Camp Kupugani Blog
Tips on Yelling Less
I like to think that I’m a good parent, and know that I always do my best. Nevertheless, we all have times that we’re challenged more than others to maintain our composure and do right by our kids. Check out this link for tips on doing that and minimizing yelling, especially as holiday tensions might ramp up.
Where It’s Hardest to be a Woman
As a camp based on female empowerment with intentional diversity, it is only right for us to not only know about female limitations in our own country, but also in others. One major population consistently placed in an inferior position is that of Arab women. I found a recent article on Buzzfeed, ironically, when I was searching for something funny to send to a friend. When I looked at the article, I was astonished. I had no idea there was so many difficulties and struggles for Arab women outside of […]
Saving Our Earth Starts Now: Save the Bees
With each passing year, it becomes more important to incorporate into our own lives critical practices that will allow our Earth to sustain itself for our children and their children. At our multicultural summer camp, environmental awareness and respect for the natural environment is one of our core values. We take seriously our relationship with the environment and convey that attitude to our campers. In addition to providing learning opportunities through experiential education, we teach the campers service to the environment by modeling good practices that are respectful of the […]
Multiculturalism is Better than Colorblindness
I recently came across an article, which articulates well why and how we try to celebrate and appreciate difference at our multicultural camp. Below is a summary (in her words) of the full article by Monnica T. Williams, PhD. What is racial colorblindness? Colorblindness is the racial ideology that posits the best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity. At its face value, colorblindness seems like a good thing — really taking MLK seriously on his call to judge people […]
Developing Good Listening Skills
A recent article noted some interesting attention span statistics, including some good tips on how to improve attentiveness and foster good listening skills. A great thing to emphasize at our multicultural summer camp! Some interesting points: The average attention span in 2012: 8 seconds The average attention span in 2000: 12 seconds The average attention span of a goldfish: 9 seconds As we navigate a world of technology seemingly competing for our attention, it’s easy to get increasingly distracted and more difficult to do the one thing that may be […]
How Girls Can Make a Difference
“We exist for girls as they are… so they imagine the women they can become.” This is what we do in our girls-only camp at Camp Kupugani. Female empowerment is an intentional incorporation into all things Kupugani. It is important to be strong women and be proud of who we are as individuals and also as a unified group. Being female is not always the easiest thing. Thankfully, American society has progressed, making us a more equal force to men. Unfortunately, not all women enjoy a similar opportunity. There are […]
How to Wire Your Brain for Happiness
A recent article from the Huffington Post summarized a book by neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, author of Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm and Confidence. To summarize, on a day-to-day basis, we need to stay with our positive experiences long enough for them to be encoded into neural structure and transfer better into our long-term memory. Below are five of his tips, that we’ll certainly be sure to try to incorporate further into our multicultural summer camp. Take in the good. Appreciate moments of joy and increase their intensity and duration by lingering […]
Embracing Our Differences
Below is a piece by Lee Mun Wah, renowned facilitator of multicultural and diversity exercises. It so encapsulated what we try to do at our multicultural summer camp that I thought it most poignant to reproduce it in its entirety. It comes from a recent newsletter from his organization, Stir Fry Seminars, and is available at this link. “Recently, at a training I was facilitating, a young white man adamantly shared that he didn’t see differences in people and thought that my talking about our differences only added to our […]
A Scary Study on the Sexualization of Young Girls
Another Halloween…and with it, I noticed the increasing sexualization of costumes aimed at young girls. For a while, we’ve battled the sexualization of women; in a scary continuing development, there is a significant impact on girls at younger ages, even kindergarten age girls! Psychologists at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois have performed research using paper dolls to study how six-year-old girls react to sexualized women. This study raises interesting statistics and discusses why your daughter may have sexualized thoughts. At our all-girls summer camp program, we are intentional about modeling behavior that […]
12 Things Happy People Do Differently
As a camp director at a multicultural summer camp, I’m aware of our focus on empowering children at our girls-only and boys-only programs. As adults though, we should also focus on our job of taking care of ourselves, so we can be better people for ourselves, our families, our friends, and our children. I came across an article by Jacob Sokol (citing positivity psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky) recently with a nice checklist of 12 things happy people do differently. For more details, including the scientific basis behind how and why these […]
Strong Women
Many of the influential leaders of the past are men—glorified and well-regarded for their works—but what about women? It is a societal problem that women are frequently seen as weak and submissive beings. What gave us that stigma? Perhaps it is the typical stereotype of taking care of the children, cooking meals for the family, and keeping the house clean that informs the view of women as being weak and feeble-minded. We are popularly exposed to few pioneering women. Nonetheless, I recognize some who took great strides to change our […]
Importance of Child-Directed, Mixed Age Group Play
I recently read a book called Free to Learn, by developmental psychologist Peter Gray, which argues that—our children, if free to pursue their own interests through play, will not only learn all they need to know, but will do so with energy and passion. As a camp director who has seen children thrive in our girls-camp and boys-camp programs, I agree. [Below is a blend of paraphrases, direct quotations, and personal thoughts regarding portions of the book that stood out to me…there are as many cites as I can recall…] […]