As a parent, you want your child to grow up with the self-confidence, self-esteem and self-control required for them to excel in life. 

The Camp MakeBelieve Principles

• We start by letting children be children, by respecting this stage of development as special and sacred. Our work has shown that this better serves families and the community.
• We can have a positive impact on those we come in contact with.
• We can, will and do contribute.
• We start child by child, family by family, school by school, community by community.
• While we can’t eliminate stress, we can become aware, diminish and mitigate some of its effects.
• We can teach our children how to be aware of feelings, manage frustration, control their impulses, regulate their moods, keep anger from overwhelming them, empathize with others, and hope.
• We can teach our children direction, limits, how to make appropriate choices, and take appropriate responsibility.
• We can teach our children to be ethically and morally accountable

The Camp MakeBelieve Strategies

Our techniques, strategies, and tools are designed to put our principles into practice.

• Children may work at their own pace.
• Children are challenged in ways that are constructive and age-appropriate.
• Camp Counselors are given materials to help acquaint the child with the world through language and shared activities, in the context of love, comfort, safety, and support.
• The realistic needs of society are combined with the needs of the child through promoting imaginative approaches to real-life situations.
• We use fantasy, imagination, and play — with the simplest of materials – to create a learning process that helps children deal with confusing or difficult feelings.
• We use play as preparation for life.
• Children are encouraged to create reality out of their own experience.
• Limits, boundaries, and rules are demonstrated through the skills provided in the activity sheets.
• Strategies that help a child relieve stress and cool down are explained and demonstrated.
• We teach children to pay attention to a variety of cues — from facial to sensory— to introduce children to a wide range of experiences, and to sharpen their ability to “read” feelings accurately.
• Awareness of feelings is a primary focus, as this is imperative to change. Children must recognize anger before they can to get past it.
• Understanding how we feel gives us the freedom to choose our behavior, which is in and of itself, a defuser and allows children to focus on a positive choice.
• Awareness of intention is critical to reframing our view of anger, which includes finding the “positives” in those situations that trigger our anger.
• Diversion is often overlooked as a simple way to move children from intensely angry behavior. We teach diversionary strategies for use during intense moments. A child has to become calm before she can hear.
• Expression of feelings through writing, drawing, music, drama, games, stories, and art is a powerful stress reducer, and a critical element in our approach to anger management.
• Rewards are built-in and reinforced as a positive method for managing behavior.