Getting Ready for Summer Camp
WITH Jill Tipograph & Jake Schwartzwald, Everything Summer
This podcast is sponsored by SCOPE, an amazing organization that helps to send children from financially disadvantaged families to summer camp. You can learn more about SCOPE online and through social media @supportscope.
This may be our most useful Campfire Conversation yet. As we get close to the summer, parents are packing bags and imparting last minute advice. But, how do you know what’s best to say and to pack? I’ve got two experts around the fire with me to help.
Jill Tipograph knows camp both as a former camp parent and as the Founder & CEO of Everything Summer, a boutique independent consultancy that helps place and prepare families with great camps. Jake Schwartzwald, one of her closest associates, also spends his summer at a wonderful camp in Maine as the program director.
We spend time speaking about how to put campers at ease prior to camp, how parents must separate their anxiety from their child’s, staying away from the classic mistake of playing ‘Let’s Make a Deal’, the Sophomore Slump and how to work best with your camp before things even start. And, there are even a few words of wisdom for those staying home – the parents!
I hope you’ll enjoy this incredibly useful Campfire Conversation.
GREAT RESOURCES FOR Parents Preparing Their campers & themselves for camp
Here are two great books from counselors/researchers/camp people that I’ve learned so much. These are wonderful books for parents to learn how to prepare their children for a wonderful summer.
Homesick But Happy by Dr. Michael Thompson
Summer Camp Handbook by Dr. Chris Thurber
Jill and Jake have a number of excellent resources at their website, EverythingSummer.com.
Here’s a note that I wrote a while ago that is could be useful as well, It’s Natural: A Note to Nervous Campers.