Lure of the Wild: The Camp Blog

When it rains and we tell our kids to stay inside to build a fort in the living room, we forget about two important things kids need to develop as they grow up - resiliency and wonder.  "Children aren’t born with a weather bias, but they can quickly pick up on adults’ negative attitudes toward rain, wind, cold and heat," says Sweedish-American author of  There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather ,  Linda Akeson McGurk .   Outdoor play in all kinds of weather does more than just help kids step up to the challenge of feeling a little uncomfortable.  It helps them learn to see and feel the world in a ways that expand their curiosity and create bigger picture connections about their place in the world and how it works.  The self-management and safety skills that come from learning to overcome a little discomfort are just the icing on the cake.    Kids Really LIKE the Rain Kids naturally find rainy weather to be fun and exciting. The world is different...

As our camp’s Director my job is all about communication.  To keep things running smoothly and safely I make a point to check in with our counselors and their campers as often as I can each day.  I also talk with parents.  A lot. One particularly gorgeous afternoon last summer, I was hiking to check on the next counselor’s group when I got an unexpected text from a mom.  It said simply “I’m here to pick up my kids.”  Early pickups are a routine thing; we just request a 20-minute heads up reminder so we can coordinate.  We mark any planned early pickups at morning drop-off, and there wasn’t one on the sheet that day.  The staff all confirmed that no one had been told about this one.  So, as I doubled back along the trail to get her younger son from the group I’d just left, I phoned to let mom know we would be a few minutes.  With some concern I added, “We weren’t expecting this pickup.  Is everything okay?”   “Oh,” she explained...

Of the 27 snake species in Maryland, the copperhead is the only venomous one we might come across here at camp.  Sightings of them are VERY rare compared to the 25 harmless species in our state.  The only other harmfully venomous one is the timber rattlesnake, which sadly, over many years has been killed off locally.  Sadder still, harmless lookalikes like the juvenile black rat snake in this photo are often killed for the misfortune of being mistaken for rattlesnakes and copperheads.  Populations of all of these important natural rodent-borne-disease-controlling exterminators are in decline.    "I thought you said you saw a copperhead at camp today?"   Yep!  We saw a copperhead- one that Ranger James is helping relocate as a favor to a friend in the neighborhood who found it in her yard yesterday.  He'll release it this weekend in a corn field somewhere where it can help a farmer.  Meanwhile, we had a safe opportunity to see what t...

If you're tired of hearing the answer "nothing," here's the secret to getting the most out of a conversation with your kid about their day at camp! But first - wait until they have had some time to unwind.  If they want to talk, great!  LOTS of things happen over a full day at camp - usually it's the most recent things that stick in their minds.  Often, those things will be positive, but sometimes at the end of a really good day there might be a brief challenge or difficult situation, and that's what they need to talk about and work through in that moment.  Talk about the difficult stuff with them of course, but after they've had their chance to decompress about those challenges, here's how to get the rest of the story...   Roses, Thorns, and Buds.   At the end of each day at camp, just before pickup, counselors gather the kids for the second adult-led activity of the day (the first being the morning introduction and planning meeting).  Roses...

There is a lovely book that embodies this essay well: Everyone Poops . It explains simply that poop is a fact of life for all animals, humans included.  We just happen to be the animals that invented indoor plumbing.  When the modern toilet started gaining popularity less than 200 years ago, we forgot how we’d done it for hundreds of thousands of years!  Indeed, in evolutionary terms, the toilet is a mere blip on the screen compared to the time we spent pooping in the woods.  You may be new to the “nature bathroom” yourself.  Perhaps you have never used it, or like many (ourselves included) you’ve botched it once or twice.  And that’s okay.  The mechanics of using the bathroom outdoors can be complicated or uncomfortable the first time, or even distressing to think about. You may have your doubts. Not MY daughter! Not MY son! But we are here to say…  YES. THEY. CAN.   Why we do it:  Lure of the Wild ’s nature camp programs are desi...

Mention letting kids be free in the woods, and it's quite likely you'll hear a reference to the dystopian novel  Lord of the Flies , by William Golding .   Even classroom teachers will quip about unruly students by comparing them to Golding's dark story of boys gone wild and murderous with power.  That's not to say that the novel doesn't draw on real human societal flaws, but when we look closely at how children behave when left to their own devices, there is much more to be learned, and not just by the observers.  This week, when our campers played with the concept of heirarchy, among similar comments one parent's response to a letter we posted about it was "So, who's Piggy?"   Consider the real experience of six boys from the island of  Haʻafeva,  Tonga, who found themselves marooned on a small, desolate island for 15 months completely alone.  Spoiler alert - smart and thoughtful Piggy doesn't get killed in the end, and power-hungry Jack n...