Three corners: Camp. Your kid. Science.

You are the expert on your kid.

Researchers are the experts on youth development.

I get to be the expert of Indian Lake Christian Camp.

The job isn’t claiming all three types of expertise. The job is understanding how Indian Lake Camp connects to the other two.

My Corner

For starters, I’m the expert at Indian Lake (now with 10 years under my belt).

How it runs. The culture, the traditions, the best activities, that one loose floorboard on the porch of cabin 2.

I know what happens in a full session of camp. Which moments create legit breakthroughs, and which are just poppin off camp fun.

I know the staff. The values. The environment.

No one else has this expertise. Not parents. Not researchers. Me.

But it also means knowing what this corner doesn’t include.

Not the expert on someone else’s kid. Not the published expert on the latest developmental research. I’m the expert on this camp and what happens here.

That’s a foundation. Everything else is about connecting to what others know.

Connect to What Parents Know

Second corner belongs to you.

You know if your kid is anxious in new situations. Know if your kid struggles with transitions or thrives on them. You know your kids’ friendship patterns, emotional needs, what works, and what doesn’t.

I don’t have that expertise. You do.

My job is drawing the connection between what you know and what I know.

When a parent says “My daughter gets overwhelmed in large groups” I’m not at all trying to diagnose anything (like at all!) No way, I know a kid better than a parent.

But I’m definitely trying to connect. “100%. I totally get that. Here’s how cabin time works at Indian Lake. Also, our activities and free periods look like this, which handles all kinds of social energy.”

Taking your knowledge and showing how it maps onto camp.

Not being the expert on your kid. Being the expert on how camp connects to what you already know.

Not “Trust Me, I Know Kids!!!!”

More like, “Hey, here’s how what you know about your kid connects to how we run camp.”

Connect to What Research Shows

Third corner: the science.

Self-determination theory. Attachment research. Social-emotional learning. Risk and resilience.

Researchers are the experts here. Not me. I just know how to read.

Always trying to understand how camp aligns with what research shows matters for kids.

“Research clearly shows that kid-driven play helps kids learn how to make decisions. Here is how free play works at camp.”

“Did you know on average kids sit for 7 hours a day? At our camp last summer, kids walked on average 20,000 steps.”

I’m not out here conducting research studies, which, by the way, I would be terrible at. Just working overtime to connect the dots.

Showing how what happens at camp aligns with what researchers have proven matters.

Because often parents are asking some form of, “Is there something real happening here, or is it all just nostalgia and basic childcare?”

The answer can often come from connecting camp to the science that’s already floating out there in the world.

Drawing the Lines

Three corners. Three types of expertise.

Indian Lake Camp→my expertise. Your kid→parent’s expertise. The science→researcher’s expertise.

Don’t need to own all three corners. I think we just need to understand how our corner connects to the other two.

And then making those connections clear.

“Based on what you know about your kid” + “what research shows about development” + “here’s how our camp works” = parents loving camp.