Life Skills Developed In Focus ActivitiesPosted by Beigette Gill on July 07, 2017

Weekly Focus Activities can include exploring the extraordinary world with outdoor living skills and mountain biking or trying new and challenging things, such as high ropes courses or climbing.  Campers also choose to learn a new skill they have always wanted to, for example silver smithing or cooking. Each focus allows campers to go outside their comfort zone and experience the Extraordinary World in a new light, with freedom and support.  There are so many life skills developed in focus activities.  

Focus Activities in the Extraordinary World

The new focus week starts on Saturday.  While many departments offer the same activities week to week, there are many new additions.   New options this week included:

• Advanced Crew and River Kayaking offered new challenges for campers who had prior experience in rowing and kayaking.  River Kayaking rounded out their experience with a River Kayaking trip on the Androscoggin River for Trip Day.
• Jewelry and Silver Smithing have been a buzz with new options for campers of all ages.  Campers are excited to make their own beads, wire gemstone rings, and soldered bangles.  Arts & Crafts included a week of art focused on bubbles.  Campers painted with bubbles, learned about dimension and shading by drawing bubbles with pastels.  The creative spirit was everywhere!
• Athletics and Fitness included new options of Yoga and Stretching & Toning.  Team sports and tennis were also a hit- pun completely intended!  Campers also enjoyed a multitude of inter-camp competitive events ranging from Archery to Kickball to Soccer.
• A new music focus, Boomwhackers, incorporates life skills of communication and team work as campers work together to play a song using Boomwhacker tubes.  It was amazing to see the girls perform their song during weekly Performance Night tonight!
• FC Farm Girls has grown into an amazing program.  This summer campers are learning about environmental stewardship and conservation.  Additionally, campers learn how to care for the Fernwood Cove farm animals.  Petting the baby bunnies is a must for everyone!
• This summer 6th grade campers are participating in a week of team building activities.  Campers gain valuable skills in communication and leadership, while also developing trust and deeper relationships throughout the age group.  This will help them as they become leaders in the Fernwood Cove community in their 7th – 9th grade summers.

Counselors Develop Life Skills Too

All the new counselors took to their focuses like a duck to water in the first week of camp.  And this week they continued to shine.  This helps to build the popularity of their focus activities.  One being Jewelry where the new counselors have fine tuned their instructional techniques.  Now campers are creating rings left, right, and center!  It is incredible to see the growth in the staff as they continue to gain skills on a daily basis.  Counselors are learning valuable life skills and gaining an increased sense of self along the way.  It’s truly an extraordinary experience for the counselors as well.  

As counselors develop and refine their skills they are able to provide stronger support for each Fernwood Cove camper.  This support spreads across the sports fields, into the Chick, and all the way to Norway where our older campers are challenged in water skiing.  The Fernwood Cove CITs are also finishing up their second week of camp.  In addition to gaining more confidence, they are also able to utilize the skills they are learning through the CIT Program Curriculum.  The CITs also have a greater understanding of the impact they can have on each campers’ experience as they help to create the magic of the Extraordinary World. 

All in all, it was an extremely successful week of focus activities, with every camper, CIT and counselor enjoying themselves and their focuses immensely. And everybody cannot wait to see what next week has in store for us!