WoHeLo Hour: Outdoor Connection
While we can't be together in-person this summer, Camp El Tesoro Staff, Counselors In Training (CITs) and other guests will be sharing weekly camp-at-home activities spotlighting a different theme each week. Enjoy this week's kick-off video below and then set up time to enjoy the weekly activities. Don't forget to keep track of activities on the Camp El Tesoro CAMPO Card - like Bingo, but better. Social Connection How has attending camp helped you appreciate and connect with nature? Take a moment to share a picture of you enjoying time out in nature with a family[...]
Thriving Thursday: Happy Talk
Happy Talk In times of stress or uncertainty it can be challenging to talk about our thoughts, feelings or ideas clearly and fully - it can be even harder to listen. These lessons will help your child develop healthy, effective and respectful communication skills that they can use at home, school and with friends.. Communication is how we get a message, idea, thought or feeling to someone else. While this may seem obvious, youth don’t always realize that communication is more than just the words we are saying. Communication is, yes, our words, but it is also our[...]
WoHeLo Hour: Friendship
FRIENDSHIP While we can't be together in-person this summer, Camp El Tesoro Staff, Counselors In Training (CITs) and other guests will be sharing weekly camp-at-home activities spotlighting a different theme each week. Enjoy the weekly kick-off video below and then set up time to enjoy the weekly activities. Don't forget to keep track of activities on the Camp El Tesoro CAMPO Card - like Bingo, but better. Social Connection How has attending camp helped you make and build friendships?This week kick off your summer connecting with friends from camp or school. Pick up the phone[...]
Camp is About More than Just the Activities: The Value(s) of Camp – Part 1
Whether it’s their 1st summer or their 10th, attending summer camp is an extremely fun and exciting time for campers. There’s so much to look forward to – archery, canoeing, the zip-line, horseback riding, hiking, cooking over a fire and so much more! But camp is not just about the amazing activities. Camp is a place to make new friends, to find a sense of community and it is a place for campers to learn and develop vitally important life skills that they can take with them back to their home, to their school, to college, into future[...]
Finding Bigfoot (and other perks of camping)
Camp Fire is a large organization with a lot of program focuses – youth development, early childhood education, and outdoor education, to name a few. While Camp Fire operates a residential camp with organized activities – Camp El Tesoro – all of our programs encourage youth to foster their love of the outdoors. One way you can do that is through traditional, grab-a-tent-and-go kind of camping. I know what you might be thinking: Can’t I have the same experiences at a theme park or resort? Do I really need to smell bacon cooking over a campfire? Can’t you see every[...]
The Long Ride Home – Fuel for Conversations
I have been picking a kid up from camps and classes for more than 12 years - from day camps, sports camps, swim lessons, Jr. lifeguarding, overnight camps, grandma camp to art camp, you name it. I’ve been there burning up highways, airports and backroads to get my goofballs out of the house and for the love of all that is holy – stop picking at each other and get away from that darn TV! No matter how long or short the camp, I want to know about my boys’ experience. Over the years the amount of information they[...]
Memorable Moments
Time. Where does it go and are we making memorable moments with our children?Decades, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds - there never seems to be enough time and it passes before you know it. In our day-to-day lives we always seem to be strapped for time. To most people, it seems like there is never enough time in the day to complete the all the things we would like to get done. Busy as bees moving here and there; time commuting, time shopping, time planning events, time working on projects, time cleaning around the house, time[...]
Making the Most of Mid-Year
Do you know what month this is? Do you know that it’s “Hump Month”? Ok, so I don’t sound too much like a popular commercial camel declaring “Wednesday Hump Day”. But this is June…the sixth month of the year and the beginning of the second half of the year. So I declare June as Hump Month!!! So what fun things can you do to celebrate June? I thought of a few ideas but I’m sure you, dear reader, can come up with some of your own. Below is a mix of active and more laid back ways to[...]
Working with Youth Doesn’t Make You Less of a Man
In my 11- years of working with youth at camps, afterschool programs, and schools, I have always been part of a strangely underrepresented demographic – males. To put in in perspective, at a previous youth development organization I was the only male staff member out of 20 employees. As an education major in college, less than 15% of my classmates were male (and the percentage was even less for elementary education majors). At many youth-focused training sessions that I attend and lead, it’s extremely rare for even 10% of the participants to be male, and often the classes[...]
Being a First-Time Camp Parent
I’m going to be very honest with y’all, it was my son that didn’t want to go to camp, and part of me was OK with that. He was scared to be away from us overnight. Yes, he has been away from us, having stayed with other family for up to a week at a time, but he had never successfully slept over a friend’s house without calling us at 10 p.m. to pick him up. And if I’m being completely honest, if he wasn’t ready, then neither was I. Our children rely on us for comfort and[...]
Care Packages: Send Love, Not Snacks
Nothing is as welcomed by a camper as a care package from home. At Camp El Tesoro (like many other camps) we do not allow food/snacks to be sent. Below are ideas and tips to pull together a dynamite, camp-approved care package! Artists package: Twistables, markers, coloring books, color pencils, origami books with paper, foam shapes/letters and cardboard. Ha-ha Hilarious package: Mad Libs, joke books and a kid-friendly "would you rather" book. You've Got a Friend In Me package: Embroidery thread in multiple colors (for friendship bracelets), Camp Bunk box of questions or a personality quiz book. The Gamer package: playing cards, UNO, plastic spoons, Me[...]
Why Camp is the Answer
Do you ever look around at the world today and wonder how we got here? It seems to me that as a society, we are struggling. I think it is to easy to point a finger at today’s youth without looking in the mirror at how we raised them. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that four out of 10 adults don’t feel like they have a satisfying life and experts estimate that adults are spending as much as eight hours per day, outside of work, looking at a phone or computer screen. I recently heard psychologist Wendy[...]
