How to Conquer Your Fears

It was Franklin D. Roosevelt who reminded us that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Camp provides one of the most gentle, nurturing backdrops to encourage girls to face their fears and conquer their anxieties. As counselors we are an integral part of this process. Here are some simple tools to help your campers overcome three common fears at camp.

The Fear of Water

  1. Start by encouraging the camper to ease into the water. Sit by the lake with only her toes in the water.
  2. Once the camper is comfortable, move to standing calf-deep in the water. Ask the camper to splash herself with water on her thighs. Once confident with this, splash water on her arms and chest.
  3. When the camper feels comfortable submerging most of her body in the water help her learn how to get her face wet.
  4. Sprinkle only “raindrops” on the camper’s face and hair, to mimic the sensation of a shower. Once the camper’s hair is wet ask her to dip her chin underneath the water. Have her then tilt her face toward the surface of the water and get her forehead wet. Once the camper feels very comfortable performing these tasks, move to teach her to blow bubbles underwater.
  5. Place your index finger in front of the camper’s face. Tell her to imagine your finger is a birthday candle that she must blow out. Once the camper masters the blowing technique, slowly lower your finger having the camper repeat the process until your finger is under the surface of the water and she must have her mouth is the water to “blow out the candle.”

The Fear of Spiders

  1. Begin by educating your camper about spiders. Explain how important spiders our to our ecosystem and how many good things they do for us. Describe how most spiders do not wish to engage with humans (we are bigger than they are- that’s scary to a little, old spider!), primarily eat insects, and lack the capability to bite a human even if they wanted to.
  2. Next introduce your camper to some spider-friendly books. In some cases, the more pictures the better, so that the camper can interact imaginatively with a friendly image of a spider. Other campers will respond to you reading aloud about spiders before bed. Some of our favorite books include Charlotte’s Web, Simon and Schuster Children’s Guide to Insects and Spiders, The Very Busy Spider, and The Eensy Weensy Spider Freaks Out!
  3. Incorporate spider toys as part of your cabin decorations. These could be paper hangings your campers have designed and constructed themselves, toy models of spiders, or stuffed animal spiders. This will help the camper become acquainted with both the form and function of spiders.
  4. Find a real spider (at camp this is not hard!) Have the camper stand next to you, but at a distance to the spider that she feels comfortable. While in the physical proximity of a spider have your camper recall all the ways in which spiders benefit society. Help her to visually identify different parts of the spider’s body and describe their function.

The Fear of Heights

  1. Encourage your camper to sign up for gymnastics. Here, she can begin by balancing on the low balance beam and work towards balancing on the full beam.
  2. Once your camper has slowing exposed herself to these, move to take her on a hike where she can clearly see the altitude increasing, but is assured a gentle path with solid footing.
  3. Before beginning the hike establish at “scared scale” with your camper. Tell her that at different points in the hike you would like to gauge her fear level. One representing “very comfortable” and ten representing “extremely fearful.”Ask her what number she feels comfortable reaching and tell her the moment she feels that number you will immediately turn around. Each day challenge your camper to get a little farther on the hike.
  4. Once a camper has acclimated to a height where she feels comfortable spend time with her in this space. Encourage her to engage in activities that relax her in these elevated places. For example, bring a bottle of lemonade for your camper and her cabin mates  to enjoy at a mountain summit, or have your camper and her friends make bracelets on a waterfall bridge.

When helping a camper overcome a fear it is important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all policy that will work for every girl. The key is patience. Your job is to help a camper face her fear when she is ready, but only she can decide when the time is right.

The Heart of a Wooded Mountain

Dear Camp Counselor

Here is just a quick reminder of how important you are.  If a camper and a parent were to write to our staff, here is what they might say:

Dear Counselor,

You are my hero. When I grow up I want to be just like you. I think it’s so cool how you use all those funny voices when you read to our cabin before bed! And you made me discover I like carrots! I told my mom I thought they were gross, but then you were eating them last Thursday at lunch (you remember the day you wore your blue shorts and had your hair in a pony tail and ate three pieces of chicken and told us about that squirrel who had that big acorn? Yeah- that day) so I gave them a try. Presto! I love them now! The other day, when you french braided my hair in two braids, I loved it so much I wrote a whole letter home, just about that! I’m so glad you are my counselor because you are the coolest person I have ever met.

Love,

Your Camper, Suzie

Camp Counselor Hugs Campers

Dear Counselor,

I am trusting you with my heart and soul. I am leaving in your care the single, most important thing in my life. I know that it would be ridiculous of me to ask you to put exactly one tablespoon of sugar in Suzie’s corn flakes, or to make sure that she brushes her teeth for exactly two minutes before bed, so I’ll just ask you this- The time you spend with Suzie this summer will shape her entire life. Every compliment you give her, every time you smile at her, every story you tell her, every story she tells you will mean the world to her. Knowing that her counselor cares deeply for her will put Suzie one step closer to growing into the strong, competent, amazing woman I know she has the potential to become. For the next three weeks my child’s life is in your hands. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you will tend to it with love and kindness.

Love,

Suzie’s  Mother

Hardy Har Har

Camper Playing outside

Tickle your taste buds- hit your funny bone- deep down belly laugh! At camp we love jokes. We thought you might enjoy these old standbys by none other than Prairie Home Companion’s  Garrison Keillor.

Warning: Do not consume milk while reading these jokes! It may come out your nose!

Knock Knock- Who’s there?- Four eight.- Four eight who?- Four eight’s a jolly good fellow!

What would the traffic cop charge a crocodile with? -Tail gatoring!

How many hipsters does it take to change a light bulb?- …..it’s a pretty obscure number- you’ve probably never heard of it.

Why did the piano get locked out of his house?- He lost his keys

What do you call an alligator in a vest?- An investigator

How do you fix a broken tomato?- Tomato paste

What’s a tree’s favorite drink?- Root beer

How does a dog talk with his tail?- With a tail-aphone

The teacher says to her student: “Give me a sentence using the words green, pink, and yellow.” The third grader said: “Okay. The phone went green, green and I pinked it up and said ‘yellow!'”

What vegetable are bugs most afraid of?- Squash

Knock knock- Who’s there?- Watson- Watson who? Not much, watson new with you?

The UN-virtual Social Network

Facebook has become one of society’s guilty pleasures. With the click of a mouse, this tool allows us to reconnect with old friends, keep up with new ones, and easily put our own lives on display. We hand over the drama of living to a  computer screen and remain safe and disengaged in the comfort of our homes.

If what we are searching for is a sense of community, then Facebook certainly seems to create one for us. You can interact with a friend at any moment in time. Just click on her profile and there she is; her face, her words, her thoughts and opinions, her conversations with other people- all as easily accessible as air. Once more, if, by coincidence, you happen to be logged into Facebook at the same time as one of your friends you can even “chat” with her. Facebook keeps us more connected than ever!

Girl Mountain Climbing

But does it really? Virtual social networking cannot provide you with butterflies in your stomach when you meet up with an old friend after a leave of absence. This avenue of communication completely erases tone, crescendos, emotion and emphasis from the telling of a story, leaving it flat and lifeless. You’ll never feel the warm breath of laughter or savor the same full-bodied meal as the person across from you.

Camp coaxes us out of our dark rooms flooded with blue light and into the natural world filled with beauty and splendor. At camp we loosen our grip from the mouse and really feel things; the toughness of a rope, the mud under our fingernails, a horse’s mane, the sun on our face, the joy of a real community. No exclamation point, italic, or emoticon is worth an experience like that.

Market Your Skills

Resume Building

Jeff’s most recent staff blog outlined the benefits of your job as a camp counselor on  your long-term career. Instantly, you become a powerful tool in society. Simply put, you change the lives of today’s youth. When you’re a part of the so-called “camp world” that is so easy to understand. But once you find yourself attempting to enter the job market, so far away from candy break, lookout duty, fairy parties, and birthday night, how do you market your skills? How do you translate the responsibilities of camp life into tangible, meaningful statements on your resume?

Chris Thurber’s recent article, Writing Camp Jobs On A Resume, delineates, in three main points, how to promote your summer leadership experience to your potential employer. First, he argues, you must “reverse the curse.” The world is well-versed on the camp image portrayed by Hollywood; food fights, panty raids, crazy teen partying. We all know this portrayal is the farthest thing from the truth. Now convince your perspective employer of this. Own your title and make it clear what your exact role was at camp.  “Division Leader for the Youngest Girls” is far more comprehensible than “Junior Linehead.”

Once you’ve established a clear title on your resume you should effectively describe your role at camp. According to Thurber, it’s all about wording. “A front-line camp counselor has either ‘Got kids from one activity to another, and made sure the kids weren’t bullying each other’ or  ‘Led children and teens through a creative sequence of challenging activities’ and ‘Responded decisively to misbehavior and social conflict by implementing collaborative problem-solving, logistical consequences, and one-on-one counseling.'”  The latter fairly and accurately showcases your responsibilities while at camp.

To situate your time at camp in the realm of distinguished, competitive experiences, rather than just a “summer job”, you must communicate about yourself as a professional. As Thurber asserts “No responsibility rivals that of caring for children.” If you wish for others to take you seriously, you must first take yourself seriously. Recognize your value in society and clearly illustrate your success to others.

I cannot wait to see our Rockbrook counselors leading multimillion dollar litigation cases, discovering a cure for cancer, and continuing to change the world well beyond our wooded mountain.

Take Our October Challenge

This week we sent out the first installment of our monthly staff newsletter. Aside from including tricks of the trade (how to French braid!) and recipes (chocolate chip muffins- yum!), we challenged our counselors to pause from the hustle and bustle of the “real world” to do a few things to remind them how sweet this life is. See if you can take our challenge!

Can you complete five of the following tasks by the end of the month?

  • Make a new friend.
  • Say hello to ten strangers on the street.
  • Play with shaving cream.
  • Blow bubbles.
  • Make someone you love breakfast in bed.
  • Pick wild flowers.
  • Send snail mail (or snail texts!)
  • Start your morning with a dance party.
  • Read a good book.
  • Write a list of everything you’re thankful for.
  • Take a walk.
  • Take a bath.
  • Ignore Facebook for a whole week.
  • Go fresh-faced: no make-up for a day.
  • Eat a s’more.
  • Watch the sunrise.
  • Carve a pumpkin.