The Camp Counselor

You can Survive and Succeed Magnificently in Summer Camp The Ultimate Camp Counselor Manual will serve as your road map to ease you along the often bumpy, unpaved and pothole-filled highway to successful camp experiences with happy, well-behaved, motivated and safe children. Discover how easy it is to: Build Camper Self-Esteem. Gain the great insight necessary to aid your campers in increasing their self-esteem, so critically important in their personality development. Motivate them. Through a unique combination of creative ideas and methods, as well as by using rewards, incentives, lots of humor and some traditional techniques, your campers will become highly motivated to enjoy each day of summer. Help to Build a Superior Set of Values. Learn that every activity, event and situation can provide a magnificent teaching opportunity for the improvement of basic values including sportsmanship, friendship, kindness, integrity, honesty, courage and humility, to name just a few. Discipline Them. Help to teach the campers methods of handling their negative behavior impulses. Mr. Richman shares with you his enormously successful 33 years of camping and teaching experience in the field of discipline. His unique style is punctuated by kindness, firmness and solid human relations strategies.

This book explores the complexities of the recreational summer camp experience and its reliance on the expertise and emotion work of young people. Drawing on post-structural theory, Baker illustrates the discourses, power relations and emotional demands that shape camp counsellor employment experiences and well-being. Through analysis of everyday experiences and interactions, Baker unpicks the power nexus between counsellors, campers, peers and camp management, offering a deeper understanding of camp counsellor employment and the challenges for camp employees and employers. As such, this book raises a call for camp researchers and industry leaders to engage in rethinking how camp counsellor roles are understood, shaped and embodied, and how they might be ethically supported through reflexive management practices. Becoming and Being a Camp Counsellor will be of interest to scholars and students across the fields of leisure, outdoor recreation, youth studies, and sociology.

Summer, 1994. With just two months left before college, Elodie is forced by her mother to take a job as a camp counselor. She doesn’t know the first thing about nature, or sports, or kids for that matter, and isn’t especially interested in learning… but now she’s responsible for a foul-mouthed horde of girls who just might win her over. But just as Elodie starts getting used to her new environment—and close to one of the other counselors—a dark mystery lurking around the camp begins to haunt her dreams.

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Through the first seven editions of this enduring text, A. Viola Mitchell shared her knowledge and skills with legions of educators, camp directors, and counselors who participated in the organized camp movement. This classic, highly regarded volume has now been thoroughly updated to provide a 21st-century view of the trends, philosophies, and practices of organized camping. The Eighth Edition retains the overarching emphasis on leadership skills and program activities and ideas, updating their treatment with the latest research on positive youth development and outcomes-based programming. New chapters discuss trends in organized camping, efforts to expand opportunities for camp participation, and strategies to increase physical activity among children and youth. Substantially revised topics include modern behavior management tools and techniques, leadership strategies, problem solving, group processes, and the importance of research and evaluation. Throughout, the authors infuse the discussion with a leave no trace conservation ethic that promotes ways to enjoy the outdoors in a responsible, sustainable manner. The essence of organized camping has remained the same throughout its 150-year history: democratic, group living in the outdoors supported by competent, well-trained leaders. The latest edition of Camp Counseling celebrates that essence in every chapter, illuminated by more than 120 new photographs as well as numerous illustrations and boxed exhibits. Moreover, extensive, annotated resource lists in every chapter provide countless opportunities to explore topics in greater depth.

An insightful and powerful look at the magic of summer camp—and why it is so important for children to be away from home . . . if only for a little while. In an age when it’s the rare child who walks to school on his own, the thought of sending your “little ones” off to sleep-away camp can be overwhelming—for you and for them. But parents’ first instinct—to shelter their offspring above all else—is actually depriving kids of the major developmental milestones that occur through letting them go—and watching them come back transformed. In Homesick and Happy, renowned child psychologist Michael Thompson, PhD, shares a strong argument for, and a vital guide to, this brief loosening of ties. A great champion of summer camp, he explains how camp ushers your children into a thrilling world offering an environment that most of us at home cannot: an electronics-free zone, a multigenerational community, meaningful daily rituals like group meals and cabin clean-up, and a place where time simply slows down. In the buggy woods, icy swims, campfire sing-alongs, and daring adventures, children have emotionally significant and character-building experiences; they often grow in ways that surprise even themselves; they make lifelong memories and cherished friends. Thompson shows how children who are away from their parents can be both homesick and happy, scared and successful, anxious and exuberant. When kids go to camp—for a week, a month, or the whole summer—they can experience some of the greatest maturation of their lives, and return more independent, strong, and healthy.