Camp Unplugged

The love of gadgets is here, and it’s here to stayâ€Ĥ And as great as gadgets can be, Timber Lake West believes that having a camp that’s “unplugged” gives children a break from the day-to-day stresses and usage of modern technology where we allow kids to get back down to the basicsâ€Ĥ Allowing kids to be just that – kids. At TLW, we limit which electronics can be brought in to camp (The Parent Pack you receive in January will outline these for you), and those that we do allow can only be used during rest hour or right before bed.

As we head into the holiday season, you will hear a slightly different spin of an all-time favorite ditty: “All I want for Christmas is my two front teethâ€Ĥ” Remember that? Well today’s version will sound more like “All I want for Christmas is an iPhoneâ€Ĥ” if you read this report from The New York Times, or this report from CNET.   “â€Ĥthe device is now the Toy of Choice — akin to a treasured stuffed animal — for many 1-, 2- and 3-year-olds.”

We here at Camp aren’t the only ones seeing this trend – television shows are also picking up on this too. Recently the hilarious family sitcom Modern Family on ABC tackled this modern-day parenting predicament – children who are increasingly oblivious to their families because of their addictions to electronic devices. So the fictional Dunphy Family issued an “unplugged” challenge to everyone in their family: Who could go the longest without technology? Check out the episode on ABC.com – you can speed up to 1:20 but you’ll have to watch the entire episode to see what happens!  How do you think your family would fare if you issued the same challenge?

Technology definitely has it’s place, but sometimes it’s important to take a break. All of this just reaffirms our core belief at camp – that as we strive to teach our campers the skills of making & keeping friends, the best way to accomplish this is by unplugging from the digital age for a bit to let kids be kids.