It’s the final week of camp here at GAC, and counselors are excited and ready to create MAXI fun and friendship during Mini Camp!
This session we have campers coming from as far away as Illinois & Virginia!
Other fun statistics about this week’s campers include:
88 first-time campers at GAC!
11 3rd year campers
1 5th year camper
States: IL, VA
You can see what we’re eating this week here!
As always, Carnival was a blast for all campers and staff! Check out some highlights from the day here!
A highlight of the two-week session for our youngest campers (grades K-3), and their version of “backpacking,” is Bears’ Adventure. This one-night trip allows campers to experience sleeping outdoors under the stars and cooking over a campfire. Campers’ luggage is taken for them to the campsite, so they are not technically “backpacking,” because they have no pack to carry. With just their water bottle and their positive attitudes, they set out from camp singing and talking on their hike.
The best part of Bears’ Adventure is the free time kids get to play and explore the area. For many campers, the longer sticks provide the perfect start to a fort. Others enjoy laying on their sleeping bags talking with friends or silently watching clouds move overhead. Some participate in crafts and games while enjoying being outdoors. For many of these kids, Bears’ Adventure is their first experience “roughing it,” and they absolutely love it.
When they hike back into camp the morning after their Adventure, our Bears’ campers stand a little taller. And their dirty, smiling faces are the best indication that they have experienced the awe of nature.
Priority Enrollment for our returning camp families (and families who we were unable to accommodate off of our waiting list for 2019) opened on August 1, 2021.
Please note that while Priority Enrollment goes from August 1 – September 15, some age groups (typically grades 5-9) will fill within the first few weeks of the Priority Enrollment period.
To ensure you are able to enroll in your first choice session for 2022, register on or soon after August 1, 2021!
Check out the 2022 session dates here.
Step 1: Go to your My GAC LOGIN.
Step 2: Scroll to “My Camper”
Step 3: Select “Camper Application”
Step 4: Select Season “2022”
A highlight of the two-week session for our youngest campers (grades K-3), and their version of “backpacking,” is Bears’ Adventure. This one-night trip allows campers to experience sleeping outdoors under the stars and cooking over a campfire. Campers’ luggage is taken for them to the campsite, so they are not technically “backpacking,” because they have no pack to carry. With just their water bottle and their positive attitudes, they set out from camp singing and talking on their hike.
The best part of Bears’ Adventure is the free time kids get to play and explore the area. For many campers, the longer sticks provide the perfect start to a fort. Others enjoy laying on their sleeping bags talking with friends or silently watching clouds move overhead. Some participate in crafts and games while enjoying being outdoors. For many of these kids, Bears’ Adventure is their first experience “roughing it,” and they absolutely love it.
When they hike back into camp the morning after their Adventure, our Bears’ campers stand a little taller. And their dirty, smiling faces are the best indication that they have experienced the awe of nature.
There’s always something going on at camp, whether that’s a cabin theme day, a backpacking trip or a visit to Shaver Island! Check out the outpost schedule below to see where each cabin is going this session.
We can’t wait to welcome our Session 4 campers to camp today! This session we have campers coming from Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom! We also have campers from 5 states outside of California!
Of these campers…
70 are 1st time campers at GAC
115 are returning campers
20 are 3-year campers
18 are 5-year campers
What are we eating this week? Check out the week’s menu!
With summer coming to a close, and another challenging school year ahead for our kids (and for us parents), we want to remind you about a resource Audrey “Sunshine” Monke created to help parents bring home some of the happiness, connection, and character growth of GAC: Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults.
Happy Campers is now available from Audible!
Listen to or read a free sample from Happy Campers:
Download the audio of Camp Secret #1: Connection Comes First
Download the print version of Camp Secret #1: Connection Comes First
Join Sunshine to chat about coaching your kids to improved social skills and better friendships:
Tuesday, August 31 (12-1pm PT) discussion of Camp Secret #9 (from Happy Campers): Coach Kids to Better Friendships.
We’ll talk about the skills kids need to make and keep friends AND how you can coach your child to better friendships and relationships.
Register for the lunch chat by August 21, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for one of five FREE AUDIO OR PRINT COPIES (your choice) of my book HAPPY CAMPERS! Register here.
Audrey “Sunshine” Monke, MA, has been the owner of Gold Arrow Camp since 1989 and currently serves as the Chief Visionary Officer. In addition to her vision-casting and mentoring at GAC, Sunshine is an author (Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults), podcast host, speaker and coach on the topics of parenting, social skills, and happiness. Find out more at her website, Sunshine Parenting.
Today at Morning Assembly, we talked about the important skill of learning to “unflip our lids” by figuring out our go-to calm down strategies for when we’re feeling irritated, frustrated, annoyed, or angry with our friends. We talked about how it’s important to learn how to “unflip our lids” when we’re upset.
We talked with campers about how sometimes we “Flip our Lids” and how being a good friend to others means learning good strategies for calming ourselves down so that we can interact with our friends in ways that build up – not tear down – our friendships. We talked about how when our lids are flipped, our thinking brain isn’t in charge and we’re being led by our big feelings. When our lids are flipped, we often say or do things that make our friends feel bad and that we later regret.
We shared our brief summary of Dr. Dan Siegel’s Hand Brain Model with campers:
And we’ve shared this poster with campers so they can see a visual about a flipped verses unflipped brain.
We then had campers share their favorite calm-down strategies, and they had so many! We created this poster using their ideas:
