3 Things I learned at Great Wolf Lodge

This post is a re-blog of a section from my March Newsletter to families in my school.

A couple of weekends ago my family and I spent a weekend at Great Wolf Lodge in Fitchburg, MA. Now for any not familiar with "GWL" (as my kids call it), it is a destination hotel for families. Essentially once you arrive at the hotel there is no real reason to leave. It has an indoor water park, an arcade, miniature golf, a ropes course, and restaurants to name a few things ... it even has it's very own Dunkin Donuts (praise be!).

The two and a half hour drive home from the hotel gave me a lot of time to reflect on the trip (while everyone else in the car slept). By the time I pulled into my driveway, I had come to thee conclusions about our experience:

1. Kids have perseverance - GWL has this attraction called the Magi-Quest. A Magi-Quest is an interactive experience for the kids that takes them all over the hotel complex. The kids start when they receive their wand and are sent to the Quest Stones. From the stones, they are sent on a series of quests and adventures in order to attain Master Magi status. Completing the ten quests and three adventures took us approximately 10 - 12 hours spread over the three days we were there and had us going from one side of the hotel to the other at least three dozen times. My two children (6 and 9) almost killed their parents in trying to complete the Magi-Quest. There were determined to get to Master Magi status (which got them a pin) and they were not
   
   going to give up.
   
   This experience reaffirmed my belief that kids have the capability to persevere; to stick with something until it is done even if it is hard. Our challenge as parents and educators is to create an environment where they value the outcome, value the process, and to help them see the connection between hard work and success.
   
2. We all need a little fun - I have a difficult time sometimes leaving my job at the office. I often find myself thinking about the school or the upcoming transition in the car, the shower, going to sleep, when I wake up, etc. Sometimes it is hard to break that pattern and I have a tough time being just a dad, just a husband, just a guy and not The Principal. However, the longer that I was at GWL the more and more I was able to separate from my job and connect with myself and my family. I am currently reading a book called The Happiness Advantage, written by Shawn Achor a psychology researcher at Harvard. In this book Achor talks about something called the Tetris Effect. Simply stated, brain research has shown that what the brain practices is what it perceives in the world, to the point where it actually shapes our reality.
   
   Therefore, the more we "train" our brain to do fun things, to think positively and to enjoy things that are happening in our life, the more likely we are to encounter things that are fun, positive and joyful. With practice, our brain scans the environment looking for these things and we notice them more often. In just my short time practicing fun things at GWL, I came back to the "real world" more energized, positive and happy.
   
3. Being a little uncomfortable in the short term can lead to great things in the long term - The main attraction at GWL is the indoor water park. In addition to a wave pool, lazy river, and water playground, the hotel also has several large waterslides that start inside the building, travel outside and then dump you back inside the complex. Of my two children, my six year old son can be the more timid about trying new things. When presented with the option of going on the slides when we arrived, he gave us his patented "I'm good" response, which roughly translates to "there is no way I am doing that." My wife and I talked and decided this was something we needed to help him overcome. With a little bit of cajoling and a whole lot of persistence, we got him to start up the stairs with us to the top of the slide. The closer we got to the top, the higher the pitch got in his voice and a little bit of water started to build up in his eyes. We told him that he was safe, that we were there and that we would do it with him. He protested, we insisted, and he ultimately went down the slide with us... and absolutely loved it!
   
   
   
   There are a lot of things that kids face for the first time that may seem a bit scary and impossible to overcome. However, as adults we have to work with them to move past the anxiety and embrace the challenge. In school we work to ensure them that they are safe and the failure is an option, but only as an opportunity to learn, grow and try again. As Rutherford B. Hayes once said, "The expert at anything was once a beginner" and sometimes it feels uncomfortable to be a beginner, but that is the first step in any important journey.