Looking for the Camp Begin website? Click here. Wondering how students & teachers benefit from the curriculum? Continue reading!

What makes Camp Begin special? Our Teachers.
​2017 is our inaugural year at Camp Begin, Madison's newest mindful youth camp. We are thrilled to be able to provide this holistic educational opportunity in Madison from qualified instructors. Our camp teachers are certified in schools or clinical settings, and some are master music teachers from colleges and universities around the area. What does that mean for you? It means that the people who are going to be spending a full week or more with your kids are 1) experts in their field and 2) just as excited about what they'll be teaching as you are.

Where does the passion and excitement come from? Need.
As a teacher myself, I understand why 50% of us quit after the first five years in the profession. It is a highly stressful job that requires incredible patience, foresight and compassion. I teach Physical Education, a "speciality" in schools, and I myself cannot imagine being a classroom teacher. Seeing what classroom teachers endure on a daily basis is alarming. Some experience large amounts of discrimination, get yelled at, hit, scratched, spit on, or have objects thrown at them. All of them are required to make quick decisions that have the capability of affecting a child on a large scale, have benchmarks to meet, meetings to attend during their "planning" and/or lunch time, are required to abide by far too many rules to meet a child's needs and above all don't receive enough support for what they do. Teachers are totally stressed out and often struggle taking care of themselves because such a big focus in their life is keeping their students from falling a part... not to mention having the energy to attend to their own families needs if they are moms (these are the true superhero's of society). 

Reading Mindful.org's article on "When Teachers Get Mindfulness Training, Student's Win," puts this all into perspective. We need more professional workshops on mindfulness to de-stress and understand why the breath is such an integral part of our body's wellness. When teachers get a taste of this, we crave it, and because we are educators at our core, we pass it on to our students. 

That is where I think the beauty lives in Camp Begin. The people on board to provide this education for your kids don't just believe in it, we live and breathe it every day because research shows WE NEED IT. The fun part for us is that we don't have adequate time to teach mindfulness, yoga, art and play all day at school. There are guidelines and standards to adhere to. Teaching at Camp Begin will be play for our instructor team, and let us all live out our passion. Hooray! 

Are you interested in registering your child or children for Camp Begin? Please visit www.campbegin.com for additional information. Currently we are at 1/2 capacity for camper enrollment. Prices will be increasing April 1 so please take advantage of our March Madness special to save! Register by March 31 to benefit from our lowest price of the year. Questions? Email info@hikeandheal.com