Terry’s Time: 4 Steps to Creating an Amazing Camper June 25, 2017 We often wonder, how can we be a better parent. How can we help our children become amazing? We look online and read self-help books. We ask friends and relatives for advice. Sometimes it helps and others times we are left wishing we had an owner’s manuals for our children. Well, the science is in and it says to “WACC” your kids. Work on yourself Autonomy Communication Community Read the full article by Barking Up the Wrong Tree Here Work on yourself – Research has shown that your happiness level directly affects your children’s ability to cope with stress. By taking care of yourself and living a happy life, you are creating a model for them to follow. So, while your children are at Camp Marimeta, find and do things that make you happy. Find ways to reduce your stress and recharge your batteries. Autonomy – Letting your children make decisions for themselves and take responsibility for their own schedule makes for children who are better able to deal with their mistakes and learn to cope with their successes and failures. At Marimeta your daughters are able to pick their own schedules. They work with their counselors to come up with their own cabin rules. They also help come up with consequences for not following those rules. Ownership for their choices and behaviors help enhance their cognitive and behavioral skills. Camp Marimeta also allows for unstructured play time, which helps with their cognitive and emotional development. Communication – Sitting down and eating three meals a day is not something we get to do often at home. At Camp Marimeta we get this opportunity everyday. Meal times at Marimeta are a huge social gathering where many topics are discussed. Our counselors are taught to ask open ended questions. We talk about how our day is going, what can we do to make it better and how can we help someone else have a better day. Camp Marimeta makes meal time a time for communication. Promoting a healthy dialogue at every meal is something we strive for daily. Community – Community is what Marimeta is all about! We work endlessly to create a community of acceptance. (Remembering we are working with young ladies that struggle with this) Our aim is for everyone who attends Marimeta to feel like we have their back, not only at camp but throughout the year. Our counselors are trained to start working on creating not only a community within their own cabins, but all over Marimeta. So when we feel like we need to do better with our children just “WACC” them! May your week be filled with fun, sunshine but most of all laughter! Love, Terry