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Anticipate Rather than Wait

• Many counselors allow the same disruptive behaviors to happen everyday. The idea is to manage the situations BEFORE they enter the point of no return.
• If a child is slow to get changed, you can talk to him/her before entering the bunk or plan to stay with him/her during the change, so that the rest of the group can go on with their day.
• If children can't be next to each other (e.g. they fight or talk too much at inappropriate times), separate them BEFORE it's an issue; choose teams or pairs wisely.

Now, imagine that your group and another group decide to play a friendly game of kickball - boys vs. girls. The girl team beats the boys, although you're not really keeping score. Johnny, from the boy group, is being a sore loser and this is not the first time that you have noticed that he cannot handle loss well. Although the game was for fun, Johnny still cannot wrap his head around losing to girls. How would you handle this situation? Think about handling the immediate issue - how upset Johnny is that he lost to girls - as well as preventative measures you can take to avoid having to deal with a similar situation in the future.

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