What Is The OCA?
The Ontario Camping Association (OCA) is a not-for-profit organization of professionals involved in operating children’s summer camps. The OCA sets voluntary operating standards for camps. For parents, one of the most important aspects of the OCA is the operation of our camp accreditation program.
What is accreditation?
Accreditation means that a camp has shown adherence to over 400 standards covering all areas of the camp’s operation. These standards have been developed by camping professionals and, in many cases, exceed existing government regulations. As well, these standards cover areas where no government regulations exist.
What are Standards?
Standards describe good camping practices in all areas of camp operation: health, food service, water supply, leadership, site and facility, program areas, off-site trips, insurance, transportation, and administration.
How does a camp become accredited?
On approval of the application for membership in the OCA, a camp becomes a provisional member. For the next two summers, the camp works toward meeting all the standards. After a visit from an experienced standards visitor and approval by the OCA Board, the camp becomes an accredited member.
What does accreditation mean to you?
The underlying basis of our accreditation program is to ensure the health and safety of campers. You should feel free to ask a camp director about any aspect of the camp’s operation, e.g. How old are your counsellors? What is the staff/camper ratio? Can you accommodate the needs of my child? What are the qualifications of the person responsible for health care? What is your camp’s philosophy?
Choose an OCA accredited camp!
Directors of accredited camps are committed to ensuring a healthy, safe, fun-filled camp experience for your child. And if you are considering a camp that is not accredited by the OCA, ask “why not.”
Barb Gilbert
Barb Gilbert has been involved in camping and OCA for many years. She sat on the OCA Board of Directors for more than ten years in various roles including President, Chair of the Standards Committee, and Chair of the Annual Conference Committee. Barb was awarded the Dorothy Walter Award of Excellence and both she and her husband, Peter, are Honorary Life Members of the Ontario Camping Association.
Behind Every Happy Camper is a Great Camp Parent
Parents play a key role in ensuring that their child’s camp experience is a success. Your first job, together with your child, is to choose the right camp. This will require time and effort. However, since camp will have a considerable impact on your child’s development, finding the right match is important. Begin by discussing and answering the following questions:
• Are we looking for a day or a resident camp?
• Is the location a deciding factor?
• Do we want a specialty camp or a traditional camp?
• Are we interested in a co-ed or a single sex camp?
• Is my child willing to go alone, or does he want a friend to accompany him?
• Do we need a camp that will meet our special needs?
Then begin your research. Chat with family, friends and neighbours. Check the Ontario Camping Association website at www.ontariocamps.ca. Together with your child, attend camp fairs. Contact selected camps and request their promotional material. By considering an accredited camp (listed in this directory) you are assured that certain standards pertaining to health, safety, leadership, programs, food service and administration are in place. Short-list your choices, chat with directors and get all your questions answered, (see article entitled Top Ten Questions to Ask a Camp Director on page 10). If time permits, visiting the site while campers are in residence is the best way to assess a camp.
Once you have chosen the camp that meets your and your child’s interests and needs, register your child and begin pre-camp preparations. If your child is a first-time resident camper who has never slept away from home and parents, suggest a weekend on his own with a relative or friend. Together, purchase or assemble then label the clothing and items needed for camp. Attend any pre-camp gatherings or information sessions. As much as possible and practical, involve your camper in reading all communication from the camp, completing then returning forms on time (medical, cabin requests, personal information, camp clothing orders, etc.). Provide the camp with complete and current information on your child’s physical, social, emotional, dietary and medical needs.
When it is time to pack for camp, involve your camper. Campers are more likely to return with all their belongings intact if they are familiar with what they packed in the first place. Support the camp policies. If the camp requests that, for example, no junk food, cell phones, or valuable articles arrive in the campers’ luggage, respect the policy. If you have questions about the rationale behind the policies, ask. File all camp information for easy reference.
Once camp starts, continue to support your camper by sending lots of letters. Some parents mail the first letter before the child leaves home so that he receives word from home on the first day. Provide all his relatives with his summer address to ensure a steady supply. Several short letters are more appreciated than one long one. Avoid any unhappy news. This is best shared when the camper arrives home. Focus on the positive experiences that the camper is having at camp, e.g. exciting programs, new friends, fun activities. Check if the camp is receptive to receiving and delivering emails or faxes. If you should receive an unhappy letter, don’t hesitate to call the camp for an update. Likely, in the time it has taken for the letter to arrive, your camper has adjusted to camp life and is now happily participating. Consider visiting if a Visitors’ Day is offered. Seek the director’s advice on the suitability of visiting a first-time resident camper.
And finally, at the end of the camp session, be sure to pick up your camper on time! Eager, happy campers soon become anxious if their parents arrive late. Then sit back and enjoy all the tales of new friends, exciting adventures, and great accomplishments!
Catherine Ross owned and directed an OCA accredited camp for 20 years. She sits on the Board of Directors for both the OCA and the Society of Camp Directors. She is the author of How to be a Camp Counsellor…the best job in the world! Available through the OCA at www.ontariocamps.ca.
The Great News about Homesickness*
Christopher A. Thurber, Ph.D.
That’s right…there’s great news about homesickness! For starters, you should know that…
• Homesickness (or “missing home”) is normal. In study after study, researchers found that 95 percent of boys and girls who were spending at least two weeks at overnight camp felt some degree of homesickness. Children at day camp may also feel pangs of homesickness, but less frequently.
• Homesickness is typically mild. Nearly everyone misses something about home when they’re away. Some campers most miss their parents; others most miss home cooking, a sibling, or the family pet. Whatever they miss, the vast majority of children have a great time at camp and are not bothered by mild homesickness.
• Homesickness is something everyone can learn to cope with. In fact, research has uncovered multiple strategies that work for kids. Most kids use more than one strategy to help them deal with homesickness.
• Homesickness builds confidence. Overcoming a bout of homesickness and enjoying time away from home nurtures children’s independence and prepares them for the future. The fact that second-year campers are usually less homesick than first-year campers is evidence of this powerful growth.
• Homesickness has a silver lining. If there’s something about home children miss, that means there’s something about home they love — and that’s a wonderful thing. Sometimes just knowing that what they feel is a reflection of love makes campers feel much better.
So if nearly everyone feels some homesickness, what can be done to prevent a really strong case of homesickness? Here’s a recipe for positive camp preparation:
• Make camp decisions together.
• Arrange lots of practice time away from home.
• Share your optimism, not your anxiety.
• Never ever make a pick-up deal.
Ok, then, what are the most effective ways of coping with homesickness at camp? What advice can you write in a letter or e-mail to your son or daughter if you get a homesick letter?
Anti-Homesick Strategies for Kids
• Stay busy. Doing a fun, physical activity nearly always reduces homesickness intensity.
• Stay positive. Remembering all the cool stuff you can do at camp keeps the focus on fun, not on home.
• Stay in touch. Writing letters, looking at a photo from home, or holding a memento from home can be very comforting.
• Stay social. Making new friends is a perfect antidote to bothersome homesickness. Talking to the staff at camp is also reassuring.
• Stay focused. Remember that you’re not at camp forever, just a few weeks. Bringing a calendar to camp helps you be clear about the length of your stay.
• Stay confident. Anti-homesickness strategies take some time to work. Kids who stick with their strategies for five or six days almost always feel better.
Mom and Dad, your help preparing your child for this amazing growth experience will pay huge dividends. After a session of camp, you’ll see an increase in your child’s confidence, social skills, and leadership. And while your son or daughter is at camp, you can enjoy a well-deserved break from full-time parenthood. Remember: Homesickness is part of normal development. Our job should be to coach children through the experience, not to avoid the topic altogether.
Dr. Christopher Thurber is co-author of The Summer Camp Handbook, the premier preparatory resource for new camper families. The Summer Camp Handbook — available on Amazon or from fine book retailers — contains lots more information on finding the best camp for your child, preparing for camp, and preventing homesickness.
*This article originally appeared in the 2005 issue of CAMP, a publication of the American Camping Association, (acacamps.org).
What’s the Big Deal About a Camp Experience?
Michael Brandwein, Educator & Author
My wife Donna and I are the parents of two campers, one at sleep-away camp and the other a day camper. Though we live in the United States, both of our boys attend Ontario Camping Association camps, where they are deliriously happy and are developing into fine young men. Like many parents who have learned the power of the camp experience, we give the camps our children attend considerable credit for the positive and lasting changes that are taking place in our kids.
But here’s the question: What makes camp so different from other experiences for youth? What is it about camp that gives it a unique, “can’t really get this anywhere else” kind of effect? People who have attended or worked at a camp know that it is a very “special” place. But what is it that happens at camp that makes it an essential youth development experience? It would be hard to make a complete list of all of the factors that make camp different, but here are five I believe are most important.
1)
Camp leads the way in using the best methods to help children learn and grow.
Camp is a lot more than “something fun for the kids to do when they are out of school.” Actually, camps are outstanding places for children to learn and grow. Why? For over 125 years, camps have been the leaders in using the number one key secret to teaching: children learn most from doing. They learn most from hands-on discovery and practice, especially in small groups. The fancy name for this is “experiential” learning. When children are actively involved in high-participation activities, they not only learn much more, but their levels of attention, enjoyment and motivation really blast off.
In fact, camp is such a terrific community for learning that schools are now following the lead of camps as they look for ways to reach students. Parents have surely Snoticed that their children are spending much more time in school now working with “manipulatives” (hands-on materials to learn concepts) and “real-world” situations. Kids do stuff like that at camp every five minutes.
2)
Camp communities remove the typical pressures from school and support children in a positive atmosphere that cherishes effort and persistence.
One fast way to explain the incredible power of camping is in two words: “no grades.” It is amazing how children blossom when the burdens of constant evaluation and a “permanent record” are taken off their backs. Achievement is rewarded at camp just like it is at school. But what makes camp a special community is its focus on celebrating effort. It provides recognition when children try their best even if they don’t succeed right away. In this less pressured atmosphere, children learn more readily what positive things to say and do when they make mistakes or face challenges. At camp, children learn to be persistent and positive. These values build stronger children.
3)
Camp has distinctive value in preparing children for future success.
How do we prepare children for life in a modern world? Key current buzzwords in the workplace are “teamwork” and “greater responsibility for independent problem-solving.” There are higher expectations for employees to get along with others and to think for themselves. Again, camp has been leading the way by creating communities where kids make daily decisions about activities. They are put into situations every hour where how they act and meet their responsibilities will affect everyone else in their groups.
It’s important to teach our children to get along with others, especially in an increasingly diverse world. Camps make a unique contribution here. Camps are communities where children are put into groups with many children that they may not know. This is often not true at school, for example, where children may move from grade to grade with many children from prior classes who may live on the very same block or not much farther. Campers may have a special friend or two in their group, but at most camps the group assignments encourage building new relationships and provide lots of practice in cooperation and compromise.
4)
Camp offers an unequalled variety of opportunities to developwell-rounded children.
Camps cut like a laser through the negative expectations and beliefs that can stick to children and hold them back.
Each year of a child’s life, he or she collects more “I can’t’s” than “I can’s”. It is, I believe, a tragedy that children often “decide” what they are “good at” and “not good at” when they are very young. These early, limiting self-assessments may last through adulthood. When children get more recognition for abilities in, for example, math and athletics than they get for reading and music, then their choice of future activities and how they spend their time will naturally tend to gravitate toward areas in which they have had the greatest success in the past. This is why many of us as college students took some interesting classes “pass/fail” — we wanted to learn without worrying about getting a bad grade and ruining our “record”.
Like most parents, I want my children to be “well-rounded”. One of the big reasons my wife and I have sent our children to camps is because they encourage “dabbling”. Children can participate in, learn about, and enjoy a wide variety of activities without any need to be an expert in all of them. Camps offer a fantastic variety of different opportunities throughout every day. I cannot identify any other institution that comes even close to the range of recreational, dramatic, musical, artistic, environmental and other interest areas that are offered to boys and girls at camp.
5)
Camp combats youth isolation by offering positive and accepting communities.
There has been a lot of recent media attention about the isolation of many young people. Camp is about belonging — belonging to a group that respects and values each member. The traditions and customs of each different camp are like secret codes that allow those who know them to feel embraced by something unique and very special. Adult camp alumni often return many years later to camp still thrilled by the “inside knowledge” of camp legends and rituals that continue to inspire loyalty and a sense of connection.
Camp is, at its core, about learning how to make positive connections. The directors and staff of camps work hard to create communities that are enormously positive and accepting. Campers are urged to include, not exclude, others. They are praised for choosing new partners and not always the same ones. They are encouraged to respect the differences between people. In an increasingly sarcastic, put-down-oriented world, camps aim to be an oasis of personal safety where demeaning comments and disrespectful behaviour are not tolerated and children are taught responsible and positive ways to resolve conflicts.
As an educator, I’ve been working with young people and the professionals who lead and teach them for over 25 years. I can tell you that of all the things that we give our children as parents, one of the most important is to send them to camp. Camp has a distinctive power to help them become their very best.
© 2005 by Michael Brandwein / All Rights Reserved
Michael Brandwein is the author of three best-selling books about training and leading camp staff and wrote and presented Parenting Puzzle, three Emmy® award winning television programs on communicating with youth. He is a former national board member of the American Camp Association. He lives with his family in Lincolnshire, Illinois, near Chicago
International Camp Research Project Underway
The old joke about “Murphy’s Law of Research Studies” states that if you do enough research it will end up supporting your theory. Yet, this is exactly the objective of the Ontario Camping Association’s decision to initiate an international research study into organized camping - and it’s not a joke! Camping professionals, not to mention parents, teachers, medical practitioners, social agencies and health organizations, have long known the many benefits inherent to the camp experience. However, there is currently very little in the way of hard evidence based on conclusive research to confirm their collective belief. At present there is only one national U.S. camp study commissioned by the American Camp Association completed in 2005. Just as there are camps in many corners of the world so there is need for broader geo-cultural studies of this kind.
Anytime adults gather for social or professional get-togethers their casual conversation often turns to the subject of their children. What’s going on in school, activities, such as music, hockey, dance or soccer - and very often - stories about camp and the experiences they’ve had there. Even when the conversationalists do not have children or have never been to summer camp themselves, they all seem to know a story about someone who does, or has, and can invariably join in with the banter.
This is because many parents feel that camps are important in providing children with social, practical, physical, and other life skills, that they might not get elsewhere. This is what conventional wisdom tells us about the summer camp. Camps are fun and educative places that have the ability to promote positive personal, social and physical development.
So why initiate a study on something that is already so well known? It is all part of a move by the Ontario and Canadian Camping Associations to raise awareness of camp to a broader audience such as government, schools, corporations, new citizens and families worldwide. Canadian camps have always possessed a certain mystic – the call of the north! The promise of a classic outdoor experience that brings to mind paddling the old fur trader routes, portaging canoes, good friends, fresh air and cheery campfires under starry skies. But Canadian camps are only several of the pieces within this giant jigsaw puzzle of worldwide research. The intension of The International Camp Research Project is to provide insight into what all camps have to offer youth and society at large wherever they may be. The upshot is to draw a global focus on the phenomenon of camp and subsequently provide enriching personal, socio-cultural and environmental learning opportunities for young people from around the world.
In response to social and political uncertainties dominating the headlines here and abroad John Jorgenson, camp specialist and spokesperson for the International Camping Fellowship, emphasizes the practical and essential need internationally for research into organized camping at this time. “We are discovering that the phenomenon of the camp experience is not restricted to a local, regional, or even national level. This kind of experience is repeated in various forms world-wide. It is not always called “camp” but it does provide the same lasting and life-shaping impacts wherever it appears. Research of this kind will allow a better understanding of why and how this phenomenon is so important to the lives we as camping professionals touch. It will also help parents, politicians and professionals outside the camping movement to better understand the good work that we do to create a better and brighter world.”
The International Camp Research Project is now proceeding in collaboration with the University of Waterloo, Ontario thanks to generous funding provided by the Canadian Camping Association along with the B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia camping associations. The project is officially endorsed by the American and the Russian Camp Associations and currently involves camps from Russia, the U.S.A., Australia, Canada and Mongolia.
By: Stephen Fine, Ph.D.