Everwood Day Camp

Don’t forget to Slip, Slop, and Slap!

Jaime Pickles — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:22:45 +0000

In 2002, Dane and I had the opportunity to live and work in Australia for 4 months. Needless to say it was a fantastic journey. If you ever have the chance to head “Down Under”, I’d highly recommended it. The people are fantastic, the sites are incredible, and the wildlife is remarkable. I’ll never forget the evening migration of Fruit Bats over the Brisbane River.

But as you know, Australia is also known for it’s dangers (snakes, spiders, crocodiles, jellyfish etc…) When we arrived, I some how suspected to see warning signs and commercials about dangerous critters flooding the media, but with the exception of a strange jellyfish warning sign on the beaches of Queensland, I didn’t see much.

What we did hear about, on a daily basis, were warnings about the dangers of sun exposure. In fact, in Australia, the lifetime risk of developing melanoma is 1 in every 29.2 people. As a result of these staggering statistics the Cancer Council of Australia launched their very successful Slip, Slop, Slap skin health campaign. Ads featured the program’s mascot, Sid the Seagull who encouraged people to “Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat” when going out in the sun to reduce the risks of skin cancer. And the most remarkable thing? It worked!

Click Sid’s picture to see the ad for yourself, but beware… it’s pretty catchy!

As a Camp Director, the health and safety of campers and staff is absolutely my first priority. Here at Everwood Day Camp, we are committed to sun protection, not only through the regular application of sun screen throughout the day, but through cool partnerships with companies like GrUVywear in California. GrUVywear is exclusively dedicated to developing cool UV protective wear for children and adults and they are offering a variety of special offers for Everwood Day Camp families. Just click the image below for more information!

Grand Opening of the Everwood Camp Store!

Jaime Pickles — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:09:33 +0000

The moment you’ve all been waiting for! The Everwood Day Camp Store is now open for business! Get your own customized gear, from sweatshirts and tie-dye shirts, to shorts and sweatpants with just a click of a button! A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!

What would you prefer…A Happy Life or a Meaningful Life?

Jen Kaplan — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:04:49 +0000

Scott Brody, the founder of Everwood Day Camp, recently sent us an article to read and ponder. It was titled: There’s More to Life Than Being Happy—The Atlantic. Here is a link to read the article. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/theres-more-to-life-than-being-happy/266805/#.UPWHcsX22jA.email
I was fascinated by what was discussed in this article. One man in particular, Viktor Frankl a prominent Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna, spent some of his life in a concentration camp helping others. He actually had the opportunity to flee to America, but instead stayed to take care of his parents and pregnant wife while they were at the camp. He was the only survivor. In a book he authored titled Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl wrote, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” This is what he said saved those who survived. The article then goes to discuss living a happy life versus a meaningful life. “Leading a happy life is associated with being a “taker” while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a “giver”.
I then asked myself am I happy? Is my life meaningful? Am I raising my children to be happy or to have meaningful lives? I am not sure I have all the answers to these questions in just a few short days, but it gave me cause to think about how I am raising my children and what it means to be a productive member of society. Many things make me happy. Like the article said above there is usually taking involved like when you receive a gift or a trip. Children are happy on birthdays and holidays with many presents, but is that all? I don’t think so. Happiness is nice, but there is so much more. We can “choose our attitude” and how we respond to whatever situation we are in. There are content people living in poverty and miserable people draped in diamonds. We control our path. We have the ability as human beings to care for each other. We have the ability to teach our children how to be empathetic and sympathetic and move away from egocentricity. My biggest take away is that much of what we do is because it is right and just and not to be “happy”. It is because we are helping others and making a difference which is meaningful. I choose a meaningful life—and you?

Do you ever wonder what we do in the winter at Everwood?

Wendy Vietor — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:27:32 +0000

Summer may feel far away to many of you, but here in the Everwood Day Camp office, summer feels like it is just around the corner…and we can’t wait!

The winter months are filled with a lot of planning, preparation, meetings, events and much more. Below is a list of a few of the many things we are working on at Everwood this winter:

We are hosting Open Houses at Everwood for new, returning and prospective campers along with their families and friends. This is one of the highlights of the winter for us! It is always so nice to see past campers and meet people interested in learning more about Everwood. Our next Open House is this Sunday, January 13^th, from 11am-3pm. Bring the whole family to play games, warm up by the campfire, enjoy s’mores, jump in the bouncy castle, create an art project, get an amazing balloon from Drewsballoons, go on a tour of camp and meet some of our incredible staff.
We continue to review the feedback we received from our 2012 Everwood community. This valuable information is used to help shape our 2013 program, policies and procedures. As the 2013 program comes together, keep a look out for some fun and exciting new activities coming to Everwood this summer!
We are meeting with prospective campers and their families at Camp Fairs and at Everwood for tours of Camp.
We are corresponding with Everwood’s A-W-E-S-O-M-E returning staff members and meeting with potential staff members for summer 2013.
We are planning for improvements and changes to our beautiful campus that will be taking place
this spring. These projects include some exciting new program areas!
We are hosting a free educational speaker series in conjunction with the Sharon Education Foundation bringing expert speakers into the community to discuss hot topic issues regarding child and youth development. The first in the series, a film screening and community discussion of Where Do the Children Play? is taking place in the Everwood Lodge on Tuesday, January 29^th. Register for this event by clicking here.

We sure are busy and looking forward to the sunny days of Everwood 2013!!!

Step away from technology and step outside!

Scott Brody — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:45:17 +0000

How does growing up immersed in technology impact our kids, and how can we help them achieve the balance that we all suspect is eluding them, and us?

New research suggests that stepping away from the shiny Apple product and into the woods can have a big impact on creativity and problem-solving. The research indicates that there is a “real, measurable cognitive advantage to be realized if we spend time truly immersed in a natural setting,” the authors write.

Indeed, a few researchers have begun to study the impact of technology on children’s “prosocial skills”—how to be a normal, empathetic, look-you-in-the-eye type of kid, basically—and it doesn’t exactly make you want to get your niece an iPad mini for Christmas. “Angry Birds is a cheap babysitter, but it’s lousy at teaching a 4-year-old to understand others’ emotions or tame her own id.”

“There’s some really compelling evidence out of the social labs in Stanford that paints a dark picture about what happens if we’re connected 24/7,” Strayer says. “But you can undo some of that negativity by just disconnecting, getting off the grid, and going into a natural environment.”

For more on this click here to read the recent article posted on Pacific Standard’s online magazine.

Vacation Activities

Jen Kaplan — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:11:57 +0000

Winter break is just around the corner and many of us will be looking for activities to do with our children while enjoying the time off. I love not having to rush and make lunches and get the bus on time, but in the same respect we all dread the words “I’M BORED” coming from our children’s lips. Here are some tried and true fun activities to keep you and your children engaged during those down times.
This first craft is something I did with another mom in my son’s fifth grade class for the holiday party. Now technically it is an ornament, but we do not have a tree so it is hanging from a window in the kitchen. It is very cute and the children loved it.
Materials: Plastic or if you’re brave, glass ornament (Michaels has them)
white paint
little water
glue or glue stick
colored pom poms
felt or construction paper
permanent markers in colors of your choosing
Process:
Open the top of the ornament and pour in watered down white paint. Not too watered down just enough so you can swish it around inside and color it from the inside out. Now the whole ball will be white. Tip it upside down inside a cup so the excess paint will drip out. Leave it for a few minutes. Then turn it right side up and decorate it to look like a snowman head.
Some other fun arts and crafts projects would be to use model magic to create winter scenes. This dries overnight and can be painted and saved. You could paint using q-tips and white paint to create snowy scenes. Cotton balls also make great painting tools. You can attach them to clothespins or use them alone. These are also excellent for fine motor development.
New Years Eve is also right around the corner. We get together with 40-50 of our closest friends every year to ring in the New Year. It is a tradition all the children and adults look forward to. We play board games and just enjoy each other’s company until the clock strikes midnight. We scream and hug and kiss and then there is a mass evacuation to get the children to bed. Well, they are getting older so the mass evacuation is happening a bit later each year . We have activities for the children and adults and things we do together. Charades, Guesstures, and Apples to Apples are fun games to engage a whole group. The children can make noisemakers out of paper plates to help ring in the New Year. You fold a paper plate in half and staple it filling it with beans, rice, or popcorn so when it shakes it makes noise. Then they can decorate the outside. At midnight, everyone has their own noisemaker.

Whatever you do over vacation, please enjoy the time you have as a family and with your children. They are very precious!

Happy and Healthy New Year to All!!

EDC 2013 Staff Application Is Here!!!!

Wendy Vietor — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:14:41 +0000

The New Year is almost here and Summer 2013 will be here before we know it! Do you know what you are going to be doing this summer? I do…I’m going to be at Everwood Day Camp!!!!!!

Here at Everwood Day Camp, we are very excited that many of our A-W-E-S-O-M-E staff from this past summer will be returning to camp for another fantastic season at Everwood! If you are interested in pursuing a career in youth development, enjoy working with children, love being outside and/or want to help children make friends, learn, grow and be inspired to be the best person they can be, then working at Everwood this summer may be the best job for you.

There is no better time than now to complete our online staff application, and begin to explore what it means to be a part of our amazing team.

Children who swim start smarter!

Jaime Pickles — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:13:24 +0000

A ScienceDaily article out of Griffith Institute for Educational Research in Australia was recently brought to my attention and, as a Camp Director and former special educator, I just found it fascinating. The summary? Children who swim in the early years (under 5), achieve a wider range of skills than those who don’t. Click here to read more. To me this finding is significant. I think we would all agree that knowing how to swim is a critical life skill, but to have evidence toward the relationship between swimming and improved test scores and school readiness offers an additional perpective… and as a Camp Director, a reinforced sense of responsibility toward our Camp community.

Here at Camp we have many campers who come to us with a wide range of swimming abilities. From non-swimmers, and fearful swimmers, to those who seem to have been born in the water. But regardless of ability, our responsibility to their continued progress is one that is a priority in our Camp program. And the progress that we see in our Campers, when swimming every day, twice a day, is remarkable. But as we’ve all chosen to live in a part of the country where swimming isn’t always easily accessible, opportunities to get in the water need to be planned intentionally. Summer camp is certainly an important step toward supporting your child’s growth in swimming, but I’m wondering what other opportunities have you created for your child in order to maintain and develop these skills?

Teaching Children to be Thankful

Jen Kaplan — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 19:04:41 +0000

I read a quote on Facebook, you know one of those funny quotes that everyone posts. It said, “Black Friday: Because only in America, people trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have.” I have not stopped thinking about it since reading it. I think this is sadly the case for many, but certainly not most. We talk about all the things we are thankful for and what we are going to do to help in this world and then leave it behind. I am guilty of it myself. Superstorm Sandy came and we gave, the holidays roll around and I give, Brittany had her mitzvah project and we helped, but day to day I often get lost in my family and responsibilities at home and at work and forget to give. Should the holidays be the only time we should be thankful and remember those in need? Then I thought what about all those mensch like qualities I teach my children. Do they count? What are the values you display on a day to day basis? Do you hold the door for others, say please and thank you, send a card to a sick friend, drop some food in the bin at the market? All these things model for your children what it means to be a kind and empathetic person. I then stopped feeling guilty and realized I am doing my part to raise empathetic, productive, and caring young children who will continue that way into adulthood. So during this time of year involve your children by letting them pick out a toy for a child in need or help bag the groceries for the food pantry, but remember all that you can do and do all year long to continue instilling kindness and generosity in your child and know it does not always happen monetarily. What examples are you giving your child(ren)?

Joke of the month:

What key has legs and cannot open a door?

Turkey

Jen’s Tips, Tricks and More: Some thoughts on setting limits and parenting

Jen Kaplan — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:44:20 +0000

I do not consider myself an “expert” on anything. What I do feel is that I have a great deal of experience as an educator and as a parent which makes me very knowledgeable about how to do both of those things. I like to read and am always open to learning new things from others and from my children. I am especially passionate about giving children strong rules and guidelines when they are young, as it makes it easier for you when they are older. I always tell parents that you know you have done a good job when others compliment you on your child’s behavior either at school or at an event. My children can drive me crazy, but I always know they will use manners and be what I like to say is a “mensch” or good person outside the home. We as parents are preparing children to make their own life images. The book Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel, Ph.D delves into our jobs as parents. She says, “Why we are training our children that everything is replaceable, that all their deeds are worth glowing accolades, and that we exist as their personal concierge service?” I ask as well why we have as parents decided that our children do not need to feel what it is like to be hurt, angry, sad, bored, and frustrated and teach them to learn how to deal with those feelings. We are doing our children a grave injustice. I have a friend who is struggling with her son because she did not set ground rules and limits when he was young and now he is having trouble self regulating, socializing, and being empathetic. I advised her to set limits and have consequences. Two years later she is seeing a behavior therapist who is giving her the same advice. When did we forget how to say “No”?

I found a quote by Brad Hirschfield, the author of You Don’t Have to Be Wrong For Me To Be Right that struck me, “Great parents are like coaches who teach drills and raise the skill level of their players, but know when it comes to playing the game the players must take the field for themselves.” Isn’t it our job to get our children ready to play on their own?

For more insightful reading, I highly recommend this article “Six Values for Raising Outstanding Children”. While it’s written by a Rabbi, it’s clearly applicable to children and families of all faiths.

What do you feel is most important when raising your children to be productive and valued members of society?