Camp RiverBlog

Camp is going to open in two days and it feels like we are standing on the high diving board.  We’ve prepared and prepared, hired and trained staff, ordered supplies and cleaned and fixed the camp site.  Campers and their families have come to meet us and are fully equipped with their camp t-shirts, lunch bags and even nametags for their first day.  In two days, all our preparation will be put to the test.  And we say, bring it on!

At camp, one of our goals is to help kids feel more connected to the natural world, so it’s our responsibility to help protect that natural world.

We’re embarking on an effort to use less paper throughout the camp year. We now send out our regular newsletter to camp families by email. We now have all the material we send to families available digitally. And starting in September, we are planning to send most communications to parents by email, unless they request a paper copy.

Here’s what we can send you online now:
1. Our current brochure
2. Our registration card (or campers can be registered online, using even less paper)
3. Our 2009 Parent Handbook
4. Medical forms for in-camp and travel campers
5. Information about labeling systems for camper clothes.
6. Your family’s current or past tuition statements
7. Travel group information, including this year’s calendar of trips, and photo highlights from 2007 and 2008.
8. Past newsletters from the summer of 2008.
9. And once they are written, we’ll also post our 2009 weekly newsletters

Any other suggestions of material you’d like to see available electronically?

Children may be overhearing adults in their families or on TV talking about the financial crisis.  Although most kids don’t really understand “mortgage backed securities,” (many adults are baffled too!), they may pick up on their parents’ anxiety and become anxious themselves.

There’s nothing wrong with sitting down with your child and explaining to him that the family can’t afford specific things, like a certain family vacation, or a toy that your child sees on TV and wants to have.  If certain luxuries like a trip to Sesame Place are not possible, brainstorm with your children to help think of possible substitutes, like a trip to a public park in another town with a different array of playground equipment.  Older children, ages 9 and up, may also have realistic ideas about savings in the family budget.

The most important thing that we can do as parents is to reassure our children that we love them and that we will continue to take care of them.  The upside of the downturn?  We can concentrate on the time we spend with our families and the relationships we build with our friends and the people we love. 

Here are a few suggestions from our crafts guild counselors:

Memory wire choker or bracelet.  Buy memory wire at a craft store. The wire is made to keep a circular shape.  It comes in various sizes that can make a choker necklace or a bracelet.  Cut 1 ½ complete circles for a choker, and 3-4 complete circles for a bracelet.  Crimp one end with a pliers so the beads don’t fall off.  String beads in any combination and then crimp the open end. 

Colored Sand Vases:  Take a clean empty glass bottle.  Using a brush, spread glue all over the outside of the vase.  Then dip the glue-covered exterior into different colored sands.  You can also try this in stages—first “paint” the glue on all the parts of the bottle that you want to cover in green sand.  Let that dry.  Then paint the glue onto all the parts of the bottle you want to cover in purple sand, etc.  After all the glue and sand have dried, you can use the bottle as a vase.  This makes a good gift too!

Bubble Painting:  Stir together 1/2 cup water, 1 to 2 tablespoons tempera paint, and ½ to 1 tablespoon dish soap; pour it into a shallow dish, such as a pie pan. Place one end of a straw in the paint/soap mixture and gently blow to make bubbles. Blow until the bubbles are almost over the edge of the pan. Place a piece of paper on top of the bubbles and hold it in place until several bubbles have popped and transferred their shape onto the paper - this makes a fun bubble print! Continue the process with different colors if you want. Blow more bubbles as needed. Set aside to dry. When dry, you can add drawings to your bubble pictures if you want.

Of course, camp should always be fun for the children who attend, but our family also has lots of fun keeping the whole operation running.  Here’s why:

Camp is, in its nature, a positive experience for children and their families.  We keep kids busy and happy and safe and that means parents can be busy and happy and secure.  That makes everyone feel good!

Camp is not a zero–sum game.  For example, in a court of law, one side “wins” and the other side “loses.”  But here at camp, creating a special summer for one child does not mean anything is taken away from another child’s experience.  Every child can have a great experience at camp and every child brings his or her own energy to the camp community.

We get to see former counselors and campers coming back to visit us, maybe now as parents themselves, and sharing their memories of past summers.  They ooh and ahh over the changes that we’ve made to the program and the camp site since their time.

We get to see children make progress, grow and achieve from summer to summer.  We recently got an email from a camp parent who signed the note “mother of a deep water swimmer.”  It’s great to be able to provide opportunities for kids to shine!

We get to be outside as much as we like! 

… (of course!) for playing outside and having fun.  But there are lots of fun games and activities you can do indoors on cold or rainy days.

Indoor Picnic.  Spread out a sheet or tablecloth on the floor.  In the kitchen, pack sandwiches or anything else you like to eat.  Put all the food, along with plates, napkins, silverware, etc. into a basket.  Walk your basket over to the sheet on the floor and eat your breakfast, lunch or dinner there!  The best part?  No ants!

Spider Web Game:   You will need a ball of yarn or string.  Sit on the floor in a circle.  The first person holds the string and calls the name of another child, passing the ball of yarn to him/her.  The pattern continues until there is a spider web.   Variation 1: Each player tells something about him/herself when they hold the ball of yarn.  Variation 2: Each player tells something about the person to whom he passes the yarn.  To keep everyone safe, don’t let any players put the yarn around their necks!

Paper Bag Theater:  Gather pairs of different kinds of household objects.  For example, two spoons, two pencils, two pieces of ribbon, two paper clips.  Put one of set of objects into a paper bag and the other set of objects into a second paper bag.  So now you should have two paper bags with identical contents.  Divide all the participants into two troupes.  Give each troupe a paper bag.  In five minutes, each troupe has to plan a short skit using all the objects in the paper bag during the action. Then each troupe performs their skit for the other.

So here goes….Start with a gaga court.  It’s a six sided space.  Ours are made from plywood sheets cut in half lengthwise and bolted together, so each side is 8 feet long and 2 feet tall, but you can make a gaga court with picnic benches turned on their sides, with the legs facing out. You do need sturdy side walls, because the ball is bounced against the wall during the game.  The ground surface can be grass or pavement.

The game is like dodgeball, but players can only be hit below the knees.  You need a large, soft ball, like a playground ball or the thin 9-10” plastic balls that you can buy in supermarkets.  The first player says “Ga..ga..ga” and bounces the ball three times on the ground.  Then a player hits the ball either toward another player or toward the wall.  Players can jump up out of the way to avoid being hit.  Players are allowed to bounce the ball against a wall.  When a player is hit with the ball, he or she is out for that round.  The last player who remains is the winner.  Start with the basic game and then move on to some variations: 

            Silent Gaga (good for parents!)  Anyone who makes a sound is out, in addition to anyone who is hit by the ball

            Red Light Green Light Gaga  When a person calls “Red Light,” all action must stop. If the ball is still moving and hits you, you are out even if you are frozen. Calling “Green Light” unfreezes all the players.  Designate one person ahead of time to be the caller.

            Cattle Crossing    Players who are out may hop back in the pit and walk across saying “moo” as a type of diversion and then get back out.

            Golden Child   When a group of older kids play with younger kids, we usually invoke the “golden child rule.” The golden child is safe at all costs and more often then not, the older kids pass the ball to the younger ones and let them try to get a big kid out.

            Ghost Hands   Players who are out are allowed to lean over the edge and play with their hands to get other players out.

Welcome to Camp RiverBlog—a new way to tell camp families and others what’s going on at Camp Riverbend, in season and out of season.  This is a relatively quiet time of year.  All our camp buildings are locked up, the picnic tables are put away, the pools are covered and the playing fields are waiting their spring “makeovers” with new clay for the basepaths and spring mowing.  This is the time of year when we think about our goals for next summer and start implementing our plans.  The robins are arriving from the south and the ground is waking up after its winter nap. Spring is coming and we are getting excited about camp!