Even meals can be magical when you’re a First Class Counsellor!

Welcome to episode 12 of First Class Counsellors!

The best counsellors are the ones that take every opportunity to be intentional about the time they spend with their campers.

A meal can often be one of the most overlooked chances to make connections with kids, and that sort of makes sense. At meals, there are so many things to pay attention to: are the kids eating? Did they get enough food? Are they all at the table? It’s not easy!

Once you’ve got the basics down though, then it’s time for the magic to start! Meals are such a great time to have fun, make conversation and connect with our campers. Some kids these days may not have the type of home life where they actually sit together and eat away from a TV, so this is our opportunity to show them something awesomely different!

it’s your time to shine and that’s where this show is here to help. Join Oliver and Matt for this deep-dive into how to make meals better than just normal.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

The basics about how dining halls work at different camps
What you need to look out for while kids are eating
How to help campers who are picky eaters try new foods
Some strategies and games for making meaningful conversation at the table
Some games and activities that you can try to add some magic into the meal

Remember that as you listen to this episode:

As we always say, make sure you’re following your camp’s policies and procedures. Don’t promise campers anything you can’t deliver on or anything would be against the way that your camp has trained you on. When in doubt about using a strategy, ask!

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As usual, we hope that what we offer to your staff is incredibly useful. If you do send this along, we would be happy to hear about it. Please let us know by emailing Matt at matt@gocamp.pro

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Get Ready - Counsellors, do this NOW to level up your counselling skills

Oliver:

Find a way to have your table at your chest when you eat your next meal. When you do this, you find out real quick why campers are always spilling things or standing up or sitting in weird positions.

Matt:

Think about your global impact when you are eating or at the grocery store this week. When you go to the grocery store, how hard is it to buy food that isn’t in packaging or to not use reusable bags. Think about that to help shape your experiences to pass on to campers.

Host Links

Oliver Gregan, Summer and Families Camp Director at YMCA Camp Jewell
Matt Honsberger, Executive Producer of Podcasting at Go Camp Pro

What is First Class Counsellors?

Camp Directors, this Podcast isn’t for you. It’s time to delegate! First Class Counsellors is for your counselling staff, the ones who are on the ground, playing with kids and changing lives.

Each week, we’ll cover practical and accessible tips that will level up your camp counsellor skills. These are things every counsellor should know, but that you may not have time to teach in staff training.

Our two hosts, Oliver Gregan, Summer and Families Camp Director at YMCA Camp Jewell and Matt Honsberger from Go Camp Pro are excited to be able to provide this resource to camp counsellors and up and coming staff, who they believe, have the most important job at camp.