Talking with Kids - 10 Tips to Help Your Staff Clump Less

July 9th, 2024

Helping staff with the will and skill to talk with kids - Less clumping without mentioning clumping

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My phone just buzzed. My mom was calling. I didn’t pick up.

I love Pam Schott. I could have picked up, but I am doing other things.

I texted, she needed my flight details for my brother’s wedding. I texted back.

People are talking to each other so much less.

Including me and probably you?

Below are

A 10 ideas to help your staff talk with kids more

2 medium funny memes

6 free videos on connection at camp

A survey asking you about you - please answer it. The surveys are my favorite part of these emails

The Bad News

The average American spent 39 minutes/day in face to face convos (InsideOut Development, 2019)

In 2023, only 23% of 12th graders spend daily time with their friends after school - down from 52% in 1970 (Monitoring the Future) (Technology Wellness Center)

90% of customers prefer text messages over phone calls for general communication, (TrueList) (SMS Comparison)

The Good News

Camp is all about human connection AND AI can’t steal it from us.

What you do every day is build containers for connection.

You create space for kids, adults, and sorta adults - that we call adults at camp - to talk with each other, play with each other, laugh and connect in ways that are increasingly uncommon.

I have to be honest. I have been to a lot of camps this summer and our staff aren’t always great at talking with kids. A couple weeks ago I wrote about how we as camp pros need to be a good hang for our staff

Our staff need to be a good hang with kids.

The reality is they aren’t always great at talking with kids, at leading conversations, and connecting in less formulaic ways.

How many times have you walked by a picnic table and the staff just aren’t engaged with their group or seen a group of kids and staff awkwardly walking in silence or with a couple kids getting up to stuff while the rest just watch?

Most of the time kids figure out how to talk with each other, but when the staff are engaged in the small talk, banter, and bits it makes their lives later better, creates memories for kids, and begins the mentorship that is so unique to the counselor- camper experience.

Talking with kids is the single skill that makes or breaks the camp counselor experience. Longer take coming on how this skill is likely a huge predictor of counselor happiness, their retention, the retention of their campers, and so much more.

It’s a skill, and it takes motivation. When our staff don’t feel confident in the skill their motivation plummets which makes the likelihood of talking with kids go down which creates a vicious cycle of fewer and fewer conversations.

Let’s make conversations easier.

First Motivation

Camp is in full swing, how do we motivate our staff to change their behavior? It’s hard. A couple ideas

Specific Tips for Motivation

At every meeting you have talk about how Talking with Kids is the thing to do, why it matters, and how to do it

Ask staff about funny conversations they have had with kids. Reinforcing behavior you want to see

Publicly and privately praise staff when you see them just talking with kids

When you see staff not talking with kids when they could be, do a quick check in, then give them a prompt to ask their campers. Have the staff member give you an update later

Make big signs in staff spaces that say “WE TALK WITH KIDS AT CAMP”

Write a story about how your life was changed by a grownup talking with you. Print it and put it in every staff’s mail box

Next Skills

Let’s try to lower the barrier to getting started

Would you rather/question prompts

Give them some questions to ask their kids in groups. One day announce one of these and have the counselors tally votes at the end of the day

Or write one each on a handful of index cards and randomly hand them out to counselors to talk to their kids about

Some examples (thanks for the list Breezy)Is a hot dog a sandwich?

Are video games sport?

Is cereal soup or a salad?

Mac and cheese with a spoon or fork?

Uniforms at camp!?

Better to know a lot about a little or a little about a lot?

Are birds just spies for squirrels ?

Should we bring dinosaurs back for theme parks?

How many aliens on the planet?

What makes a good camp counselor

Which counselor would win at _____?

Can you judge a book by its movie

Have Chat GPT make up a few more

Name - What’s Next - Wacky Take

When I first meet a group of kids I often follow this formula. Sometimes I replace “Wacky Take” with a question from above.

Name - Tell the kids your name. They forgot.

What’s Next - Simple explanation “We are going to archery. When we get there I’ll explain what’s next and we will wait for a sec while I set it up. If you have done archery before it might be a little different.

Wacky Take - Just some some outlandish takeI love the Buffalo Bills and they are gonna win the super bowl this year

TBH - I don’t get Sabrina Carpenter. Can you explain where she came from?

What is the difference between roblox and mine craft?

Mac and cheese at camp is the single best meal. Period.

Let's talk with more kids this summer

Other Stuff in TSCS Land

Send your staff these sub 2 minute videos on building connection with kids at camp - Videos

If you are a number 2 at camp, year round, handles the shit, but not the final boss - Join Number 2 School - Free newsletter as I explore this role at camps across the country

We are going to relaunch TSCS membership in the fall. I’ll send a sales email about that eventually, but you can learn more here