that when summer approaches, everyone is bursting with excitement.

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May 11, 2007March 5, 2020 • Girls Camps • rbc

Girls Camps Games

Most Sunday afternoons at camp, we have an all-camp activity, a game or event where all of the age groups get together and play. Here’s an example where we split everyone up into three different teams (pink, blue and green!) and had different relay races… egg and spoon, leap frog, fill the cup, three-legged race, dizzy lizzy, balloon-knees, and so many more.

These are all great games that require some individual skill and a touch of physical coordination, but also plenty of cooperation and shared effort among each team’s members. The best games for girls always require both.

In the end, we might keep score (though that’s often optional) and one team might “win,” but everyone has a fun time playing.

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