Camp Kupugani Blog
Tips for Raising Middle-Schoolers
1. Become a student of your child. Because early adolescence brings so many maturational changes, learn all you can about your child from his teachers, pediatrician, youth director, and other parents. 2. Insist on respect and show respect. Remember that love and respect fit together like hand and glove. Give it and insist that your kids speak to others politely as well. It may be tough going, as this age can be mouthy and naturally rude. But insist anyway. 3. Use straight talk. Talk to your child about her friendships openly. Make sure you know where […]
The Art of Peace in Times of War
1. Staying in the Room to Work Things Out: This is not always easy, especially if we morally, spiritually, politically, or religiously disagree with someone. Also, we might emotionally leave, even if we’re still physically in the room. So, the real commitment here is our willingness to remain emotionally and physically present and open to working things out. 2. Remaining Curious: It is often convenient to stop listening when our truth is in competition with someone else’s truth. The hard part is being curious about what they mean and how […]
Parenting Habits to Develop Before Your Child Becomes a Teen
These parenting habits will help you create a positive relationship with your teens. 1. Eat dinner together. So much of successful teen parenting is about getting face time with them. So many other things vie for their attention that parents have to be diligent about getting noticed. Setting a habit to have one meal together every day carves out a time for all of you to reconnect. 2. Put away your phone at the table and when you drive. I’ll admit that this decision was first driven by fear and guilt. In […]
Explaining Your Shyness to Folks Who Don’t Believe You
As a director of a summer camp, people often don’t believe me when I say that I’m shy. A recent post by Jenn Granneman of Introvert, Dear summarizes the challenges of “outgoing introverts” quite eloquently, as below: Outgoing Introverts Exist, Are You One? So, you just found out you’re an introvert. Now you have a new way of understanding yourself and how you relate to the world. You can’t get enough of your new identity, so you’re reading every listicle and blog post about introverts that graces your Facebook news feed. […]
A Surprising Solution to Sibling Fighting
Your kids are fighting. Again. You can hear them in the living room arguing over the remote. Or the iPad. Or whatever. “Work it out guys!” you yell from the other room. The arguing continues. And in a matter of seconds, you hear screaming. They are obviously not working it out. In fact, it they never work it out. Will the fighting ever stop? Probably not. Expecting our kids to “work it out” is like handing a 7 year-old a 10th grade math book and expecting them to get an A on […]
Top 10 Ways To Enhance Your Parenting Skills
Do you feel bad after scolding your child? Do you often regret of not being able to be a good parent? Then you are not the only one who feels so. Good parenting skills are always acquired with time. In order to become the best parent one has to keep on learning. Parenting is not something which can be taught in a school. And no one can become the best parent from Day 1. So take your first step towards being the ‘best parent’ and understand the suggested ways which can help […]
10 Important Life Skills For Kids
Parents want their kids to excel in everything, be it in academics or extracurricular activities. But, what is not clear to most is that every kid is different and exhibits certain skills that others lack; these skills play a decisive factor in her. As a parent, it would be wrong to expect that your kid will learn everything from school. It is true schools exist to educate children and develop their intellect, but there are certain skills which a child can learn best at home. These skills are called life […]
Tips On How To Deal With Teenage Attitude
Your normally well-behaved child, on entering adolescence, may now start showing teenage attitude problems. No matter how hard you try to handle any situation, she may now answer sullenly, give snide comments, have an indifferent attitude, and the worst of all may totally shut you out from her life by being uncommunicative and secretive. On top of all this, your teenage child might have a complete disregard of you, your principles, your opinions, and assume they know much better than you. They also may hold you responsible for any minor […]
Why Spanking Is Bad for Child Development
I still have fond memories of hanging out in the back of our family station wagon, without a seatbelt, looking at the drivers immediately behind our vehicle. Many of us growing up in that era also remember well-meaning parents who spanked us. Although many easily appreciate the wisdom and safety regarding current child seatbelt laws, some struggle with whether spanking is still a good idea. Our summer camp near Chicago is always focused on positive child development. So we encourage some potentially reluctant parents (including—according to a recent NBC News […]
10 Ideas: Creating Quality Time With Your Kids
Here are ten things to do to develop my quality relationships with my kids, in spite of a hectic schedule. Road trips: I take a child on many of the daily errands I run, whether to the dump, to the bookstore, or to the grocery store. I often speak at functions several hours away. If I can afford it and it works, I will take one of my children with me. They love the quality time alone with dad (maybe it’s all the fast food we eat?). The time we […]
How to Enjoy (Objectively) Deciding About Camp
Often at this time of year, most families thoughts turn to summer planning. As director of our camp near Chicago, I’ll often get questions from families trying to figure out whether their child is ready for a camp experience. Sometimes the question is disguised as a comment that their child can’t possibly be ready, but that comment often belies the parent’s own misgivings. We’ve designed a couple of fun, insightful quizzes to help provide answers for questioning families. Take a quiz! Have fun and let us know what you think!
Quirky Discipline Rules That Work
These rules have an internal logic that defies easy categorization, but their clarity and enforceability make them work. Several of them are not, technically, rules at all, but declarations of policy or fact. And they’re all easy to remember. Rule #1: You can’t be in the room when I’m working unless you work, too Goal: Get your child to help, or stop bugging you, while you do chores It might seem odd, but I don’t mind doing laundry, cleaning floors or really any kind of housework. But I do mind my […]