Summer Matters Inspiring confident, kind kids & forever friendships The most common question from new families this time of year: “Is my kid ready for camp?” Easy to say this is a question about age or timing. But really, it’s a question about care. Is camp the right fit? Is it the right time? Is this everything it’s cracked up to be? Knowing that makes it way easier to answer honestly. Is My Kid Ready for Camp? Last summer, we had a first-year camper. Parents knew camp, loved the idea of...
12 days ago • 3 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships The holidays are awesome. They’re also complicated. Sure, we’ve got gatherings, traditions, joy, connection, magic. Check. These are great. Oh, but there’s also logistics, tension, expectations, exhaustion. Those boxes, unfortunately, also get checked. If you know what I’m talking about, no sweat, you’re definitely not alone. It’s definitely that time of year. Hanukkah started on Sunday. Christmas is next week. We’re right in...
20 days ago • 3 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships Who has a front row seat on your life? Not the balcony. Not the back row. The front row. Who sees you tired, messy, frustrated, confused. Not just polished and prepared. Who has a front row seat on more than one part of your life (work, family, etc)? This is a question I work through with CEOs, executive teams, families, and camp kids. It lands differently depending on who you are and where you’re at in life. But it, for sure,...
27 days ago • 2 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident, kind kids & forever friendships Week after Thanksgiving, which means I’m contractually obligated to think about gratitude. Could tell you about all the things we’re grateful for at K&E. Opening act at Hollowpallooza, grilling on senior hill, Juniper 025 chants, laughing on the evergreen porch, Adventure Dave trips, fire trucks on the FOD, and so much more. All true. All real. Can’t wait for a whole new list this summer. But even after all of that, I keep...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring kind confident kids & forever friendships Dear Kenwood & Evergreen Families, With Thanksgiving coming up in 24 hours, I’m taking stock of all that I am grateful for. It starts with you. And your amazing kids! And this lifetime I’ve had of leading this inspiring community. As you know, with Jack and Sylvia stepping into the Director roles, I’ve now got some bandwidth to shift my focus even more to the wider world of kids, camps, families, and how decisions about our...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships Think about how you became friends with your closest childhood buddy. Probably looked something like this: Meet somewhere random ??? something happened, stuff went down, time went by, other stuff happened you can’t remember ??? That not-at-all clear, sort of confusing timeline make any sense to you? Maybe it kinda-sorta does. If it doesn’t, no worries because there’s actual math behind the ??? section. There’s a formula. And...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships Your kid probably knows this better than I do, but I’ll admit it: I play mobile games sometimes. You know that moment when you download a new one and before you can actually play, there’s all this…stuff? Login screens. Username creation. Permission requests. Impossible-to-skip tutorials. And you’re just thinking: “Can I please start having fun?” Some games get you playing in seconds. Others make you wait through five minutes...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships “Camp is not for lazy kids.” You’d think this would be some quote that came up at a program staff meeting or in an aside director convo, but nope. This is from an Evergreen girl we met with a few weeks ago at a family visit. She wasn’t complaining. She was proud. Said it like it was the very best thing about the place. One line and it sure does capture something essential about K&E that most camps won’t even bother saying out...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Summer Matters Inspiring confident kind kids & forever friendships It’s Saturday at home. The phones get collected. Everyone agrees to the plan. But then the world keeps buzzing anyway. The restaurant menu is a QR code. Homework assignments are posted in a parent portal. The carpool group text needs a response. Snapchat stories need checking. Ordering pizza means DoorDash. Even when kids aren’t on their phones, they’re still living in a world designed around screens. The infrastructure...
2 months ago • 3 min read