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Cute Little Camp Girls
• Summer Camp • Jeff Carter

Camp is a Refuge

Cute Little Camp Girls

We hear this a lot, actually: that camp is a refuge.  It’s a place where girls can escape the busy, sometimes overwhelming pace of their regular lives.  For many young kids, each day is a bombardment of stimuli, new information and entertainment.  There are school responsibilities, social demands, and activities at home all demanding attention.  Increasingly, parents have noticed that the intensity of their children’s lives is making them more anxious, fearful, and worried.  There’s so much going on, it’s difficult for kids to really connect with the people (family and friends) around them, adding even more to the burden of handling everything on their own.  Everything around them seems to be shouting, and sometimes it’s just too much!

Thank goodness for camp.  It really can be a refuge, a huge relief from all of this.  Simply being outside, unplugged from rapid-fire electronic stimulation, is a powerful antidote.  Having daily opportunities to engage creative talents, physical challenges, and deep social/personal relationships is so welcome, kids just blossom in a camp setting.  It’s the greatest gift to simply have time to relax, to play in the creek, dress a little silly, or chat with a friend in the porch rocking chairs. The environment of a kids camp is a powerful healthy response to the extreme busyness of ordinary life. It always has been, and these days, it seems like it’s needed more than ever.

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Summer Camp Staff
• Summer Camp • rbc

Bend It Back

Helping the Girl at Camp

There are people in my life who I admire, who I emulate, because they, without hope for award or acknowledgment, joyfully and selflessly give all that they can in service to others. Many of these people are campers and counselors at Rockbrook Camp.

Rockbrook campers are often recognized for their good deeds by being awarded colorful, way-cool Bend-It-Back bracelets. And I mean that. They truly are way-cool. A mark of pride and contribution to the community.

I watch my co-workers exemplify selfless generosity every day as they put campers first, and I watch campers recognize this generosity and give forth to others on their own as well. From volunteering to do the dishes to making a card for a friend who doesn’t feel well, RBC folks are about helping out.

To give selflessly – to put others before oneself – is a daunting task. But once the joy that is the product of such giving is recognized, it becomes the lifeblood of one’s daily action; it is the lifeblood of this place. This is a joyous place that depends upon gracious giving and gratitude. May the bracelets be a reminder of this joy and the camp that thrives in it.

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Camps for Girls Only
• Girls Camps • rbc

Summer Camps for Girls Only

Camps for Girls Only

Another great quote from a Rockbrook alumna:

My favorite thing is returning year after year and spotting a friend from the previous year and knowing that even though you didn’t see each other since last summer… you instantly had a best friend for the next couple of weeks.

Yep, making these kinds of friends is probably the coolest part of coming to camp.

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Summer Girls Camp
• Summer Camp • rbc

Camp Builds Independence for Kids

Summer Girls Camp

We’ve often said that attending a kids summer camp like Rockbrook helps children become more self-sufficient and independent. But how does it work? What is it about being at camp that makes this kind of growth possible?

One secret is that camp provides a structured environment where we give children the chance to make their own choices and decisions. At Rockbrook, the girls choose their own activity schedule, rotating to new choices twice a week. There are these structured activity times and plenty of open times throughout the day, thus providing both adult supervision and limits within which the girls feel free to decide what to do. Altogether, camp is a place where kids find success (not to mention tons of fun!), through their own efforts, making choices.

It’s no wonder so many people think of their camp experiences as the most important thing they did as a child.

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Girls Camps Sleep Away Program
• Girls Camps • rbc

Girls Sleep Away Camps

Girls Camps Sleep Away Program

We’re back from the American Camp Association national conference in Austin, Texas where we enjoyed hearing Dr. David Elkind talk about the power of play (free and unstructured play) in children’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive development. He was invited to address the conference of sleep away camps because he understands traditional summer camps as excellent contexts where this kind of play is encouraged. Dr. Elkind explains in his new book entitled, The Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative Activities Lead to Happier and Healthier Children.

Here’s a quote that jumped out at me. He writes,

Not only does summer camp provide children relief from the pressures to achieve, it reacquaints children with the natural world, with the importance of friendship, cooperation, and the fragility of the environment in which we live.

The book, of course, goes into lots more detail and provides specific advice about how to encourage this kind of beneficial play, but here are a couple of the main points.

  • Cut TV time to allow for playtime.
  • Get children together so they can initiate play.
  • Avoid providing too many toys too often.
  • Keep free time on the schedule.
  • Spend time outside.

There is much to say about each of these, but it’s neat to see how summer camp, and particularly a sleep away camp like Rockbrook, can really encourage them.  Camp is just one of those places where kids can be kids.

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tetherball game
• Summer Camp • rbc

A Place to Grow

A place for girls to grow

In her book, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, Wendy Mogel critiques what she sees as a troubling trend in parenting these days— an excessive tendency to shield children from any kind of discomfort.

“Parents are so busy protecting their children that they don’t give them a chance to learn how to maneuver on their own outside home or school.”

Spending time at summer camp serves as a welcome counter force to this trend. As they choose their own activities, sleep in rustic cabins, live with and make new friends, young people at camp are given a great opportunity to grow. Far beyond what parents might orchestrate at home, camp encourages kids to become more independent, to try new things, and to learn from the experience.

It’s a lot of things (like a really fun time!), but perhaps most fundamentally, camp is a setting for exploring who we really are.  Stepping out of our normal routines, we can try new things, endure discomforts and setbacks (try again), and marvel at unexpected accomplishments.

Seen this video? It’s more about how camp is a place for girls to grow.

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