Back To School... With 4 Tips from Camp Foley for a Successful School Year!

(revised 9/3/19) As our Minnesota families head back to school today and many of our other families from out of state are already back on the school train, we wanted to share today's blog for a few ideas on how to make the transition from camp/summer to school a successful one!

Check out these two articles below for some ideas. We've added a few tips from the Foley perspective below too.

Article #1 - Camp Lessons to Use When Transitioning Back to School

Article #2 - 4 Tips for Transitioning from Summer Camp to Fall (This was written a few years back for counselors but the content still applies for campers!)

Foley's 4 Tips for a Successful School Year

1. Chores. Here at Foley your child learns how to do chores. They may have already done them before camp but after their stay at Foley they for sure have been exposed to 2 weeks’ worth of consistent, daily chores. Some of these chores, to name a few, are making their bed every morning, sweeping the cabin, picking up their locker and bunk space, throwing out the trash and cleaning up after meals. Don’t fall prey to old habits and instead continue to challenge your child to grow in these new found skills and routine.
   Tip: Pick 2 chores that your child can do every day. (You pick one and they pick one!) Make a fun chart, keep track and reinforce these new behaviors! If you want to reward you can, otherwise verbal affirmation and accountability is sufficient. 
2. Tech Free! In case your child forgot, they went 2 weeks without technology this summer… let me say that again, 2 weeks without technology (specifically their phone!) - and they didn’t die! It is possible to unplug and have fun without their phones and devices, and they experienced this. Keep this trend alive and encourage a set amount of screen-less time a day. Use this time to focus on school or help a sibling or play outside… the possibilities are endless.
   Tip: Work with your child to decide on a set time (during the day or a total time) where they will be off devices and come up with a list of things for them to do instead! (Some examples: play outside, learn a new skill, read a book, play a board game, bike ride with friends...)   
3. Something NEW. Whether it's skills, an activity or friends, your child did something NEW this summer. I guarantee it. Camp brings in people from all over the World and in different stages of life. Your child learned how to interact with others, share and make decisions for themselves. This translates perfectly into walking into a new school year where many might be attending a new school, a new home room or sports teams. Camp has given them experiences to help them thrive in these new found social situations.
   Tip: Remind them of this and give them encouragement to draw from their time at camp. Help that dialogue flow by asking good questions to help them grow as they continue to try and experience new things in life. (sample questions, What's one thing new you did at camp? What did you learn from that situation that can be applied here?)
4. Goal Setting. A big part of the growth that happened this summer is because of goal setting and follow up. Our counselors are trained to guide campers to set goals, write them down and then follow up with progression on their goals. Successful people practice goal setting and it is an awesome habit to get into, especially at a young age.
   Tip: Sit down with your child and together come up with 2 academic goals and 2 personal goals for the Fall school semester. Make a chart and help track their progress with weekly check-ins and encouragement.   

   
Foley’s mission and partnership with families goes beyond the summer. We are here to help and support you all year long! Use these tips above, make your own game plan and stay connected as we aim for continued skill and character development that will lead to a successful school year!

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Happiness and Friendship: A Camp Story

Kids go to camp for a million reasons and counting -- what's not to love about the great outdoors, leaving the electronics behind for a while, and learning a ton of new things?

However, it's easy to forget that having fun is about more than just fending off that summer boredom. When kids have a great time with friends who make them feel good about themselves, they are happier and healthier in the long run, according to The New York Times. In fact, having at least one close friend is an essential part of a child's mental health, especially when they enter adolescence. While we often associate mental health issues like depression and anxiety with adults, children can suffer from those problems, too.

The good news? Healthy, happy friendships have been shown to lower the risk of depression in adolescents. At Camp Foley, we seek to ensure that every camper forms strong relationships that are important to their well-being even beyond the end of the summer. With compassionate counselors, engaging activities, and a diverse new group of campers every year, there's a place for everyone in our little slice of paradise. And we know that when a child feels confident and loved, they reach for the stars.

Being a kid seems like an easy job sometimes, but even kids can get stressed, sad, or lonely. Foley is a great place for campers of all ages to find support and encouragement around every corner, and believe us, we take that to heart. Finding happiness is a big, beautiful journey, and we want to be there along the way for every Foleyite.

If you're looking for a summer full of great friends, new skills, and more than a few smiles, make sure to get registered for the summer of 2016! And while you wait for June to arrive, pay us a visit on Facebook and tell us about how your best friend makes you a happier you.

Free Range Kids

When a news story started circulating in the Washington Post last week entitled "Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone", it made me (Marie) think about my parenting style. Would I have done the same thing?  Who is responsible for making those independence choices for my kids?

I started to do some Google searches and found the Free Range Kids website.  There were some thought provoking articles with unique prospective. Here is quote from Lenore Skenazy, who wrote Free-Range Kids - How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry: 

Any risk is seen as too much risk. But if you try to prevent every possible danger or difficulty in your child's everyday life, that child never gets a chance to grow up. We parents have to realize that the greatest risk of all just might be trying to raise a child who never encounters choice or independence.”

If you are not a “helicopter parent” are you a “free range parent”?  Or do you fall somewhere in between?  We believe that camp is all about giving children choice and independence in a safe environment. Maybe we can be part of their "free range".  Thank you for allowing your children to grow each summer with us.

What's Your Grit Grade?

Find your grade on
Duckworth's site.

The American Camp Association (ACA) recently spoke with Paul Tough about his book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. In the interview, he mentions a Psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, Angela Duckworth, who has actually created a "Grit Test." Are you gritty enough to find out your actual grit grade? (When you get to the page, click on "Get Your Grit Score.") There is also an interview in the Washington Post with Michael Thompson, the author of Homesick and Happy: How Time Away From Parents Can Help a Child Grow. In the interview, he talks about the importance of resiliency, or "grit": "You can't know you're resilient until your resilience is challenged. And resilience or grit is key because it's what gets you through the hard times in life." Alli, for the most recent newsletter, wrote an article about this exact idea and uses Tough's book to to explain how it translates into what we try to do for our campers at Foley. Take a moment to read what she has to say, if you haven't already! 

     I would be willing to bet that most of our camp parents have attended parent-teacher conferences with some regularity. You have sat across the table from a variety of dedicated teachers that have offered advice on how to help your kids improve math, science, reading and writing skills. You have listened to accomplishments, goals and expectations. For some parents this can be an extremely rewarding conversation. One that makes you pat yourself on the back and say, “Yes, my kid is going to make it.” For others of you, this quarterly conversation can come with a lot of anxiety. Perhaps school isn’t going as well as you would like for your kid. You may be left scratching your head and saying, “What is my kid doing wrong?” What if there was something else on that report card? Something that you could work on without the use of books or chalk boards or overhead projector.
      Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, suggests that schools should be doing just that (and don’t worry, some are). We should be offering kids a “character report card.” Parents, school officials, teachers and kids should be in a constant conversation about how well kids are learning to cope with adversity, make friends, work through problems and my favorite – exhibit grit. Mr. Tough argues that in order for kids to truly succeed in life they need to find safe ways to do what every parent (and anyone else who loves kids) find it hard to do – fail.
      Mr. Tough writes, “For many of us, character refers to something innate and unchanging, a core set of attributes that define one’s very essence. [Researchers] Seligman and Peterson defined character in a different way: a set of abilities or strengths that are very much changeable — entirely malleable, in fact. They are skills you can learn; they are skills you can practice; and they are skills you can teach”.
      I recently had the opportunity to see Paul Tough speak at the American Camp Association (ACA) annual conference in Dallas, TX and what struck me while listening to him talk was that camp is exactly the place that offers all of the things he is talking about. Plainly put our kids “fail” on a daily basis. They don’t win sailing races, they don’t quite get enough points for an award in archery, they disagree with a cabinmate and the event they plan for a group of younger kids is a complete disaster. Sometimes they go days, or even weeks, without earning a single award or accomplishing a tangible accolade.
      I, not once, but twice have worked with a kid that has tried to get up on skis and/or wakeboards countless times with no success. (Don’t worry, the kids counted.) Two hundred times of thinking they are going to accomplish something and “failing.” Ninety times of having the “embarrassment” of falling, quite literally, on their face in front of a group of “accomplished” peers. But they tried. They tried very hard. And was there disappointment sometimes? Yes. Was there a feeling of “failure” on occasion? Of course. And not just for my poor skiers. All of the kids experience these feelings at some time.

Indeed it does!

      So what made it all worthwhile? On the 97th and 211th try, the world stopped spinning. The water felt a little warmer and the sun shined a little brighter. And I’m serious. No kidding. The faces of those kids could have stopped an army. One of the kids got so excited she flung her arms in the air and let go. Her jubilance literally propelled her out of her skis. Shortest, successful run of skiing ever.
      That grit, that determination, that ability to fail and fail and fail is exactly why we, “camp people,” do what we do. It may not be what we are supposed to tell the parents of our campers, but we love to see kids fail. So when the report cards from the school year are hung on the fridge and the bags are packed for camp, we ask you to turn your attention towards the other report card - the one that lists creativity, worldliness, kindness, teamwork and of course, grit.

      Let us help your kid work on that Grit Grade. Let us help your kid to fail. Never fear - it’ll be a blast.

~Alli Faricy, Director