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June 22, 2010

MySummerCamps.com: News You Can Use newsletter

Summer Camp staff use effective behavior management strategies

The C's in Discipline

When summer camp starts many children feel a sense of freedom. Gone are the ever watchful eyes of parents, familiar rules and their routines. This can cause some disciplinary issues. As the camp staff this is where your role begins. Here are five useful tips that may create an effective disciplinary system. As said by Stephen Wallace, M.S. Ed. in his article: Confessions of a Disciplinarian: How Managing Camper Behavior Can Save the Summer.

1. Clarify rules: Some rules are negotiable and some are not. Health and safety is not up for discussion. Make the rules of your camp clear from the on-set. Post them after orientation and drive the message home.

2. Communication: Setting expectations and boundaries can go a long way.

3. Consistency: Leniency may confuse young campers rather than build rapport. Enforce the rules, and do so on a consistent basis.

4. Consequences: When rules are broken enforce the consequences.

5. Character Counts: At the end of the day this is what really matters. You have an opportunity to instill some new values in our youth, and perhaps solidifying old values they learned before under your tutelage.

Posting the rules up in staff lunch rooms or in camp manuals is an effective way to make sure the camp team is keeping rule number three: consistency. The difference may be in a few campers who genuinely reaped the benefits of the five C's. Kids return to happy parents excited to send their children back to your camp. At the end of the day, camp activities make up just a portion of the experience and it's up to the staff to ensure that their experience is congenial for everyone.

Get more effective disciplinary ideas here