FROM PEARLS OF WISDOM

The “Not So Angry Birds” at POW this week learned to appreciate our 5 senses with and to…

SMELL with our nose
SEE with our eyes
HEAR with our ears
TASTE with our tongue
TOUCH with our hands

Many bird feeders & nests were made in hopes of attracting birds such as Red Wing Blackbirds and the beautiful American Gold Finches, as seen here at CRH!

This week’s winner of the Cutting Veg or Fruit contest is Raya H. from JG-5! The answer was horseradish. Congrats!

ALL ABOUT THE BEES

It’s that time of year again when bees and wasps fly around and nest in the ground. To stay protected, we recommend that campers wear shoes with closed toes and socks – this not only protects your feet from stings but allows you to participate better in active sports and run around keeping your feet well supported and free from injury.

We see wasps nests sometime around camp – our great maintenance staff get rid of them right away as soon as we see a nest starting to form. If you get stung by a wasp it may hurt but they will not leave a stinger in you.

Ground bees are the ones that live in the ground and can sting our feet if we step on them by accident. Bees leave their stinger in you and it has to be taken out.

If you are stung at camp Robin Aid will take care of you!

There are many types of bees – bumble bees, honey bees, ground bee, wasps, hornets, carpenter

Here are a few fun facts about bees:

• The honey bee has been around for 30 million years.
• It is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.
• Honey bees are environmentally friendly
• They are insects with a scientific name – Apis mellifera
• They have six legs, two eyes, and two wings, a nectar pouch, and a stomach
• A honey bee can fly for up to six miles and as fast as 15 miles per hour,
• The bee leaves its stinger and venom pouch behind and soon dies after it stings
• Honeybees communicate with one another by “dancing”
• Ground bees will not sting unless they are stepped on or bothered
• One worker honeybee lives about four weeks in spring and summer.
• The queen bee is the most important bee in the hive

Check out these links for more fun facts about bees:

https://www.pestworldforkids.org/bees.html
https://www.ontariobee.com/index.phpaction=display&cat=38

Read about them and BEE Happy!

CABINS AND GROUNDS WINNERS

This week’s Cabins and Grounds winners are Junior Boys & Junior Girls, Senior Girls, and A4 from Sports Academy!

STAYING HYDRATED

Staying hydrated is very important and ensures that your body maintains a healthy temperature. By following these tips you can keep cool and prevent yourself from overheating:

Drink lots of fluids:

* Drink plenty of cool liquids throughout the day – water is best!

* If you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated!

* One camp cone cup is about 2 ½ oz (75 mls) so you need to drink about 3 cone cups to get 1 full cup of water – when you stop to drink at the camp coolers try to have 2 or 3 cone cups of water every time!

* Drink water before, during and after physical activity.

Eat for the season:

* Lots of foods have water in them and they help keep you hydrated.

* Try enjoying cold summer foods like fruits, salads and cold meat.

* Make homemade popsicles and smoothies, and munch on frozen grapes, berries or bananas

Get wet:

* Water on the outside of your body is good too – Get into the pool every day.

* Splash water on yourself to stay cool!

* Visit the camp misters to get a spray of cool water.

* Bathe, shower or soak your feet for an instant cool down.

Dress for the weather:

* Wear lightweight, loose-fitting and light-coloured clothing with a weave you cannot see through. If you can see through your clothing the UV rays can also get through.

* Fabrics like cotton and linen are more breathable, try to avoid synthetics.

* Remember to wear your sunglasses.

* If you have long hair, tie it back away from your face.

Know the signs:

Watch for symptoms of heat illness – headaches, dizziness, muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, a rapid heartbeat or extreme thirst. If you feel any of these try to bring your body’s temperature down by moving to a cooler place, drinking water and misting your body with water.

We have great mister bottles you can purchase through the camp office.

WINNERS OF CABINS AND GROUNDS WEEK 6

The Cabins and Grounds winners this week are the Senior Girls, the Munchies, and A3 from Sports Academy!

PEARLS OF WISDOM

At POW this week for Mad Science Week, we used a black light and fake germs to illustrate proper hand washing! Campers learned the “when”, “how” & “why” behind hand washing. They also learned other best practices for staying healthy, like coughing and sneezing in your sleeve, not in your hands. Slime and bug making were also two other activities from this week!

So folks, bottom line, if you want to stay healthy, wash your hands!

This week’s winner of the “Cutting Fruit or Veg” contest is Benji N. from SB1! Congrats!

FUN IN THE SUN

Sun safety is paramount at CRH – we take sun protection very seriously.

We are proud to be a SUN AWARE Certified Camp through the Melanoma Network. In fact in 2016 we were the winners of the Screen Me Sun Safe Camp award.

Working as a partner with parents we can ensure all of you our campers have fun in the sun and stay protected from today’s strong UV rays.

Here are some tips to protect from the sun……

• Slather campers in sunscreen before they get on the bus in the morning – it is best to do this before the camper gets dressed or in their bathing suit to make sure shoulders and along / under straps get fully covered
• Use a sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher
• Shake sunscreen before it is applied
• Use the right amount  – at least one palm full for a person’s body
• If using a spray sunscreen make sure it is rubbed in well because the spray can often miss spots
• Cover up
• Slip on a shirt – Keep in mind if you can see sunlight through the shirt UV rays will also penetrate the shirt. Try to choose shirts with a thicker weave that will help stop UV rays
• Slap on a hat – it is important to wear a hat every day at camp. If campers do not have a hat you are more than welcome to call the camp office to purchase a CRH hat
• Reapply at camp
• At camp we will reapply sunscreen at various times throughout the day especially after each swim and at lunch.
• Campers in the Inter and Senior units are able to apply sunscreen themselves – staff are always available to help with backs and hard to reach areas. Campers in our Junior Units will have a bit more help putting sunscreen on and the Leppie and Munchie counsellors will apply sunscreen to these young campers.
• Check out www.screenme.ca for lots of fun activities and information from the Melanoma Network

MEDICATIONS AT CAMP

Please use the “send meds to camp form” if you are sending medications for your camper to take at camp. This can be found on the camp website under Camp Prep.

We have Registered Nurses who are able to administer medications.

All medication MUST be sent in the original pharmacy container, with the prescription label or the original package for non-prescription medication.

All medications and the med form should be sent through Bus Mail – please give them directly to your bus counsellor who will ensure medications go through our camp process and will be delivered to Robin Aid.

A Day in the Life of…the Seniors

I’m Jessica, a newbie to Camp Robin Hood. This summer I will be shadowing units, cabins, staff, and various activities, and giving you an inside look at what it’s like to spend summers at CRH. I hope you have as much fun as I’m having!

Age Group: Completed Grades 4-7
Section Heads: Lara (Senior Girls) and Steve (Senior Boys)
Cabins: SG-4 and SB-2
Counsellors: Brooke & Mel (SG) and Daniel & Brendon (SB)

This week I finally made it to the Senior Unit! Now the Seniors are a bit different than the rest of the units at CRH. First off, both the boys and girls are together in one unit, which makes it seem like a smaller group, and they also have the widest age span of kids at camp (ages 9-13). For the majority of the day I was with a group of preteen girls, which was really just very educational, but also made me feel older than I have all summer here at camp.

At the beginning of the summer it occurred to me very quickly that I was definitely older than most of the staff, but it wasn’t really a huge deal. And as I’ve gone and shadowed the nursery-aged, juniors and inters, the campers just felt like little kids and they looked at me as another counsellor. But when I headed over to SG-4, which is a group of girls who are going into grade 7 and 8, it was a whole other experience. I felt old!

These girls were using acronyms that made no sense to me at all. To them, boys no longer have ‘cooties.’ We compared stories about broken cell phones (I didn’t even know what a cell phone was at their age). And at some point, we even started talking about what types of summer jobs they want to have in the next few years (camp counsellors, obviously). I was also able to see how the campers and their counsellors interacted. At this age it’s much more like a friendship rather than a teacher-student type of relationship.

But back to our day, we started by making beaded bracelets and writing the next week’s Cup-o’-Love cheer as campers were arriving. If you read my Day in the Life of the Intergirls, then you know that the Senior Girls have this Cheer-Off down pat. They are currently on a role with three consecutive Cheer-Off wins, and this week’s cheer was looking to be just as solid! They have the right formula of old-school (for the judges) and today’s Top 40 (for them), and this week thing’s are getting ‘bootylicious.’

Their first activity for the day was swim, where the seniors got into their appropriate swim groups and got right into their lessons. Once again, this is an age group where the kids are fully into their lessons. It almost makes me jealous at how good they actually are. I was never put into swimming lessons as a kid so it was a long process of me just learning how to swim (float) on my own. While everyone was in the pool, I chatted up the star of the camp play as she wasn’t able to swim that day. We bonded over our love of musicals and basically became BFFs on the spot.

Once swim was over we headed back to the unit to get changed, have a snack and gossip about our camp crushes. Then it was time for Music & Drama, which I had yet to even step into the castle, and was just excited as the girls were to head over there. M&D is a magical place, mainly because I got to participate. The girls were split into two groups and myself, Lara and the M&D guys were in a third group. We had to do fairytale-themed Mad Libs and then act out the ridiculous story we had recreated. Here are the girls’ versions of Cinderella and The Three Little Pigs:

After M&D we went to Archery, which again I had never done before. The girls looked so bad a** with those bow and arrows that I knew I had to get my Katniss on. I nervously shot one arrow and quickly realized that I would definitely NOT win The Hunger Games. So I moved on to arranging this photo shoot of the girls and the head of Archery, Scott, which they were completely on board for!

Once we freed Scott from our arrows, we headed to the opposite end of camp for Nature. It was at this point that I really wished I had an odometer to know how many steps I had taken that morning alone. This is how our morning had gone so far: we started at the unit (most eastern part of the property), went to Swim (middle of camp), back to the unit, M&D (middle of camp), Archery (southeast corner), Nature (west side of camp) and then finally back to the unit for lunch. So now you know why your Seniors are completely exhausted by the time they get home.

Anyway, back to Nature. It was a jam-packed 30-minutes where we got to visit the newly-hatched baby ducks, set off our volcanoes, and got a preview of what the Seniors would be doing in next week’s Options: rockets made with various beverages and house-hold items. They were so cool that Nature had all of the girls second-guessing the Options they had already picked (Nature is on a role this year, and frankly if I were a camper I’d want to be spending all of my time there!)

We headed back to the unit for lunch, which we were more than looking forward to. We were all super hungry and just inhaled our food, allowing us to have time to talk about which girls were excited to be CIT/LITs next summer.

Next was Options, which is an opportunity that the Seniors get where they can spend a full hour at their activity of choice. It’s a great way for this older group to feel a little more in control of their schedule, and frankly allows them to experience the things that interest them the most. CRH has such an array of activities that the Seniors truly have the ‘Option’ to dabble in their interests a little longer. In fact, rather than following a specific cabin, I also chose what interested me.

First I went to Land Sports, which was the talk of the camp that week with their wheelchair basketball. It’s amazing that CRH was able to acquire enough chairs that the campers could have a true experience of what it’s like to play this sport. I heard more campers around camp talking about this activity than any other activity all summer. It was definitely an eye-opening experience for them while still having a ton of fun!

For the second half of Options I headed to The Wall, another place I hadn’t yet been to. Despite my fear of heights as a kid, this would have for sure been the activity I chose. The Wall is so neat, with a large variety of climbing options. And although I didn’t get to climb anything myself, I watched your campers turn into little monkeys. I honestly can’t even describe what I saw, which is exactly why I got this video of two Senior Boys (brothers) racing to the top of one of the climbing elements:

After Options I headed to Arts & Crafts with SB-2 where we made these cool tinfoil paintings. Since I know my mom is way over the whole art-on-the-fridge thing, I put my painting up in the office for all of the staff to enjoy!

Finally we had our last swim, which was a Free Swim where the Seniors could pretty much do anything they felt like doing: handstands, volleyball, tag, the usual fun pool activities. Once our half hour was up, we headed back to the unit to get ready for their trip home, enjoy a freezie and sort of just veg.

It was a really fantastic day with the Seniors, but I was happy to head back to the office where they don’t speak in acronyms on a regular basis.

A Day in the Life of…a Bus Counsellor

I’m Jessica, a newbie to Camp Robin Hood. This summer I will be shadowing units, cabins, staff, and various activities, and giving you an inside look at what it’s like to spend summers at CRH. I hope you have as much fun as I’m having!
Age Group: All ages
Bus: 46 (Thornhill Woods)
Counsellors: Melanie, Justin, Zachary

I am not a bus person. It’s been over ten years since I’ve been on a school bus, and when I moved to Toronto, it took me a long time to warm up to the idea of city busses. I’m not really sure where my issue with busses stems from, but regardless, it meant that I wasn’t overly excited to ride the bus to and from camp. I sucked it up anyway because I knew how big of a deal the bus ride at Camp Robin Hood is. And man was I glad I got the experience!

It was Sports Day that day, so I got into my 49ers outfit and headed to the neighbourhood pick-up location where I would meet up with the majority of the kids on Bus 46. I was surprised to see that there were other camps that also used this location as their pick-up spot, but it was easy to see which campers were going to CRH with their bright blue backpacks. I was there just long enough to see a few kids start playing soccer before the bus arrived and Melanie, Justin and Zachary stepped out to greet the campers and their parents and take attendance.

Now I was expecting the kids to be much louder, but for the most part they were just hanging out with their friends that they hadn’t seen since Friday. We had one door-to-door pick-up to make and then we were on our way. Once we hopped on to the 407, the excitement really started. It was time to prepare for Bus Cup Challenge points. The counsellors started off with giving each seat a window marker. The kids went to town colouring and drawing their names and pictures while Justin gave them an assignment. They needed to come up with two rhyming words that related to camp, bus or sports. Each seat gave their suggestions for rhymes and then Justin handed them to Mel to put them all together to form one big rhyme.

In the meantime, all three counsellors were joking around with the kids, dancing and being just silly enough that even the older kids (me) found it fun and not annoying for 8:30 am. I have to say, considering Mel, Zach and Justin had been awake and on the bus for quite some time already, they had a ton of energy. Next thing I knew we were already off the 407 so it was time to throw it into high gear. Zach and Justin taught the kids the rhyme and then moved on to Bus 46’s Sports Day Cheer (to the tune of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”), take a look below.

We arrived to camp and the bus admin hopped on the bus to hear our rhyme and cheer. Once we had given them all the energy we could muster up, the kids flew off the bus and headed to their units to enjoy the day.

I also went about my day and by the time it got around to dismissal I was not as energetic as I had been in the morning. It was super-hot that day, and frankly, I was not in the mood to get back on the bus. My 30 minute drive home has always been dedicated to “me” time, unwinding from the day with my music blasting and my windows down. But, I sucked it up, like every other staff member that rides the bus has to do, cause the motto at CRH is that the bus ride should be just as fun for campers as their day at camp is. It’s amazing how quickly I forgot about my normal routine once I was actually on the bus and making friends with a bunch of girls with boondoggle! But more about that later.

When I found my seat on the bus, the little girl that I was sitting beside climbed over me and joined a bunch of other kids on the other side of the bus. In fact, every camper was standing on the seats and looking out the windows, which I quickly realized was a CRH tradition. They were waving and yelling out their counsellor’s names, Howie and Sari’s names, and other staff members that they come across in their day.

I understand that the whole point of me writing these blog posts is so you guys as parents can get a little sneak peek of what your kids’ day is like at camp. But this daily event (yes, it’s an event) of the kids waving bye to all of the staff lined up along the drive way out of camp is something I wish all of you could experience. It’s pretty cool to see from outside of the busses, but it’s a whole other thing to see from inside the busses. This last image of the day that your kids get before the drive home is definitely one of the things that gets them excited to come back to camp the next day. There is so much energy on both sides of the goodbye, it’s truly a sight to see.

Once we were all properly back in our seats and off the property, the boondoggle party started! I wasn’t able to make a bracelet, but I did get to make a little key chain. I also helped two girls tie a 15-piece project and start another camper’s bracelet. I know that CRH does their best to make sure the bus ride is as quick and easy as possible, and that’s exactly what it was. I was enjoying myself so much that I was surprised when we got back to the neighbourhood drop-off. I definitely was happy to get back in my car the next day, but I’m so glad I got to have that truly authentic CRH experience. Thanks Bus 46 for giving me faith in school busses again!

Side note: I need to give a quick shout out to the bus admin team and their fearless leaders Robin, Ehren and Larry. I happen to sit right across from Robin in the office, where I hear her working non-stop before, during and after camp hours making sure that your kids get to and from camp as safely as possible. Their dedication is just amazing.

A Day in the Life of…the InterGirls

I’m Jessica, a newbie to Camp Robin Hood. This summer I will be shadowing units, cabins, staff, and various activities, and giving you an inside look at what it’s like to spend summers at CRH. I hope you have as much fun as I’m having!

Age Group: Completed Grades 2&3
Section Head: Sarah L.
Cabin: IG5 (10 girls)
Counsellors: Jaime, Kaitlyn and Sarah D.

I arrived at the InterGirls unit to a much more relaxed and mellow atmosphere then that of the Munchies or Junior Boys. It’s amazing how big a difference a couple of years makes when it comes to a kid’s morning energy levels. Regardless, once all of the girls had arrived, they snapped out of their sleepy daze and began to practice their cheer for the morning’s Senior Flagpole. I’d heard lots about Sr. Flagpole, so I was excited to be there on a Wednesday where I could experience the excitement. Sarah L. had written a pretty awesome cheer to Katy Perry’s “Roar,” which the girls had already learned, but during this last minute practice some of the counsellors added in a few moves as well.

We then headed to the Arrowdome with the InterBoys and Seniors for morning Flagpole where they would show off their talents in order to gain points for the Cup-O-Love. When we arrived, the IGs were tied for first with the Senior Boys, so we were ready to keep up our lead.

First was a counsellor competition where they borrowed an idea from the Inters Special Day and had one counsellor wrapping the other one as quickly as possible in a full roll of toilet paper. Naturally, the InterGirls won and we were in the lead!

Next was the talent show portion where we listened to some jokes from the InterBoys, singing from the Senior Girls and watched break dance moves from the Senior Boys. Excuse me as we interrupt for our weekly CRH Frozen break. That’s right, a group of IGs got up and sang “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” and of course prompted an annoyed sigh from a group of boys that are obviously completely over this never-ending obsession. The IGs did a great job, but unfortunately the boys with the jokes charmed the crowd and took the next point.

The InterGirls were still in the lead going into the last round: the cheer-off round. We got up first and in my opinion did an awesome job. I filmed the whole thing so take a look at your enthusiastic daughters.

Next were the IBs, and no offence, but I’ve already forgotten your cheer, which means you really need to step it up next Wednesday! Maybe try enunciating a little more? But then came the Senior Girls, who did a mash-up of a Spice Girls and Beyonce inspired cheer (and let’s get real, they won as soon as they sung “You just walked in…”). To end the cheer-off, the Senior Boys sang a Led Zepplin/Beyonce mash up. I had already heard that the boys would be doing this, and I had really high expectations for it, but unfortunately the boys were just a little too young to remember the melody of the “Immigration Song.”

We stirred in our seats in anticipation for the cheer-off winner: the SGs won the cheer-off. It was obviously disappointing, but the IGs left the Arrowdome knowing they were still tied for first with the SGs, and already started planning their talent show act for next week.

We went right to swim where I had a hard time getting pictures of the girls because they were totally into their lessons. There is something very rewarding for them that keeps them completely engaged with their instructor…probably the idea of free swims, but still I saw a bunch of girls who were happy to be in swim lessons.

Next we headed back to the unit to change, snack and go on a Buffalo Hunt. You’re probably asking yourself right now “I knew there were some cool animals at camp, but buffalos?” I was just as confused so I asked Sarah L. what she was talking about. She explained to me that these are the code words for picking up wrappers and garbage that the girls leave around the unit (I will admit, on behalf of the female population, that boys get a bad rap when it comes to cleanliness. Girls are the worst, just ask my roommates from university). Anyway, the InterGirls do a great job of keeping their unit clean, which is obviously why they won “Grounds” in the Senior Division that week.

We were then off to Dance, where half of us went into the portable to learn a routine with chairs, and the other half stayed outside to learn a routine with ribbons. These girls are all about the performance and showed off their sassy moves for each other at the end of the period. Take a look at the cast for Season 35 of So You Think You Can Dance below.

After Dance came Arts & Crafts where we made rainbow-coloured cobra bracelets, which the girls were very excited about. I realized while at A&C that I’m seriously lacking in “camp arm candy” (For those of you who don’t keep up with the latest issues of Elle Canada, “arm candy” basically means the display of bracelets you wear on your wrists.) Right now I’m simply sporting an emergency hair elastic and my cool UV bracelet. What I’m missing is a variety of boondoggle, cobra bracelets and deep end bracelets. I tried to bribe one of the girls to let me have the one she was making, but I IMMEDIATELY got shut down. I later found out that the secret to getting campers to make you boondoggle and bracelets of any kind is to have a fanny pack that they can decorate with their colourful creations. I unfortunately do not have that privilege.

Then it was time for lunch, where the girls chatted, practiced their talent show routines for next week, and once again, compared what their parents had packed them to eat. Oh right, and they also talked Jaime into braiding her hair.

We headed back to the pool, and luckily I was able to interrupt a few girls for a photo-op. But then they were quickly back to practicing their diving, floating and front-crawl skills.

Unfortunately I was with the IGs on an early dismissal day, but fortunately, I got to hang out with them as they prepared for the Colour Wars breakout. That means I got to help all the campers get their face paint on so they could cheer for their team during the first event. It was hilarious to see all of the green, yellow, red and blue (and not so hilarious for all of you parents when they got home with face paint smudged everywhere), so I got a bunch of the girls to pose for a super enthusiastic picture in all of those colours.

Before we headed to the “big top”, I got a first-hand lesson in the friendships made at camp. It’s obvious to see that the campers are making, or have already made, life-long friends here. And I’ve even heard about these friendships from my own friends that went to camp as kids. But what I didn’t think about was the friendships the counsellors make. A lot of them have grown up together as campers and are now working together, and some of them have just met and are in the early stages of those relationships, but no matter when they met, there is a bond being made here that I’ve never experienced before, and frankly I wish I had when I was their age. I’ve been so impressed and excited throughout this past month seeing the impact that CRH has on people, myself included.

Anyway, We headed to the Arrowdome, aka The Circus, where the campers were sectioned off into their colours for the remainder of the afternoon. They watched quite the performance from real-life circus acts, as well as from the staff, which certainly geared them up for the next day of full-on Colour Wars. I could go on forever on how amazingly cool Colour Wars was, but the short version is simply that I got a #kangarooselfie.

Thanks InterGirls for showing me a great day and joining me in my first Colour Wars experience here at CRH.

A Day in the Life of…The Juniors

I’m Jessica, a newbie to Camp Robin Hood. This summer I will be shadowing units, cabins, staff, and various activities, and giving you an inside look at what it’s like to spend summers at CRH. I hope you have as much fun as I’m having!

Age Group: Completed SK and Grade 1
Section Heads: Jason (Junior Boys) and Joanne (Junior Girls)
Cabin: Entire Unit (about 100 boys)
Counsellors: 18 Counsellors

This week I decided to investigate what a Special Day was at Camp Robin Hood. I’d heard lots about them, seen counsellors and section heads planning them and had even reminded parents of upcoming Special Days in the CRH Newsletter. But when it came down to it, they were a complete mystery to me. So I joined Jason Gregor, aka Gregor, aka Grilled Cheese (funny story, this has been Jason’s nickname at CRH for years, and has something to do with the fact that when his parents went out of town, he managed to survive on the same meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner), and the Junior Boys for their Western-themed day of fun!

The day started with a whole bunch of six and seven-year-old cowboys arriving at the unit. There were cowboy hats, vests, chaps and some hilarious moustaches. These kids were dressed up and ready to visit the Wild Wild West. During arrival I eavesdropped on a group of boys playing a card game called ‘Top Trumps’, which I came to the conclusion is an updated version of ‘Pokemon’ except with super heroes, but I never really got ‘Pokemon’ and probably just made that up. I also looked in on a game of Gaga, which is officially on my camp bucket list. It looks like a blast, I’ve heard it’s a summer camp staple and I still have no idea how to play it. Now I just need to find someone to teach me…

Once the nearly 100 boys had put their bags away and posed for some pictures in their cowboy outfits, they sat in lines with their cabins and calmly waited for a special guest to arrive.

Gregor: Hey Junior Boys
Junior Boys: Hey Yah

(Unlike ‘Waterfall’ at Munchies, the ‘Hey Yah’ response is the loudest response you can imagine, while still having the same effect of getting the unit’s attention. In fact, if you need a hype man at your next event, any of these boys could do the job, but more on that later.)

Just then Mayor Ford arrived (wearing a Ford T-Shirt…the car manufacturer, not the Toronto mayor) with his wife to say hi to the JBs. But before the mayor could tell us why he was there, an evil bandit came and tied him up and kidnapped him. The boys were given a mission for the day: get the mayor back from the evil bandit by paying him with three bags of diamonds, which they would earn at their activities throughout the day.

So the boys were split into groups–one went and played a Lasso Game and the others played Freeze Dance while learning the ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ two-step. Next was Tin Can Shooting where the boys were given a spray bottle and had to shoot it at a pyramid of beach buckets to knock them down.

Then came the Dance-Off where I got a lesson in Camp Spirit. In the last few weeks I’ve been noticing at various Flagpoles that the Junior Boys are by far the most enthusiastic unit at Camp Robin Hood. When they are asked to cheer, they cheer the loudest. When they win Cabins & Grounds (they’re undefeated in the Junior Division, by the way), they celebrate the loudest. And when a Camp Dance song comes on, they dance the hardest. And I’m not just talking about this year’s Camp Dance (which they already knew most of the moves), but they still remember every move of last year’s dance, too. I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was so cool that after an entire year of adding and subtracting, spelling tests and history lessons, they still remembered all of the moves to ‘Can’t Hold Us’. I went back to the office and bragged about these talented boys, and a camper-turned-office-staff said she still remembers year’s worth of Camp Dances. And the Camp Spirit Award goes to….the entire Camp Robin Hood gang. Love it!

Oh, and how could I forget, they were all super awesome dancers. And that doesn’t just go for the kids; the counsellors have quite the rhythm, so much so that I promised I would give them a shout out for their sweet moves.

We then played a quick game of Horseshoe Toss before heading off to swim. Some groups were practicing their floating, others learned all about water safety, and another group took a quick canon ball break, where I was able to get some fun action shots of their best freestyle jumps.

When swim was done we headed back to the unit so the boys could change and have a quick snack. I took this opportunity to take a short break from the Wild Wild West and headed over to Robindelle where the Junior Girls were having their Frozen-themed Special Day. Just like the rest of the world, CRH has Frozen-fever and these girls were getting a kick out of their counsellors reenacting a few scenes from the movie, including musical numbers. I’m not sure I’m sick of ‘Let it Go’ and ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman?’ quite yet, but after a day with the soundtrack playing non-stop, I think the JG counsellors are ready for a break.

I headed back to hang out with the cowboys, just as they were heading to the Gaga court to search for diamonds that were buried in the sand. Every time one of the boys found a diamond, there were exclamations of excitement as they dropped them in the collection bucket. (FYI, there were about 90 diamonds hidden in the sand by the counsellors, and less than half were found. So if your kid comes home with a ‘gift for mom’ you know where it came from!)

We then took a break for lunch, where I was quickly brought back to elementary school as we all compared what was in our lunch bags.

Next came a ‘Cowboy Ride’ Relay Race that ended just in time for the delivery of a ransom note for Mayor Ford. The clue indicated that there were letters hidden around camp that spelled the final clue to get back our beloved mayor. We ran through camp from one clue to the next, finally ending up at Flagpole where we exchanged our bags of diamonds for Mayor Ford, but not before the evil bandit got away.

We celebrated the return of Ford by heading to our second swim, where I got a few more action shots of CRH’s budding Olympic divers. And then headed back to camp for a special treat to end our Special Day: cupcakes! And of course one more crack at the Camp Dance.

Now I thought I was exhausted after hanging out with the Munchies last week, but I really had no idea what exhausted even meant. Thanks Junior Boys for a great day, see you next week InterGirls!

Now that week 1 is in the books and you have hopefully been flooded with stories of a positive start to the summer, I thought I would share a few thoughts based on my conversations with parents this week.

The transition from school routines to camp routines can take a few days to settle in but once they do, the experience is super-positive for both parents and campers. Here are four topics that I have consistently addressed with parents during the week. Some of these topics can be easily shared with your campers to reinforce what we are trying to do at camp.

Lunch

The atmosphere of camp; outdoors, things in constant motion and the heat can often result in kids being less hungry. This could cause a greater likelihood of campers not eating their entire lunch. While our staff work hard to promote and monitor peer interactions during lunch time they also ensure that campers are eating their lunch which can be challenging if campers don’t feel that hungry. Snacks on the go (such as granola bars, a piece of fruit, some crackers), to eat as they travel between activities are strongly recommended, to send along with their lunch. Aside from the end of day snack camp provides (which is usually a freezie on hot days or cookies or crackers), campers tend to dip into their lunch bag for some extra food before the bus ride home. We, of course remind and if needed, assist our campers in closing their lunch bags before heading to the bus. For everyone’s safety on the bus there is a no eating rule in place. On another note, many of you are already sending your camper’s lunch in an insulated bag with a freezer pack or my favourite is to use a frozen juice box which after keeping lunch cool could then be a slushy before the bus or when they get home!

Water bottles/juice and water at camp

We work hard to keep our staff and campers well hydrated throughout the day. The entire camp is on the move every 30 minutes and sometimes don’t return to the cabin until after swim. Unlike school, where students are within their classroom all day, campers at Robin Hood are in motion for the bulk of the day. It might be hard to carry around a water bottle for a long period of time but our strategically placed water stations are equipped with cups and we encourage campers to make a stop for water every time they pass one. Re-filling water bottles is encouraged if they have one on their travels and we even provide cold water in small cups (using bigger cups would result in more “pit stops” along the way!) for the bus ride home. Juice is a also available at lunch.

Sunscreen

We count on our families, rain or shine, to apply sunscreen to their kids before they are in their bathing suits or at least before their tshirt/shorts go on. We have a minimum of 2 times scheduled during the day where we reapply sunscreen to campers who have completed grades 1 and younger. Staff supervise and assist to ensure backs and hard to reach areas are well covered with sunscreen for campers who have completed grades 2 and up. We store all sunscreen of campers (which should be well labelled) in the sunscreen baskets kept in each cabin. As sunscreen bottles near empty, we will do our best to notify you.  We strongly recommend swim shirts/rash guards for kids to wear for our swim times. I would also like to emphasize that on hot active days campers may come home quite flush – especially campers that are fair – please give it some time for your child to cool down from the day. Often after dinner and a bath is a better time to make an assessment. Don’t forget to also look to see if the redness is outside of where their bathing suit straps or shorts are … if there is no difference between the areas covered by the bathing suit then it is more likely to be from being flushed rather than from a burn. I strongly recommend increasing to a higher UV sunscreen for even better protection and/or avoiding the use of tank tops on super sunny days.

Structure of the Robin Hood day

Like school, camp is organized on a timetable whereby periods change every 30 minutes. Given the age of our camper population and ability to move about the site, this appears to work quite nicely. Our day incorporates our two swims, change time, lunch, snack and a series of blocks to enjoy our specialties while also giving ample opportunity for our counsellors to do cabin focused activities just with their group. Sports Academy has a similar approach whereby sports instruction and game play are varied throughout each day.  We have plenty of indoor areas just in case the rain (aka “liquid sunshine”) disrupts our typical day and our