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The headlines have been dire since schools returned to in-person learning after the pandemic. The news articles all proclaim that COVID decimated educational progress and children have backslid to an enormous degree not seen in history. Even UNICEF reported that the scale of educational loss is “nearly insurmountable”; kids lost basic numeracy and literacy skills, social and emotional skills were impacted, and rates of depression and anxiety increased.

This increasing deficit is important to take into context when you consider that children already face a deficit when they take a break from the school year during the summer months, known colloquially as the “summer slide”. According to the American Education Research Journal, on average a student loses between 17 and 28 percent of the gains made during school in English/Language Arts and up to 25 to 34 percent of mathematics progress, with the most pronounced losses occurring during the K-3 years.

Yes, this sounds increasingly ominous. However, we know that summer interventions in the form of summer school or summer camps can help bridge this gap and alter outcomes. Disparity still exists; research from the Brookings Institute on summer learning loss indicated that on average, middle-income students performed better after summer intervention than lower-income students, probably because of access to higher-quality summer programs.

What makes up a high-quality summer program, then? One recommendation is to blend academic learning with hands-on activities and recreation. The second is to use professional summer school staff. Finally, the third recommendation is to create partnerships with community organizations and resources. In addition, using evidence-based literacy instruction improved overall reading scores.

All of these strategies are already at play (forgive the pun) when students attend Summer at Sandy Springs. Our camp blends academic learning with recreation, like doing Mad Science, Fleming Tech, Flight Science, and more. The professional summer school staff is a given, as SASS is led and developed by a team of highly-trained educators. By partnering with outside resources to create specialty camps, we are on top of leveraging community partnerships. In the Academics Camp, evidence-based practices are used for both literacy and numeracy instruction to help negate that dreaded summer slide.

Even more importantly, participation at SASS doesn’t just help negate the summer slide but launches children ahead for the next school year. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the gains are focused on strict academics, although that is a perk. Rather, it’s vital that exposure to new tasks, peer relationships, and outside enrichment aid our SASS campers to develop the vital social, emotional, and behavioral skills they’ll need to flourish in the upcoming school year. Resilience and growth mindset training develop the adaptability the school year will require.

It can be so, so easy to focus on the negative when you think of the context we discussed first, COVID and summer loss, but the positives abound if you’re one of the parents reading this email. You’re already ahead of the curve by enrolling your child or teen at SASS, and if you’re still pondering enrollment for next year, consider this: there’s nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

In the past, humanity has placed an enormous amount of stock on being brave. Bravery can be defined as “the quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty.” That’s great; we often need to face hard or scary things. However, savvy parents know that it’s not about just having the mettle to face those fears, dangers, or difficulties. It’s about how we function after we face them, too. 

Enter resiliency, which is defined by the American Psychological Association as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress.” Even under the most idyllic of circumstances, all children will experience a traumatic experience at some point in their childhood or adolescence that will require them to adjust and adapt in order to survive. 

So what makes some children survive and others thrive, and how on earth does summer camp play into it? 

First, there’s the innate motivation that all children have in early infancy and childhood. This was identified decades ago as the “mastery motivation system,” and you’ll have seen it when you watched your child light up just from interacting with their environment successfully. Throwing things off their high chair, watching them fall, and cackling as it happens? That’s actually related to motivation mastery. Taking their first steps and beaming at you with pure pride? That’s intrinsic motivation, and it can’t be taught or bought. Both internal agency and the absolute pleasure of accomplishment are vital to human development and serve as protective mechanisms for resilience. All children come hardwired with this to some extent. 

But beyond the innate and genetic factors that influence resilience, there’s an enormous amount of research that shows that when we as caregivers and adults put forth our own best efforts in taking care of our children and teaching them appropriately, resiliency can be cultivated against any odds.

What does that look like? Educational researchers have found that a key component is the existence of positive partnerships between children, parents, teachers and staff, and community and health services. This is an innate part of the summer camp process at Summer at Sandy Spring. In order to leave your precious child with us all day, you have to trust our staff and administration and work collaboratively with us. Modeling that trust allows your child to have the same relationship and partnership. If children feel connected to the system they’re a part of, they’re guaranteed better positive social, emotional, and mental health outcomes. 

Beyond that initial trust, how do we as camp staff, administration, and advisors imbue SaSS with methods to foster bravery and resilience? 

Here are some ways that resiliency grows at SaSS: 

1. We use scaffolding to teach bravery and address their fears in stages. Our adventure park and the adventure challenge, for example, don’t just throw children into the most intense skill (climbing, advanced zip-lining) on day one; children learn the park, the literal and metaphorical ropes, gain comfort, and build their skills day by day until they’re confident enough to tackle the most intense course. 

2. We create opportunities for independence. Camp is the ideal place for building skills outside of the home setting. While children and adolescents are still under the watch and care of competent, supportive adults, they’re outside of their familiar home setting. They have free reign to develop independent skills and flex their bravery muscles. 

3. Camp avoids escape. At home, children may be spooked by a new level on a computer game or frustrated with playing with their sibling and be able to immediately walk away, shut off, and go do something else. At camp, they’re forced to strategize and cope and find solutions. It’s not that they can’t get out of a scary task if they don’t want to, but letting kids immediately escape new or fearful situations actually validates their fears. Camp puts a buffer there that allows kids to welcome the unknown and become comfortable with what initially may seem unpleasant 

4. We teach internal locus of control. Your children learn at SaSS that they personally can influence the outcomes of their struggles through hard work, perseverance, and play.

By sending your children to SaSS, you’re giving them an amazing time filled with joy and enrichment, but you can also feel confident that we’re building important skills that help them become resilient adults. Feels good to multitask, doesn’t it? 

Have you noticed a theme in our series yet? It’s “Because we love our kids”, and the team behind Summer at Sandy Spring (SaSS) used this prompt to determine a multitude of ways we prepare and support our children to help them thrive. For example, in today’s email: because we love our kids, we prepare them to become productive citizens and functional adults. No small feat, so how do we do it? The answer is life skills training and education, and believe it or not, it’s a huge part of the summer camp experience at SaSS. 

First, we have to address the definition of “Life Skills”. These aren’t just buzzwords to be thrown around; they’re a set of interrelated skills that should be taught to all children to empower them to be their most healthy, successful, and socially responsible selves. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) both report that life skills run the gamut from cognitive skills that help children make informed decisions to emotional and psychosocial skills which build supportive social relationships and improve self-regulation. 

It’s apparent that life skills training is crucial. However, despite the need, most formalized life skills education training programs don’t start until after the first four years of elementary school, leaving a broad gap in intervention. Luckily, the skills your child is acquiring through summer camp address these areas and get your early learner a head start. 

Educational psychology researchers have narrowed life skills down into three broad domains:

1. Communication and interpersonal skills
2. Decision-making and critical-thinking skills
3. Coping and self-management skills 

Communication and interpersonal skills are called “soft skills” but in today’s ever-present world of constant and rapid-fire communication, they’re more necessary than ever. Just by engaging with their peers in active play, participating in regular daily social activities, and imitating others, children develop a sense of agency and self, learn patterns of cause and effect, and obtain modalities of social interactions and conversations. 

With exposure to a variety of peers (such as the kind they receive playing with new friends at summer camp!), children learn different emotional and social experiences in a safe place. This exposes them to the varied preferences, beliefs, values, attitudes, and identities of others. Furthermore, the presence of strong and positive role models teaches them the value of their own health and the health and prosperity of others. 

Decision-making and critical-thinking skills are closely linked to the cognitive domains of symbolic and abstract thinking. It’s not a coincidence that these areas of cognitive development occur around the same time children enter school. While formalized education solidifies these concepts, opportunities to make team decisions, work through logistics, plan, and see the outcome of planning efforts, such as when children must complete an obstacle course together, are also fabulous opportunities for growth. 

Coping and self-management skills are not just tools for any child or adolescent to learn; they’re a defense system against the presence of internalizing disorders like depression and anxiety and have been definitively linked to personal and social success for adolescents and adults. By teaching our children these skills, we can negate high-risk behavior and provide them with higher mental well-being as they grow. 

Learning resiliency (by trying again, even when it’s hard), self-efficacy (independent play and attempting new things), and self-esteem (by succeeding in a setting that’s safe and healthy) all occur in the positive and active environment of SaSS. There’s no better way to bridge the gap between school years than providing the exposure and experience to develop these skills at a summer camp that knows how to help your child grow, learn, and thrive. 

Conflict is a fact of life; there’s just no way to avoid it. How we handle discord is a major determinant of how we function as adults, and there is no better time to learn conflict resolution and coping skills than during childhood and adolescence. Children get opportunities to have this modeled and explained to them throughout the school year, but summer is often a gap time where not only do children run wild, but their feelings do, too. It’s not uncommon to see a regression in emotional regulation skills and coping over the summer. 

At Summer at Sandy Spring (SaSS), campers get a chance to naturally view, practice, and model their aptitude in handling both internal and external squabbles in a variety of settings. Whether it’s outdoor enrichment, sports, performing arts, or academics, your child will have to adapt and overcome both little and big obstacles throughout their experience. Summer camp is the perfect time to learn assertiveness (which drives future self-advocacy), how to work cooperatively with others, build healthy friendships, and resolve conflict. 

Camp is a fun, interactive experience, to be sure, but it also includes adversity in the challenges children learn to overcome along the way. Imagine your child is trying rock climbing for the first time. Do they have a fear of heights they need to address? What about learning to communicate with their adult partner so that they have a safe, seamless journey up? Do they know how to advocate for their needs and comfort along the way? One single camp activity answers all these questions and contains a multitude of skills-training opportunities that guide your child or teenager in handling future conflict. 

By the very nature of being surrounded by new peers in new settings, children and teenagers learn to work cooperatively. Learning to work together with new acquaintances fosters a sense of community and teaches children to trust and work collectively. For example, working alongside peers in the Adventure Challenge will help your child have assurance in their peers, enhance their communication, and build self-confidence. Even expressing themselves through the arts, such as Theatre camp, helps model and role-play communication skills your children will need in the future. 

Finally, adults know that friendships are often built on the little battles that test the bonds between people. At SaSS your child will have to work with their friends to decide who’s the sports captain that day, or how to build a robot with different strategies suggested by others. Adult help provided by our dedicated and highly trained staff is always available to support and guide your children through these processes, but the beauty will be in seeing how your child independently learns those skills and applies them in the future. We can’t wait to watch your child grow this summer!

As parents sending their children to summer camp, you already know that there is more to your children’s success than academics alone. Did you know that there’s an educational framework and advocacy centered around this very concept? It’s called The Whole Child, and we love what it stands for. The Whole Child approach shoots for children to have long-term development and success. 

Any program that focuses on the following five tenets enriches the whole child:

• Healthy
• Safe 
• Engaged 
• Supported 
• Challenged

Health is a clear goal at Summer at Sandy Spring (SaSS). We recognize that it’s not just medical health that is important, but social, emotional, and mental health as well. There are so many ways to find enrichment for a healthy child in our summer programs! Our culinary team provides both meat and vegetarian-based entrees daily for lunch, in addition to two snacks, one dry-based snack and one fruit and vegetable-based snack to keep energy up. Through activities like our theatre and dance camps, or expression of dance and visual arts, children get to explore their emotions and build their “EQ”. There are neverending opportunities for peer engagement and social interaction. A close staff-to-camper ratio ensures your children get the adult support they need, whenever they need it. 

Safety is and should be synonymous with summer camp! With your children in our care for part or most of the day, their safety is paramount. We have registered nurses on duty during all normal camp operating hours, and many of our staff are First Aid and CPR trained. When your children romp in the water, you’ll know they’re under the protection of certified lifeguards. You can read all about our safety measures here. 

Engagement is a game changer when it comes to children’s development and learning. When children are engaged, their brains activate more, and they show greater diligence and resilience in their preferred tasks. Your children have the opportunity to indulge their interests in more than ten specialty camps in a variety of stimulating topics as well as twenty-two workshops. Social interactions and the positive environment of the outdoors, give your children every opportunity to find their engagement groove at SaSS. 

Another key tenet of our practice at SaSS is having a supported student camper. As previously mentioned, we keep a close staff-to-camper ratio to best attend to and support our campers’ variety of needs. Our administrative staff is made up of highly experienced educators and specialists dedicated to fostering your child’s growth and enrichment. 

Your children will experience appropriate challenges as a SaSSer. That means that not only will their bodies have an opportunity to be pushed in exertion, but their intellects and feelings will be pushed as well. Pushing their bodies and bravery clear out former fears and build confidence, and your child will learn resilience. Intellectual pursuits such as STEM-based specialty camps and academic support stretch brain power. Finally, meeting, engaging, and learning to work with new friends and their feelings is a life-long challenge that SaSSers learn to overcome every day by the very nature of the camp’s environment of group activities. 

As you can see, with the five tenets of the “Whole Child” guiding our pedagogy and passion, children have the potential to receive extraordinary and long-term benefits in their social, emotional, intellectual, and physical growth over just a few short months. We’re here to celebrate their gains every day, every step of the way. Our bonus? When we see our repeat campers and just how far they’ve grown each year!

Getting ready for camp involves so many things; organization (getting out the door), social skills (how will my kid interact with peers?), and also, emotional regulation (how will they cope with stress?). Let’s look at the emotional regulation aspect to help you know what to do if your child has a temper tantrum. Tantrums can hit at all ages and can be all shapes and sizes, but fortunately, the strategies to nip them in the bud are consistent!

Tip 1: Know Your Triggers
Did you know that tantrums usually occur in specific situations and as a result of common feelings? Examples include:

• Seeking attention (for a person, place, or thing), escaping an unpreferred activity or situation, or obtaining a tangible item.
• Transitions, mealtimes, and stopping a preferred activity.
• Big feelings in public places.
• Tantrums to express frustration, especially when verbal skills aren’t fully developed.

Tip 2: Stop Tantrums Before They Start (AKA Prevention)
There are ways to prevent tantrums from starting, including priming, teaching skills, and reinforcement.

• Priming: Give your kid a head’s up before transitions, meal times, and before activities are ending. 
• Teaching Skills: This means coping skills and life skills. Littles will be frustrated when they can’t achieve something immediately, so walk them through the process. Coping skills such as breathing techniques help your child self-soothe before a tantrum gets out of control.
• Reinforcement: Avoid negative reinforcement and try positive reinforcement instead.

Tip 3: What Not to Do
Despite your best intentions, you may be unintentionally prolonging or starting tantrums! Don’t:

• Think you can reason with your kid or get them to see what they did wrong. 
• Bribe your child.
• Give in to demands.

Tip 4: Try This Instead
These strategies are research-backed to help nip behavioral problems like tantrums in the bud.

• Ignore the behavior whenever possible (we know sometimes you can’t).
• Try differential reinforcement, otherwise known as “pay attention to good behavior and minimize attention to bad behavior”.
• Try short time-outs: Reconnect after 10-15 seconds of calm behavior and acknowledge good choices!

With this knowledge in your back pocket, you’re on the path to success to minimize tantrums in your life. Remember, these strategies apply to kids of all ages (because we know teens can throw a tantrum too!). Best of luck, and see you this summer!

As leaders in the outdoor summer camp field, you know we’re a big fan of getting outside. But did you know that there are research and evidence-based reasons why this is the best possible therapy for them? We should be concerned about sufficient outdoor time; according to research, children under the age of seven are expending, on average, 20 to 30 percent less energy doing physical activity than is recommended by the WHO. Read on for why playing outdoors is the best TLC you can provide your growing child. 

1. Get that Vitamin D!
Vitamin D is an essential building block for bones and the immune system, and we get it from sunshine. Want your kid to be a better sleeper? Vitamin D will also help improve sleep.

2. Brain Development Boosts
In infancy and toddler years, outdoor time invigorates and enlightens the senses and trains the brain to make new neuronal connections. As children get older, it leads to more imaginative play and increased spatial awareness. Physically, this is the best opportunity for gross and fine motor skills.

3. Executive Functioning Advantages
When children have outdoor time, research points to them being less fidgety, having improved memory recall, and developing creativity in problem-solving.

4. Responsibility and Risk-Taking
It’s hard to watch our kids climb trees or jump from limb to limb, but these activities train children in appropriate risk-taking behaviors. It can be scary if they get hurt—after all, no one wants a broken arm—but children learn from failure and from the opportunity to try risky things. 

5. Socialization and Leadership Skills
Playground (and yes, camp) interactions teach children a variety of social and leadership skills such as negotiation, conflict resolution, and appropriate turn-taking and cooperative skills. 

6. Increased Academic Performance (Yes, Really!)
Do you ever wonder why recess is protected? It’s because outdoor exposure is directly correlated with increased academic performance. Free, unstructured playtime leads to better focus when academic tasks are required, and helps children follow directions more easily, stay on task, and solve problems independently. 

7. Stress Reduction
Finally, being outside and in nature reduces what is called “directed attention” and allows for brain reset and relaxation. This is especially vital today when children are surrounded by urban distractors. 

The moral of our story? Get your children outside. While screen time is a welcome addition to modern parenting and a great distractor, outdoor play and unstructured time may be the best possible benefit for your child’s cognitive and overall development. If you’re fortunate, you can spend the whole summer working on this with us (hint, hint!). 

Looking forward to seeing your readers soon!

If you’re on our page, we know you’re looking at boosting your child’s joy through engagement, play, and enrichment. One of the best ways to promote your child’s well-being and success over time is to boost their EQ, or emotional intelligence. In fact, emotional intelligence is swiftly becoming one of the trending factors in hiring, so not only are you training them for the present, you’re preparing your kiddo for the future. There are many ways to train EQ, but here are four we recommend.

(1) Allow Emotional Expression 

Children will often act out their emotions in volatile ways (aggression), repress their feelings, or, if we are giving them the proper space, express their feelings. It’s important to let your child feel what they’re feeling. Don’t try to fix it, don’t ask them to change their feelings—allow them to feel what they’re feeling, validate it, and let them get it out. 

A good example of phrasing is “I see that you’re feeling sad. It’s ok that you’re feeling sad; we all do sometimes. Tell me about it.”

(2) Soothe and Let Them Self-Soothe

Most children, and even teens, are still learning how to cope with their feelings. Use times of emotion as an opportunity to both soothe them and let them learn to soothe themselves. 

(3) Model Emotional Control 

One of the most important ways children learn is through modeling (see Bandura’s social learning theory), so making sure you’re demonstrating appropriate emotional regulation is key to their future emotional success. That means showing them how you soothe strong emotions, considering the consequences of those emotions, and acknowledging them in the moment. Your children learn when they see you working through volatility effectively.

(4) Practice Active Listening

You don’t have to agree with what your children are feeling or even think it’s appropriate at that moment. However, by demonstrating that you see that feeling and recognize it (validation), you open the door to active listening, which will develop your relationship and the trust your children have in you as a safe space. Remember, reflect the feeling and validate the emotion, and check that you’re getting it right (“What I’m hearing is that you feel angry because you didn’t get to do that activity. Am I getting it right?”)

By practicing these four techniques, your child will be ready to conquer a variety of settings, experiences, and challenges. We look forward to seeing your EQ QTs this summer!

Looking forward to seeing your readers soon!

While summer camp is about getting outside and playing and broadening your children’s horizons, there’s a whole other way to broaden their outlook—getting inside a great book! However, so many parents we talk to struggle to keep their children engaged in reading when screen time has become such a popular (and frankly, often easier) go-to pastime. Reading, however, is directly related to children’s literacy, academic development, and most importantly, positively impacts children’s development. For example, reading directly impacts cognitive development and emotional performance. So how do you develop literacy at home?

If you can, start early.
If you are a parent of one of our Little Friends, it’s an amazing time to engage in reading together. Have a book as a nightly bedtime ritual.

Get silly with it.
Don’t be afraid to change your voice, pantomime, and act out playful or dramatic parts of a story. Build engagement by showing your child how much you’re enjoying the process, too.

Pause as you read.
Reading stories with your child is an opportunity to pause, check in, and learn together. You may want to rush through it and get the story “done” as another chore, but that would be a missed opportunity! Check in with your child (“What did you think of that part?”), Look at pictures, and ask about them, if they’re still part of your child’s book adventure.

Branch out from books.
No one said you have to read a book. What if you find a magazine you both enjoy? Maybe there’s a blog that you and your tween or teen can keep up with you and discuss. Reading is not limited to hard copy texts.

Model, model, model.
Readers come from readers. If your children see you only watching TV, they’re going to do the same. Have designated reading time at night as a family, even if it’s just for half an hour.

Let your child be the author.
Creativity abounds at all ages, so let your children be the author or playwright and get involved in their stories.

Tie books to movies.
Have a stubborn kid who doesn’t want to read? Have him/her read the story or you read along, too; then watch the movie together. Harry Potter is a great place to start for so many ages!

Building literacy is a life-long skill and a journey you’ll take together with your child. Open their minds to the world of reading and watch their imaginations flourish, their vocabulary expand, and their problem-solving blossom.

Looking forward to seeing your readers soon!