There’s a question I get asked more than almost any other: “How do you handle the no-phones thing?” Parents ask with genuine curiosity, sometimes with anxiety, and occasionally with disbelief. They want to know how we enforce it. What happens when a thirteen-year-old goes two weeks without a screen for the first time?

I understand the question. But every time I hear it, I want to reframe the entire conversation. Because we don’t “handle” screen-free at JRC. We don’t enforce it like a homework policy. Being screen-free is not something we do to campers. It’s the world we live in. It’s been the world we’ve lived in since my grandparents opened this ranch to children in 1934.

JRC didn’t become screen-free in response to smartphones. We didn’t read a bestseller and overhaul our program. We were screen-free before there were screens to be free of. And that distinction matters more than you might think.

We Were Here Before the Screens

When my grandparents started hosting children on this ranch in the Southern Sierra Nevada, the idea of a summer camp wasn’t built around what kids should avoid. It was built around what kids should experience. Sunshine on your face at 6:45 in the morning when you roll out of your sleeping bag to feed the animals. The sound of Bonah Creek running through camp. The particular satisfaction of gathering wood for the outdoor oven and knowing that the bread your whole community eats at dinner came, in part, from your hands.

Our mission—to make the world a better place, one summer at a time—has never been a reaction against technology. It’s a statement about what we believe childhood requires: the chance to live close to the earth, to work alongside others in a self-sustaining community, to take acceptable risks, to sit with boredom until it becomes curiosity, and to discover that you are more capable than you ever imagined.

That hasn’t changed in nine decades. Not because we’re stubborn. Because it works.

What Screen-Free Actually Looks Like on a Working Ranch

Let me paint the picture, because what people imagine when they hear “screen-free camp” is not what we are. They imagine a conventional camp that has removed technology and replaced it with something else. More structured activities, perhaps. A clipboard full of rules about where you can and can’t have your phone.

That’s not JRC. We are a working ranch at 5,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada. There is no cell service. There is no Wi-Fi. Our bathrooms are outhouses. Our showers are solar-heated and open to the sky. Everyone—every camper, every counselor, every member of my family—sleeps outside on sleeping porches. There are roofs, but there are no walls. You fall asleep looking at stars and wake up to birdsong and the particular quality of Sierra morning light filtering through the oaks.

In this environment, you don’t “remove” screens. There’s simply nothing to remove. The question of technology doesn’t arise because the world we’ve built is so full of real things—horses to ride, rocks to climb, gardens to tend, fish to catch, bread to bake, songs to sing, friends to make—that the absence of a screen isn’t an absence at all. It’s a presence. The presence of everything else.

Simplicity Is a Philosophy, Not a Restriction

One of the five pillars that guide everything we do at JRC is Simplicity. Our camp thrives in a natural environment, free from the distractions of technology and urban life. This setting allows campers to connect more deeply with others and with themselves, fostering a sense of presence and active participation in the moment.

It doesn’t say “we ban phones because phones are bad.” It says we operate in a setting where deeper connection is possible precisely because distraction has been removed. One framing is punitive. The other is invitational.

When I was a child growing up on this ranch, simplicity wasn’t a branding concept. It was just the way things were. Our pace of life was connected with the sunshine of each day. We grew our own food, tended our own animals, built our own structures. That’s still true today. Every child who comes to JRC has a daily chore—garden crew, barn chores, feeding chickens, tending the small animals. They pick their job on Sunday and they do it every morning that week.

In today’s world, where children can go entire seasons without ever contributing tangibly to the functioning of their own household, this is quietly radical. A six-year-old who feeds chickens every morning before breakfast starts to understand something about responsibility that no app can teach. A twelve-year-old who spends a work crew afternoon fixing fences alongside staff carries that experience in their body, not just their mind.

❤ Unconditional Love

Fostering belonging within the JRC Family, ensuring everyone feels supported and cared for. Clear expectations, honest praise, and guidance for growth.

☆ Celebrating the Individual

Embracing diversity and celebrating each child’s unique qualities through a diverse team of mentors who resonate personally with every camper.

○ Simplicity

A natural environment free from technology and urban distraction. Connecting more deeply with others and with yourself. Presence over performance.

△ Working Through Fear

Distinguishing between “unsafe” and “discomfort.” Encouraging campers to push beyond perceived limits, building confidence and perseverance.

✦ Creativity

Essential for adaptation in a changing world. Staying true to our principles while embracing change—remaining relevant for future generations.

The Research Caught Up to What We Already Knew

🌱 Independence & Resilience

Developmental psychologists have documented that children who spend time away from parents without constant digital oversight develop stronger independence and self-confidence.

👥 Social Skill Development

The American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes that face-to-face interactions are critical for developing social skills that screen-mediated communication cannot replicate.

🧠 Problem-Solving & Creativity

Research in child development confirms that overcoming challenges without immediate parental intervention contributes to cognitive development and critical thinking.

🌞 Presence & Mindfulness

Studies in childhood psychology show that children who are present and engaged—without striving for picture-perfect moments—develop better focus, stress management, and emotional regulation.

💖 Stronger Family Bonds

Paradoxically, time apart strengthens the parent-child relationship. Children with independent experiences are more communicative, leading to deeper conversations and connection.

What Parents Don’t Expect

Here’s what catches families off guard: it’s not the kids who struggle most with the screen-free policy. It’s the parents.

We post one photo per day on Instagram. That’s it. We deliver mail by what we affectionately call Pony Express—handwritten letters, arriving every morning. You can email your camper once per day. Campers write home on Tuesday evenings with the paper and stamps they brought from home.

I know this is hard. I’m a parent, and I grew up here. I know the impulse to check in, to see a photo. But the science is clear: reducing the frequency of check-ins actually lowers anxiety for both parties and removes the pressure on children to perform for an audience instead of simply living their experience.

And paradoxically, time apart strengthens the relationship. Children who have truly independent experiences come home with stories they own. They don’t show you a highlight reel. They tell you, in their own words, about the night they saw a shooting star on an overnight, or the morning they saddled a horse alone, or the friend they made from a city they’d never heard of. Those conversations are deeper and more connecting than any photo stream could be.

Working Through Fear—Including This One

For many families today, sending a child to camp without a phone is itself an act of working through fear. It requires trust—trust in us, trust in your child, and trust in the idea that children grow when we give them room to. I take that trust seriously. It’s why our medical staff is on-site 24/7. It’s why, with only 85 campers per session, we know every child’s name, their allergies, their fears, their friends.

But the discomfort of letting go is not a reason to hold on. The very thing that makes camp transformative—the genuine independence, the self-reliance, the unmediated experience of the physical world—requires the space to happen. A screen in a child’s pocket keeps one foot in the world they came from. What we’re offering is the chance to be fully in this one.

This Is Not a Trend

JRC will never rebrand as a “digital detox” camp. We are not a detox. We are not a correction. We are not the antidote to your child’s screen time. We are something older and, I believe, something more enduring. We are a place where children live close to the land, contribute to a community, take risks, make friends, and discover capabilities they didn’t know they had. That’s what we were in 1934, and it’s what we are today.

What you’ll find is a ranch. A real one, with cattle and horses and chickens and a garden and an outdoor oven and a swimming hole with a rope swing and a barn where kids dance on Friday nights. You’ll find 85 children learning to make choices for themselves, getting up early to do their chores, climbing rocks and riding trails and writing letters home by hand.

And you won’t find a single screen. Not because we took them away. Because we never needed them in the first place.

All Content Copyright Jameson Ranch Camp LLC. Site by Robinson, Latta, and Jameson

info@jamesonranchcamp.com 661.381.1572 5757 Hwy 155 Glennville, CA 93226