So you’ve come home from your week at Moorelands Camp. You spent the week learning Girl’s End and Boy’s End cheers, playing WILD camp games, trying new activities, laughing till your stomach hurt with your cabin mates, learning from your cabin leaders, making great friends, and developing as a LEADER.
But home is not camp is it? It might feel quieter, or maybe you feel like you’re missing camp a lot. And perhaps you feel like you don’t know how to take the things that you learned at camp, and apply it to your NORMAL life. While camp only happens once a year, (or more often if you take part in Moorelands Kids’ after-school programs!) you can keep camp going by being a leader every day of the year!
Here are some tips and ideas on how you can use the skills you learned at camp, at home!
Respect: Stop and Think
When you want to live out the quality of RESPECT, you can practice choosing your response. It might be tricky to be back in your regular environment. But one way you can show your parents, your teachers, and your friends respect and be a leader every day is to STOP AND THINK. When you are in a situation where you feel like your emotions could take over, pause. Breathe. Think through how you would like to be treated, and how you could treat other people. Be polite to your parents, your teachers, and even your friends and siblings. When you treat others the way you want to be treated, you’re a leader who is respectful.
Responsibility: Have goals and work towards them
When you set goals for yourself, you can choose what is important to you, choose your attitude towards your responsibilities, and do what you are supposed to do. There are things every day that you can set goals around. Perhaps you should work on getting your homework done every night before playing video games. Or maybe one of the ways you demonstrate responsibility is by helping with doing the dishes. Or maybe you want to set a goal that will allow you to earn some money, and have a plan about saving and spending. When you have goals, you can stay on track.
Caring: Listen, Ask, Share
Your relationships are the most important place where you can demonstrate leadership. When you’re at home, or school, or your community centre, you will face conflicts and problems. As a leader, one of the things you can do is LISTEN to the people around you- everyone has a story and a reason for their behaviour. You can ASK for clarification so that you can understand your parents or your friends when you disagree. You can SHARE your thoughts, your problems, your concerns, and your ideas because what you bring to the table has value. Caring for the people in your life means being kind, forgiving others who might wrong you, and helping people.
Trustworthiness: Do the Right Thing
Being a leader every day means demonstrating that you are trustworthy. When others know that you are trustworthy, they will know that you are someone who plays by the rules, and who is honest. You might face hard situations. School can be hard, friendships can be hard, families can be complicated. But when you have the courage to do the right thing, you do your part to bring peace, to bring fairness, help others, and to show that you are a person who can be counted on. So if your Mom asks you to do something, remember that as a leader, you want to demonstrate that YOU are TRUSTWORTHY. Keep your word, and stick with what is right.
Citizenship: Do your Share
Being part of a community comes with responsibility. Communities could be your neighbourhood, your school, the clubs you’re a part of, or your family. When you build positive friendships, friendships that help you to grow and develop as a leader, you build a network of people around you that will support you and that you can ask for help. Do your part in your community. That might mean helping around the house and doing things that make life better for everyone. It might mean going out of your way to lend a hand. Or sharing something that you have. It could mean standing up for someone or being an example of caring for the environment. Being a citizen means that you are committed to your community, whatever that community is.
Moorelands Kids is committed to empowering kids to transform their lives. Just because camp is over doesn’t mean that you’re done learning. In fact, coming home is JUST the beginning of your leadership journey.
