Writing Your Camper

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In our high tech world, there are few places where a handwritten, or even typed letter, are so treasured as at summer camp. Following a few guidelines can turn a mundane recounting of your daily routine into a letter that your child may even prize as much as a package. Okay, any letter is unlikely to be elevated to package status, but at least you can create a memorable missive to your summer camper.

Print
Supposedly students are taught to read and write cursive in grade three. Yet in most cases, opening a letter and discovering cursive is about as appealing as being served broccoli for breakfast and likely to be pushed aside just as quickly. For camp letter legibility stick with printing.

Be Colorful
We all like eye candy-- make your letter visually appealing. Use multiple colors of ink, decorate the margins, draw pictures occasionally in place of words. You may even feel like a kid again as you write.

Write Conversationally
You are chatting with your child not writing a memo to your manager. Use playful expressions, interrupt yourself, get off topic, meander.

Topics are Irrelevant
Unless you parachuted from an airplane and landed in a coconut tree on your commute to work, you don't need to recount your daily routine. Tell your child about the dog in the supermarket or how you had to retrieve your car keys from the garbage. You may want to know your child's schedule and every interaction, but he just wants to get a letter and know you are thinking of him. Laughing out loud while reading is a huge bonus, hearing about the traffic on the way to work, not so much.

Stay Positive
Especially if this is your child's first experience away from home, you want to stay upbeat. No need to mention how sad you are without her celebrating the fourth of July with you or how you are counting the days until she is home. It is fine to let her know you love her, but you don't want her worrying how you will manage without her at home.

Jokes, Riddles and Humor
If you are still stuck for what to write, find some jokes, riddles, puzzles or puns to include. Find a host of child-friendly jokes on this website  Try this one for your camper in the summer woods:

Q: What is a mosquito's favorite sport?

A: Skin-diving.

Letters don't need to be long or newsy. They do need to arrive and let your camper know you are thinking of her.

How to Calm Pre-Camp Jitters

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So the weather is turning warmer. Way back in the cold, short days of winter, living on a lake with 100 other girls, playing, laughing, swimming, boating sounded fabulous. Now that the end of school is nearing, the reality of heading off to sleep away camp is starting to materialize. Jitters and nervousness are to be expected—both for the camper and his or her parents.

Here are a few suggestions on how to respond when you hear “Mommy, what if I don’t like it and I want to come home?”

You want be able to swoop in and pick her up and make her feel better. But that may not be the best option for your child.

It is important to respond honestly to your child. Many camps have specific policies that channel all phone calls to the camp directors rather than having a parent call a child directly. Calling your child can heighten his homesickness, and make a complete and happy transition to camp life more difficult.  Along with suggestions the camp directors give you on how they deal with jitters, here are some ways to calm your child’s concerns.

• Visit the camp before you drop your child off. If camp is in session before your child starts, then stop by the camp several weeks in advance, take a tour and give your child a chance to meet some of the staff and current campers. Being familiar with her surroundings will make her transition when she comes to stay easier.
  

• Assure your child that on the day you take him to camp, you will find an adult whom your camper can go to if he is feeling sad or homesick. Then be certain to follow through. Knowing that his parent will find at least one adult as a confidante can be reassuring.
  

• Make a list with your child of activities she can do when she’s feeling sad. Together sit down and talk through when she may feel sad and what she can do. Perhaps it will be at bedtime when she is used to having you tuck her in. Or maybe it’s first thing in the morning when she needs someone to help her decide whether to put on a sweatshirt. Having strategies will help her feel more confident and more able to cope with homesickness. You may put activities on the list such as writing you a letter, exploring with a friend, reading a favorite book, talking to a counselor.

Above all, ensure you are honest with your child. Certainly if it were a dire situation you would go pick him up from camp. But in the normal course of events, including homesickness, your child is much more likely to adapt if you give him the time and space to make a complete transition. So if you don’t intend on picking him up after one night then don’t tell him “just call and I’ll come get you honey.” Tell him how much you love him, how wonderful it is that he is trying something new, that it is normal to feel nervous and there are many strategies to help him adjust to his camp life. Let her know that you look forward to receiving her letters and she can certainly write how she is feeling—she can tell you when she feels sad and she can tell you about when she laughed and the people she has met.

Questions to Ask When Selecting a Summer Camp

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Now is the time to start planning for summer camp.  There are numerous camp fairs in February and March.  Check out http://www.acacamps.org/camp-fairs for a list of fairs throughout the country.   Many camps also host gatherings for current and prospective campers around the country, so check out the web sites of camps you are considering to see what gatherings they have planned.

There are many excellent overnight camps for children that are ACA accredited.  To find the right camp for your child consider both what you and your child are looking for in a summer camp experience as well as camp foundations.  Does your child have a particular interest that he or she wants to pursue—overnight hiking trips, a particular sport, an artistic interest?  How close or far from home are you willing to send your child to camp and for how long?   Are you looking for a girls camp, boys camp or a coed camp?  When evaluating the camp foundations look at the camp values, the staff to camper ratio, the tuition, returning campers and staff.

As you are considering alternative camps for your child be sure to meet the directors of prospective camps and ideally also talk with parents of current campers.  You can learn a lot about a camp from the attitude of current parents.  Following are some questions that may help you get started in a conversation.

For a conversation with camp parents

1.     Why did you send your child to this camp?

2.     Did your child have any transitional issues at camp?

3.     What were the best elements of camp for your child?

4.     What was most difficult for your child at camp?

5.     What did your child learn at camp?

6.     Did your child make any new friends at camp?

For a conversation with camp directors

1.     Are you ACA accredited?

2.     What are the camp values?

3.     How long has the camp been operating and how long have you directed the camp?

4.     What is the staff to camper ratio?

5.     How many campers and staff return year to year?

6.     How long are the camp sessions and how many sessions do most campers attend?

7.     What are your visitation policies for parents?

8.     What activities are offered?

9.     How much choice do the campers have in which activities to pursue?

What else would you want to know about a camp before sending your child?  What do you wish you had known about a camp before you sent your child?

Tipping Point

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A tipping point—like sitting on a really long see-saw and slowly the person on the opposite end starts leaning back, just a tiny bit, just enough to start lifting me into the air—that is how I feel this week—the magical week when I am precisely equidistant from the close of camp last summer and the opening of camp this year.

Now is the time to start planning for summer camp—whether your child is returning for her 10^th year, just starting her first or you are still considering whether sleepover camp is the right choice for your daughter. 

For those who are still weighing the pros and cons of sleep away camp, there are often Summer Opportunity Fairs or Camp Fairs where summer program directors converge and set up tables to sell their programs to parents and their children.  These programs tend to pop up during this tipping point period, so now is the time to look for these open houses in a town near you and spend a Sunday afternoon talking with camp directors to find a good program for your child.  

I will begin planning programs for my campers and thinking about new activities they can delve into this summer—perhaps I will muse over a camp treasure hunt or look for some new group games.  Even with the snow swirling outside and sleet on its way, I smile as I begin the happy slide toward another summer at camp.

The Winter Solstice, Flinging and Slowing Down

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One of my favorite days of the year is the winter solstice—not for its long hours of dark, but for the turning point it marks as the days grow longer.

My mind turns to June and July and sitting on rocks above a lake watching the sunset, or gathering around a campfire while the sun still lingers above the distant mountains or even rising with the bugle and jumping into the lake, the sun well above the horizon. Today marks the turning point towards those long camp days.

I am so enamored of the winter solstice that I eagerly check the sunrise and sunset times to confirm that the days will indeed be lengthening come tomorrow. This isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. Math is actually required, albeit simple arithmetic. Unless I visit one of the websites that list the length of day down to the second, removing the need for any calculation at all.

The sun actually began setting later on December 15 in Boston, but sunrise also continues to occur later right on until January 6. Curiously I wonder if that has anything to do with the 12 days of Christmas, but I digress. So how is it that we experience a longer day (here in the northern hemisphere) even as sunrise continues to occur later?

Because the earth’s orbit around the sun is an ellipse and the earth is closest to the sun near the winter solstice, the earth is actually traveling faster in its orbit now than in June. So if you feel like you’re flying faster this time of year, well you are, astronomically speaking. During a single day’s revolution, the earth travels a greater distance along its orbit this time of year than it does during our summer.

Consider that you are standing on the earth, facing directly toward the sun at point A. The earth rotates through one day and simultaneously moves along its elliptical orbit. Consequently point A after one day isn’t quite facing directly toward the sun. The earth needs to rotate a tiny bit more for A to be facing the sun again. This corresponds to the sun rising just a bit later. And at the other end of the day, the sun is still in view and the earth needs to rotate a tiny bit more before sunset is experienced. This corresponds to the sun setting just a bit later.

Tomorrow sunrise will be a bit later than today, but sunset will be later by a smidgeon more and voila, tomorrow we will have daylight for nearly a second more than today.

Tomorrow I will relish that second. As I feel myself being flung faster past the sun at greater speeds this time of year, I can look forward to slowing down during the long days of summer camp.

Gift Ideas for Summer Campers

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Looking for a few gift ideas for the summer campers in your life?
Well, look no further. Whether you are finding gifts for your own children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, you can create a gift and presentation sure to please.

First, consider the activities your child loves most at camp. Is he a sailor? A hiker? A woodworker? A nature enthusiast? Tailor your gift selection to the particular interests of your camper. Here are a few examples.

Hiker:

• New backpack
• Head lamp
• Day pack
• Hiking Guide to the White Mountains, Green Mountains, Appalachian Trail or wherever your camper hikes
• Compass
• Water bottle with camp logo
• Wool socks—not exciting, but necessary

Sailor:

• Sailing gloves—look for fingerless kayaking gloves for a less expensive and equally effective option.
• PFD
• Water-resistant watch with a timer
• Sailing rules book such as Dave Perry’s Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing

Wood shop enthusiast:

• Swiss Army Knife
• Reference books for carving

Nature Enthusiast:

• Compass
• Pocket Naturalist Guides (animal tracks, night sky, wilderness survival and many more)
• National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Night Sky
• Nature Journal
• Sketch pad and pencils
• Day pack

Kayaker:

• Kayaking gloves
• Spray skirt
• PFD
• Dry bag

Second, encapsulate a camp memory as a gift. For instance, frame a summer photo from camp. Many camps have photos available for download or sale on their websites. Or ask your camper’s friend for a high resolution copy of a fun friends photo from the summer. Make a high quality print and frame it in a friends themed frame from Target, Amazon or your local photo shop.

You can also capture memories in a playlist tailored to camp. If your child’s camp has recorded songs you can start with those, add in traditional camp songs like ‘Titanic’ or ‘Little Green Frog’. Or take a theme like friendship and create a playlist around songs about friends.

Capture a year’s worth of memories in a calendar full of camp photos. Include special dates like opening and closing days for camp, and birthdays of camp friends.

Third, remember to visit your child’s camp website. Many camps sell items with camp logos such as caps, water bottles, journals, and stickers.

Lastly, don’t overlook the gift of a summer at camp. If you send a child to camp you can make a presentation of the ultimate camp gift—you are giving a child the time to be immersed in a new environment, bond with friends, build self-confidence, learn new skills and live life lessons. Create a personalized card to give your child as a reminder of the gift of summer camp, wrap it up and present it with intention.

In the middle of the winter, a reminder of long summer days at camp is an ideal gift for your summer camper. What are your best ideas for gift giving to campers? What would you like to receive as a camper?

Giving Thanks for Camp Friendships

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Wind-filled sails. Cool morning dips. Friendships for a lifetime. Humorous pranks. Bugle calls echoing. Cooking over a campfire. Self-confidence. Brilliant sunsets. Images flash through my mind as I recall my youthful days immersed in an 8 week sleepover camp each summer. In every image I see a smile—a friend laughing next to me as we sit wrapped in towels on the dock, a giggle after taps as we try to hoist the counselor’s bed into the rafters, a silly grin as we both reach for the last doughnut. Of all of the gifts I received from camp the greatest continues to be the friendships.

I am thankful for the crystal clear moments of bliss with buddies I savor in my memories from those sun-dipped camping days. I am thankful for the longevity of the camp friendships offered to me through adolescence and into adulthood. I am thankful for how easily I can reconnect with campers I haven’t seen in several decades, as if we just furled our sails yesterday and headed our separate ways. I am thankful for how my camp friends have embraced my husband. I give thanks that I have been able to offer my daughters their own summer camp experience and hope their camp friendships will be as enduring as the friendships shared with me.