Have you been to the North Pole?

It’s kind of hard to understand the awesomeness of Santa’s Workshop until you’ve been there.

There’s something so magical that happens when you watch a child get excited about a gift they’ve made for a loved one. It’s not just about the joy of giving – although that’s definitely a part of it. It’s about the confidence and pride they radiate when they are able to give something that they were able to create independently. How often do kids get the chance to give their parents or siblings a REAL surprise? (I don’t know about YOUR house, but in mine we have a hard time keeping secrets!)

It is in the spirit of holding onto the surprise that I can’t tell you what we’ll be making this year, but I CAN give you a few examples of what elves have made for their favourite people in previous years. We always look for projects that allow kiddos to learn a new skill as well as produce a useful product:

Would you like to try a project at home?

I’ve put together an example with instructions for one of our previous projects: How to make a Bami Ballen

At Maple Key we believe strongly in the power of camp and its ability to provide far more than just safe, reliable care. We also recognize that children from families in need are often also the most in need of an enriching summer experience. We are proud to share that we have already provided assistance for over 10 individual campers to attend MKDC this summer.

Because MKDC is independently owned and operated, we do not receive any subsidies or other outside financial support. When we provide assistance for these campers, it is taken directly from our own budget. That means that when you send your child to camp, you aren’t just providing them with a quality camp experience – you are also helping a child in need to share that experience as well.

This summer alone, we have provided:

• Partial “camperships” to a number of families in financial need who would not be able to afford the full cost of camp
• A free week of camp to staff-sponsored campers (children in staff-members’ extended personal networks who would benefit from camp but would not be able to afford to attend)
• A free camp experience to Syrian refugees

On behalf of these campers… thank you, thank you, thank you. We’ve seen first hand the difference it can make. <3

Where does creativity really come from?

If you’re a big nerd like I am, then you’ll understand what I’m talking about when I say that I get a little thrill every time I see a new episode of “Under The Influence” show up in my podcast feed. (And if you consider yourself a big nerd and don’t know what I’m talking about… Seriously. Download it now.)

That Terry O’Reilly is a genius, and one seriously awesome storyteller.

It’s actually pretty often that I get a lightbulb moment while listening to one of his episodes, but this week’s was one of the coolest. In it, Terry is describing one of the stories shared in a book called A Beautiful Constraint (which I totally need to read now, by the way). Essentially, Mick Jagger learned to dance like Mick Jagger because he didn’t have the space to dance like a normal person.

Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards says Mick Jagger learned to dance outrageously for one very specific reason. See, all the stages the Rolling Stones performed on in the early days were unbelievably small. Once their equipment was set up, that left Jagger a small 4 by 4 foot space to perform in. So he learned how to get attention in a tight spot. The constraint led to an utterly unique set of dance moves that became Jagger’s signature.

~ Terry O’Reilly, Under The Influence

One of the things that is most memorable about Mick Jagger was created not out of the desire to be creative, but out of a need to make things work despite the constraints he was under.

That’s SOOOO camp.

For the past eight years, I don’t know that there has ever been a time when I haven’t dreamed of what I could do to improve camp if I won the lottery. (The chances of this are pretty much 0% since I have never even bought a ticket.) But listening to this story made me realize what NOT having a limitless budget has actually done in our favour.

Not having money to burn on supplies means that we benefit the environment by doing lots of recycling. Not having our own permanent space (until this year!) has helped us to keep the focus on things that don’t require a permanent physical installation – like strong relationships. Not being able to afford expensive advertising means that we have to work extra hard at keeping our existing customers through excellent service and the best possible program… which we do on a minimal budget.

Thinking about Mick Jagger’s dancing makes me feel like we’re on the right track when we spend most of our time and budget on our staff and not on bells and whistles. When you’ve found and trained the right camp staff, they make the camp magic happen – and they’ll rise to that challenge even – scratch that, ESPECIALLY – when your resources are limited.

Maybe not winning the lottery is a good thing after all.

Come spend a week in a fictional world inspired by the Harry Potter series! During this magical week, attend classes in Potion Making, Charms, Muggle Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, and Defense Against The Dark Arts. Create your own wand, play a non-flying version of Quidditch… and don’t forget to check your daily owl mail!

Whether you’ve read every book & seen every movie, or don’t know a snitch from a bludger, this week of wizardry will spark your imagination!

Castle image By Rstoplabe14 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14572832

Newsflash:

Twenty years from now, your kid is very unlikely to say:

“I remember the summer of 2016. That camp had
the most amazing bouncy castles.”

However, they might say something like:

“I remember that summer – that’s when Tristan and I first became friends. It took me all summer to learn to start a fire using only flint & steel, but I was so proud when I finally did it.”

Camp is not really about the bouncy castles.

It turns out, if you google “benefits of attending summer camp” or something similar, you’ll find that all the research that has been done (and there’s quite a bit!) indicates that the actual activities that an individual camp offers has very little to do with the long-term benefits of attending.

It’s not about the archery or the lasers or even the swimming pool. While a camp must of course have a quality schedule capable of holding your child’s interest, those aren’t the things that will have a lasting impression. This isn’t where the magic is.

Camp has much more importance in your child’s development than the bells & whistles they offer

The power that a camp has to make a difference in the life of a child is in the power of community. A true camp environment will help your child to develop independence, confidence, resilience, social skills, and conflict resolution, to name just a few.

Given the nature of these life-long skills… do you think those skills will develop more fully when bouncing from camp to camp, or when taking root in a family-oriented, development-focused environment? Will your child build more social confidence by moving from program to program, or by spending 8 weeks with the same cohort of kids, under the careful guidance of the same counselor & role model?

I can see why parents would choose to “break up” the summer by enrolling their children in a variety of different programs. There is certainly something to be said for providing a wide range of experiences. But will your child get the most long-term benefit from that arrangement?

This is it.

I am so very thrilled to finally be able to officially reveal the details of our PERMANENT location. It has been a difficult last couple of years with lots of uncertainty and last minute changes, and I am so THANKFUL for the many families who have stuck by us through our quest to provide the best possible program for our campers.

It’s been really tough to keep all of this relatively under wraps until we were absolutely sure that we were making promises we could keep… Especially considering the vast improvements that this means for our programming. BUT NOW IT’S OFFICIAL.

At long last… here it is. The deal is done, the zoning approved… no one can take it away from us. Our permanent home, our space in which to grow.

Welcome home, MKDC.

We will continue to release lots of updates over the next little while as we continue to get things set up for our first summer in our beautiful new home. You’re not going to want to miss this, campers…

Learn To Cook @ MKDC

Our cooking majors are always a huge hit. Heartwood campers love learning to be more self-sufficient and confident about food preparation – and their parents love that they are more willing to help out at home! Recipes change from year to year, but we always keep the focus on healthy ingredients, and safe practices. In order to fully embrace our nature-based location, we also place increased emphasis on planning, preparing and packing ingredients for outdoor cooking, and preparing a meal “in the wild”.

Camp Chef – “Garden-To-Table” Edition: In the garden-to-table variation of this popular program, we focus not only on cooking skills but also on gathering and using farm-fresh ingredients.

Camp Chef – “Nailed It” Edition: In this variation, campers will focus on presentation and decoration. They’ll use materials such as fondant and icing, and use a variety of culinary skills to re-create an edible masterpiece.

Camp Chef – Pioneer Edition: What would you eat if you lived in a covered wagon? Campers will learn to use a dutch oven and cook over open flame with simple ingredients that pioneers would have had available.

Camp Chef – Confections Edition: Not just dessert… FANCY dessert. Campers will explore candymaking and decorating techniques in this SWEET major.

Majors are special programs for our Heartwood campers (aged 9-12) to choose from each week. Read about the rest of our majors here.

Camp directing at it’s most glamorous

I know it looks like us Maple Key people got it all together. And as far as giving your kids the most awesome-est of summers goes, we do. If you’ve seen me strolling around camp taking photos in the summer, it probably looks like I don’t do too much… and maybe to a certain extent I don’t. After all, it’s my staff who really bring the magic day after day.

This time of year though, is a different story. The only staff members are me & hubby. Early spring means marketing and registration and hiring. It means training and planning and processing piles and piles of paperwork.

For a business owner who is also a mom (currently staring down the barrel of a 2nd kid in early May) and also holding down a regular full-time job, it means a lot of other stuff too.

It means responding to phone messages from new potential camp parents in the car ride home from work, because I can’t answer the phone during the day when I’m teaching. It means typing with one hand because I’ve got a kid in my lap. It means crossing my fingers when I put my toddler to bed that he will go down without a fuss, so that I can squeeze in 3 or 4 hours of camp planning in before I finally go to bed myself.

It means conducting interviews for new staff on an impossibly few hours of sleep, because said toddler refused to eat his dinner and then woke up at 3am demanding to EAT YOGURT RIGHT NOW.

I wouldn’t change it for the world…. but glamorous? Nope. Not even a little.

2015 Finished Project – Gumball Machine

Woodworking Major @ MKDC

Campers learn woodworking skills such as planning & measuring, sawing, drilling, clamping, and sanding. Under close supervision and guidance, they learn to use age-appropriate handtools while creating a unique project. MKDC’s woodworking major is instructed by our program director, who is also an experienced woodworker.