S3 EP16: SEL Summer Camp Week 6 - The Last Campfire: Saving Big Hearts a Seat | Skills Wrap Up

🏕️ In the final episode of our SEL Summer Camp series, we bring together everything we’ve explored about the middle school years: the developing adolescent brain, screens and environment, emotions, anxiety, anger, resilience, identity, and belonging.

This episode is about understanding the whole middle schooler.

😳 Behavior does not happen in isolation. It happens inside a developing brain, a body, a family, a peer group, a school, a culture, and a community. When we stop asking only, “How do I stop this behavior?” and start asking, “What is happening with this kid?” we begin to see children differently.

Along the way, I take you back to Camp Sycamore Hills and some of the people and stories that shaped the way I think about kids and community: the mysterious one-eared rabbit, Rich and his Great Pyrenees, the Art Barn, Tractor Girl, the legendary kitchen manager who called me “Astor,” and the Shero Award that still reminds me to look out for the underdog.

We also talk about the power of music and memory, including why hearing Des’ree’s “You Gotta Be” still takes me straight back to that campfire and reminds me of the kind of person I want to be.

If you are raising, teaching, counseling, coaching, or simply trying to understand a tween or young teen, this episode is a reminder that middle schoolers are not finished products. They are growing people who need room to practice, make mistakes, recover, and know they still belong.

Because healthy communities do more than manage behavior.

They help build people.

🍪A huge thank-you to Jessica Ragnio & founder Dr. Jason Kahn for spending so much of SEL Summer Camp with us!

💰Use code MARYPOPPINS for 15% off Mightier. Learn emotional regulation through video games. Suzanne does not make any profit from Mightier. Just collabbing! 😁

And remember:

🏕️There is always room for the underdog around our fire.

We’ve been saving you a seat.

Next episode: We’re exploring the surprising strengths and “secret superpowers” that can sometimes develop from growing up in a difficult or emotionally complex childhood—and how those survival adaptations can become powerful tools with insight and healing. After that, “Spotlight People” & Ego! 🍿

#MiddleSchoolMaryPoppins #MiddleSchoolParenting #ParentingTweens #SocialEmotionalLearning #EmotionalRegulation #MiddleSchool #AdolescentBrain #TweenParenting #Resilience #Belonging #ChildDevelopment #BehaviorIsCommunication #ConnectionBeforeCorrection #MentalHealth #ParentEducation

This is the website at www.msmarypoppins.com or email Suzanne:

Suzanne [email protected] for inquiries, listener questions, and just to say hello!