Free-range parenting guru Lenore Skenazy recently wrote about a new rule at her kids’ camp:  If a counselor wants to hug a camper, the counselor has to bend down to the kid’s level so the child’s face isn’t anywhere near the counselor’s “groin.”

I was a camper and later, a camp counselor and part of what made camp so special for me was the strong camper-counselor bond. I’d hate for that connection to be sullied by displaced by paranoia. Continue reading »

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It’s summer. Your kid’s out of school and ready for camp. But your pocketbook is not prepared to take yet another financial hit. When the going gets tough, the tough get all DIY. A new trend for cash strapped families with tight budgets is not Camp Recess but Camp Recession.

With sleep away camps being out of reach financially for many a family, city friendly adventures and local amusements have replaced the long trek from home. Some parents are joining forces and putting together daily adventures for the kids to participant in, while some parents are opting to Continue reading »

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There aren’t many places where a 12-year-old kid can bark or twitch in public without getting serious flak from her peers. But children with the neurological disorder Tourette syndrome–commonly misunderstood as a cursing problem–can’t control all the noises and tics that they make.

So a new weeklong summer camp lets kids with Tourette enjoy all the usual camp activities–swimming, art, sports–without having to explain themselves or worry about being ridiculed for their tics or noises. Since only three in about every thousand children are born with Tourette syndrome, many campers at Twist and Shout have never met another child with the disorder before.

35-year-old founder Brad Cohen remembers all too well getting teased or punished for his uncontrollable squealing. Ever since a kind principal asked him if he wanted to explain what Tourette syndrome is to his school, Cohen has been dedicated to educating people about the disorder. In addition to directing Camp Twist and Shout, Cohen is an elementary-school teacher and the author of a book on Tourette syndrome.

Since Cohen still has a barking tic, he is a living example to his students and campers of the fact that Tourette syndrome need not disrupt your life. And spending a week around kids all dealing with the same issue helps to normalize the disorder in some kids’ minds. According to a teenaged camper named Kevin, the kids quickly become immune to the noises and tics around them. “It’s just kind of like you’re listening to music, and you hear something in the background and you don’t really hear it,” he said.

In fact, a guiding principle of Camp Twist and Shout is that for once kids don’t have to talk about their disorder; they just get to enjoy themselves. According to Cohen, “This is not therapy; this is not school.”

Photo: karenimages.com, via CNN

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If you and the fam find yourselves feeling too sweaty, sticky, bug-bitten, cranky and anxious to truly let loose, you’re not alone. We’ve tackled the ten most common summer bummers so you can frolic before the sun sets on the summer.

 —Emily Frost Continue reading »

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Many of our kids are off at camp for the summer. Some have even taken the plunge and gone to sleepaway camp.

Found Magazine shows off stuff that they, you know, find. Hence the title. Someone found a letter that a camper wrote to her parents. It’s quite something. Continue reading »

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Author and physician Marc Siegel is issuing a provocative call to parents to help stop the spread of swine flu at summer camps. Writing for Slate, Siegel describes his son Joshua’s experience at Camp Modin in Maine, where a swine flu outbreak threatened to ruin the summer. Continue reading »

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When I first heard kids were going to “money camp,” I was ready to be indignant about the pressure for earnings put on the young, the importance put on the trappings of materialism, yadda, yadda.

Oh thank goodness I just read the story. Because “money camp” for kids is really about business. Continue reading »

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