Overnight Summer Camp - What You Must Know

There are camps with activities as traditional as model rocketry and riflery and those that are nontraditional such as aviation, computers, language studies, golf, martial arts or community service. There are overnight summer camps with a focus on self-improvement, weight loss and grief counseling too. Selecting an overnight summer camp for your child, teen or other children deserves a great deal of consideration and attention to even the smallest details.

Planning early is important; you should be diligent in your efforts to visit camps during the peak season to make plans in advance of the upcoming camping year. The more artistically minded might want to consider arts and crafts, clowning, drama, photography, or dance to be important elements of having a well-rounded camp experience. Basically, if you can think of any subject area, there's probably a camp that specializes in it.

Special needs camps try to meet the needs of a wide range of children with disabilities; these camps provide an outdoor summer camp experience along with a therapeutic environment. Generally camps are divided by gender - girls only, boys only, or co-ed and again by age group. Selecting the right camp that fits with your child or teen's interests, special interests, needs, special needs and abilities is one of the first steps

Try to determine whether the camp director incorporates a similar philosophy to running the camp as you do in parenting your child or children. The best overnight summer sports camps do much more than try to improve a camper's soccer, tennis, lacrosse, or wrestling skills - they help each child become a more skillful athlete, a more gracious competitor, a more committed team player and a more confident person. Is there a special topic (e.g. religion, sports, educational, performing arts, arts and crafts) that you want your child will gain ability and experience in?

Camp tuition can be expensive; similar to travel insurance, there are now insurance policies for families sending their children to overnight summer camp to cover a last minute cancellation, homesickness, any medical emergency and emergency evacuations. You child or teen could typically explore subjects new to them like marine science, photography, creative writing, community service, drama, magic, scuba diving, video production, comic book design, crime scene forensics, cooking, yoga, rappelling, etc. If you have more than one child do you think, they would benefit from attending the same summer camp together?

Visit the camp; you can view campers and counselors in their element, witness activities as they occur, and just get an overall feel for the camp - something that cannot be accurately experienced when the camp is closed. Children will get more individual attention and supervision with fewer campers per counselor. Non-profit camps often range anywhere from $1200 to $3000 for four weeks and $2500 to $5000 for eight weeks.

Although camp counselor jobs don't usually pay very well, minimum wage or less, counselors receive free room and board; many take the job primarily for the camping experience. And most camp counselors are in their late teens or early twenties and are high school and college students on their summer break. There are many types of overnight summer camps with a focus on education that cater to students of differing ages and academic interests.

If you find a traditional overnight summer camp or sleepaway camp that is not the right fit, or an expense that isn't possible at this place in time, know that there are other options that can keep your child occupied throughout the summer. Look over and evaluate the fliers, brochures and promotional materials; read the fine print. If you think there's a possibility you might have to cancel an overnight summer camp reservation, then camper's insurance is a good idea. The summer is a key time to visit overnight summer camps or sleepaway camps because you can determine whether they'll be the right fit for your child, children or family while the camp is in full operation.

For more information on choosing the best overnight summer camp and finding the best sleepaway or overnight summer camp online and offline go to http://www.OvernightSummerCamp.biz a nurse's website specializing in overnight summer camp tips, help, facts, free tuition resources, including information on overnight summer camp reviews

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Employment Opportunity: "Job Mercenary" Without Knowing It?

Your employment opportunity and your job candidacy will fail if youre perceived as a job mercenary. Often the mercenary attitude is so subtle that were not even aware were giving off bad vibes.

So, what exactly is a job mercenary? Here are five hints. Could this be you?

1. Believing the employers cause is good only as long as the money is good.

2. Harboring a resentment that youre dependent upon an employer.

3. Lacking an inner job motivation.

4. Holding back or being ambivalent about loyalty to the organization.

5. More concerned about what I get out of it that what I bring to the table?

Obviously these are not traits you would deliberately communicate in an interview or in a face-to-face meeting with the person who could be your next boss. But if you havent taken the time to identify them in yourself, they will surely creep into your attitude. And employers antennae are fine-tuned to pick up on these subtleties.

There are three important attitudinal adjustments you should make and demonstrate as part of your employment opportunity. They can counter any of these mercenary tendencies and dispel any hidden concerns an employer could be harboring:

* Loyalty. This does not mean that you have to agree with everything an employer or organizational policy represents. Loyalty means you share a common ideal with the employer. You communicate that regardless of minor differences, youre prepared to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with confidence in the companys good faith.

* Values. Understanding what your personal underlying business values are. And then showing how they are in harmony with those of the company.

* compatibility. Individuals can create a team. But compatible individuals produce the best team. If youre touchy and thin-skinned in an interview, the employer instinctively knows you will be abrupt and abrasive on the job. On the other hand, a go-along person attracts people like themselves.

Remember, what you communicate to an employer below the radar is often more telling that what you say out loud. Putting a check on your mercenary tendencies will go a long way to ensure your employment opportunity success.

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Rotator Cuff: Exercises and Strategies to Prevent Injury

Have you ever experienced a dull ache or sharp pain in your shoulder or upper arm? Maybe you are unable to sleep on one side because your shoulder wakes you up at night. Perhaps, you have discomfort reaching behind your back to tuck in your shirt or grab your wallet. If so, you may be suffering from a rotator cuff injury.

Rotator cuff injuries, such as tendonitis, bursitis and tears plague several people in our population. The rotator cuff consists of four small muscles, which form a sleeve around the shoulder and allow us to raise our arm overhead effectively. These muscles, consisting of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis, oppose the action of the deltoid and depress the head of the humerus (upper arm) during shoulder elevation to prevent impingement.

The most commonly injured muscle is the supraspinatus. It is responsible for initiating and aiding in elevation of the arm. If torn, the individual typically experiences persistent pain in the upper lateral arm and significant difficulty raising the arm without compensatory motion from the scapula (shrug sign). The hallmark signs of a tear are nocturnal pain, loss of strength, and inability to raise the arm overhead.

However, acute tendonitis may also present with similar signs and symptoms, as pain can inhibit motion and strength. Yet, symptoms associated with tendonitis normally respond to rest, ice, anti-inflammatory medication and therapeutic exercise.

Rotator cuff tears are most common in men age 65 and older. Tears and/or injury are typically related to degeneration, instability, bone spurs, trauma, overuse and diminished strength/flexibility related to the aging process. However, youth are also at risk for injury if they are involved in repetitive overhead sports, including swimming, volleyball, baseball, softball, tennis, gymnastics, etc.

Many people can function adequately with a torn rotator cuff provided they have a low to moderate pain level. The primary reason for performing rotator cuff surgery is to alleviate pain rather than to restore function. It is common for post surgical patients to lose some mobility/range of motion. strength recovery is dictated by the size of tear, quality of the torn tissue at the time of surgery, time elapsed between injury and repair, and the surgeons ability to recreate the proper anatomical relationship.

It may take up to 18 months following surgery to completely recover, although most people return to normal activities of daily living in 3-6 months. On the contrary, tendonitis usually resolves within 4-6 weeks, depending on the management of the injury.

The key to avoiding rotator cuff injury is performing adequate conditioning prior to stressing it with vigorous activities. Many weekend warriors try to pick up the softball, baseball, football, etc. and begin throwing repetitively and forcefully without properly warming up. In addition, they are not likely to condition before the season like competitive athletes.

This often leads to excessive strain on the rotator cuff and swelling. The inevitable result is soreness, especially with overhead movement or reaching behind the back. The act of throwing is the most stressful motion on the shoulder. The rotator cuff is forced to decelerate the humerus during follow through at speeds up to 7000 degrees/second.

Without proper strength and conditioning, the shoulder easily becomes inflamed. Since the rotator cuff muscles are small, it is best to utilize lower resistance and higher repetitions to sufficiently strengthen them. sample exercises include theraband or light dumbbell external and internal rotation exercises, which can be performed at various degrees of abduction.

Other common exercises include forward elevation to shoulder height in the plane of the scapula (scaption), press-ups, prone dumbbell horizontal abduction with external rotation, and diagonal arm patterns with bands, weights or medicine balls. In addition to cuff specific exercises, it is also important to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder blade. These exercises include wall push-ups with a plus (rounding shoulder blades), shrugs, rows and lower trapezius exercises.

Finally, it is important to note some precautions with general exercises routinely performed in health clubs. I recommend the following suggestions to prevent rotator cuff problems:

Avoid lat pull downs and military presses behind the head, as they place the shoulder in a poor biomechanical position encouraging impingement.

Do not lower the bar or dumbbells below parallel with incline/flat bench press for the aforementioned reason.

Refrain from using too much weight with lateral shoulder raises. This exercise increases the load on the shoulder to 90% of the body weight, so there is no need to use heavy weight. It is best to maintain an arc of movement slightly in front of the body with lateral raises to decrease stress on the rotator cuff, while avoiding elevation above 90 degrees.

Specific rotator cuff exercises can be incorporated into upper body workouts. Perform 2 sets of 15-25 repetitions for each exercise. These exercises should be done no more than three times per week to avoid overtraining.

Brian Schiff, PT, CSCS, is a respected author, physical therapist and fitness expert. For more information on his e-book on resolving rotator cuff pain, visit http://www.rotatorcufftraining.com. This article was originally published in Business First Columbus, ohio in 2004.

Copyright 2004 Brian Schiff

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