4 Questions to Help You Assess: Is My Child Old Enough for Summer Camp?

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Parents often wonder if their children are old enough to go to a sleep-away camp. Beyond the obvious “it depends” consider these situations I’ve seen.

• Two girls first attended camp for 3 1/2 weeks as 6-year olds, and returned to camp enthusiastically for many years.
• A 7-year old came for a week and was exceedingly homesick.  She returned 2 years later and flourished.
• A 6-year old camper was not at all homesick, but wasn’t able to participate in a large group setting where she needed to follow rules.  She returned at age 8 and enjoyed an outstanding summer.
• An 11-year old came to camp for the very first time for seven weeks. She appeared timid when she arrived, yet after one week in a cabin she wholeheartedly embraced all aspects of camp and thoroughly enjoyed camp.
• An 8-year old came to camp knowing only minimal English.  The girl was homesick the first two nights, but otherwise smiled broadly, made friends and her English improved dramatically.

The success of each camper was less age-dependent and more aligned with the child’s independence, his or her ability to participate in a group and the signals a parent sent to his or her child.

Mull over these four questions as you consider if your child is ready for summer camp:

1. Has your child successfully completed a sleepover away from home?
2. Can your child participate in a group without having attention focused solely on him and his needs?  Camp is a place where everyone takes turns clearing the dining table, each camper helps keep the cabin neat, swimming is only allowed at designated times and other group norms are necessary.
3. Can your child be reasonably quiet for an extended rest time and after taps?
4. Are you as a parent comfortable supporting your child and letting her try out her own wings without your constant vigilance?

These aren’t meant to be yes or no questions, as each can be enhanced just by being at camp.  But if your child has gone to several sleepovers and each time the host parent has called at 11 p.m. for you to pick up your son, he may not yet be ready for camp.  Or if your child is 6 or 7 and hasn’t yet learned how to participate as a member of a group, then you may want to wait a year before you register her.

On the other hand, a child doesn’t need to be pleading to go to summer camp.  A timid child may enthusiastically embrace camp. 

A family who offers positive encouragement and a child who is able to learn how to cooperate in a group is ready for the gift of sleep-away summer camp.

Tips for Terrific Off-Season Visits

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Before the holidays fill your weekends, and before snowstorms limit your long distance driving, November is a great month to visit a camp friend.

While staying in touch online has its merits, there’s nothing like visiting in person to rekindle summer memories from tipping a canoe to catching a frog to the prank you played on your counselor.

A few tips for a great visit:

• Share the driving. Find a mall or restaurant where you can meet halfway between your hometowns so neither driver has two full round-trips to manage.


• If you have an older sibling ready to visit colleges, see if a camp friend may live nearby or on the way.


• Send a photo to camp for their Facebook page, newsletter or Instagram stream.


• Take along photos from the summer or other objects to get past the awkwardness of reuniting away from a cabin on a lake.

Northern Lights, Camp Skies

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Picnic, check. Beach blanket, check. Forecast for clear skies and northern lights, check, check! Having read about the fickleness of clear skies and northern lights even when they are predicted, we headed to the beach early to enjoy the rippled sand and sunset. Any northern lights sighting would be considered a bonus.

The textures of the dune grass, sand flats and mottled western sky all beckoned to me and my camera saying, “hey, no need to wait for some elusive northern lights, look at our show.” 

What a show indeed. The deep oranges of the setting sun reflected off every surface and reminded me of one of the pleasures of summer camp— lake sunsets that never grow old.

Every evening campers and counselors drift to the water’s edge in ones or twos or threes to watch the sun’s departing show. While artificial lights creep across our cities and suburbs,

camp life celebrates natural darkness where only the occasional flashlight interrupts the moonlight dancing across the lake.  Looking up into a star-studded sky and seeing a satellite slowing arcing past or spotting a shooting star or recognizing a constellation by name are gifts campers receive each summer.

These were the memories that flitted through my mind as I sat on the beach gazing north over the dark ocean, waiting expectantly for the northern lights.  Was there a green glow above the horizon?  Possibly.  Was it the aurora borealis?  Possibly, or possibly my imagination.

We looked up at the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia, enjoying the darkness and quiet.  We may or may not have seen an the northern lights, but like a summer night at camp, we thoroughly enjoyed the delights of the night sky.

Counselors Pack for Summer Camp

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The sound of kids laughing as they run into the lake.  The wind through the pine trees as you drift off to sleep on your bunk.  Swapping riddles among a group of friends as you paddle a kayak. Whether you are headed to work at a summer camp for your 1^st or 40^th summer, take a moment to consider what is calling you to camp.

Summer camps can be as inspiring and engaging for the counselors as for the campers.  What do you want to get out of your camping experience?  To ensure you offer the campers your best as well as feel personally fulfilled, take a few minutes and jot down your answers to the following questions before you pack your trunk.

1. What will you do to be the best counselor possible?


Do you want to make time every night to ask each camper about his or her great moment for the day?  Or is your strength in recognizing and helping homesick campers having been there yourself?  Or perhaps you’re the high-energy counselor who can introduce five new games this summer. Pack your counselor goals in your trunk along with your shorts and you’ll be more likely to keep those aims top of mind.


2. What do you need to keep your balance this summer?


We all need balance when living with, supervising and instructing campers all summer.  Their young exuberance can be fabulous and refreshing or just downright fresh.  Decide how you are going to find space to keep a calm frame of mind. 
Perhaps you need to find time to take a run every other day, or finally work for your swimming honor or lead an overnight trip.  Think about your goals and keep yourself fulfilled so you can be that best counselor possible for your campers.


3. What can you bring to help you achieve both 1 and 2?

Finally, do you need to bring anything to fulfill your counselor and your personal ambitions?   Would a new pair of running shoes inspire you to stick to your running goal?  Is there a great book you want to pack to read to your campers this summer (Wee Free Men is a humorous read aloud for young teens—your campers may think you’re Scottish even if you’re from California). Do you have the best waders for going frogging?  Make room in your trunk.

When, oh so long from now, the last bugle echo recedes in August, stop again and think about the camp skills you have gained that are relevant for your college or employment career; more thoughts on that here: Counselors Benefit From Camp Too!

What are you packing for you and your campers this summer?

Top 5 Benefits of Camp

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The snow may be piling up, but the days are lengthening— Think Camp!  Why camp?  Because overnight summer camp provides the foundation for many character elements we want to instill in our children.

Here are my top five benefits of summer camp:

Independence.  When a child needs to take care of the basics from addressing and stamping her own letters home to refilling the cornbread platter or changing out of her bathing suit and even (gasp!) hanging it up to dry, she is shaping her independence.  Independence is a skill that is vital to success throughout life and great preparation for that day in the distant future when she heads off to college.

Self-confidence.  Every day at camp a camper has the opportunity to try myriad pursuits whether holding the tiller of a sailboat for the first time or trying a new dive or leading a camp song by the campfire or feeding a goat.  Trying a new pursuit and working diligently to become proficient are the foundations of how we each build self-confidence.  Summer camp is a playground of new opportunities where every camper can try something new.

Precious present.  In a world of electronics and hustle and bustle we all need time to slow down and be immersed in the precious present.  Summer camp is a place to reconnect with the precious present as you hold a frog gently in your hands and watch it watch you.

Positive role models.  Most summer camps pride themselves on the care their staff bestows upon each and every camper.  Year after year young men and women return to summer camps to make positive connections with their campers.  One may help an eight year old perfect his baseball

swing. Another laughs with her campers heading to morning dip.  A third invites a quiet child to join in a game of spud.  Many sit quietly with campers by the water’s edge to watch the sunset.  We all need mentors and summer camps are filled with positive role models every child should have.  Plus according to this New York Times blog camp counselors can out-parent parents.

Camaraderie. How many times have I heard a former camper reflect nostalgically on camp saying, “I could be myself at camp, no pretenses like at school.”  Campers return summer after summer for the camaraderie they find among friends who accept them for who they are. 

Here are views from a few other folks who know something about camp and kids:

• American Camp Association
• PBS Kids

What are the benefits you see your child receiving at summer camp?

In a word: Relationships

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A word cloud formed from blogs on the value of overnight camp for campers and counselors conveys the essence of camp, and perhaps, of life—relationships. 

Relationships with friends and campers and counselors, and yes with parents too.  

Relationships with counselors who live in the moment and serve as valuable role models for children. 

Relationships among campers who learn and grow to meet their potential, who arrive with trepidation and leave camp with memories and lives changed through the relationships they form each summer.

Relationships between children and parents who give the gift of summer camp knowing a child can gain more self-confidence and responsibility in a few weeks of summer fun than nearly anywhere else in life.

Look into an overnight summer camp experience for your child this year.  

The blogs on which this cloud are based:

• 10 Reasons Why Businesses Should Hire Former Camp Counselors
• 5 Life Lessons Learned from Sleep-Away Camp
• What's Needed to Prepare Your Child for the Future? The Answer May Surprise You...
• Counselors Benefit from Camp Too!

Counselors Benefit From Camp Too!

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Campers aren’t the only ones benefitting from summer camp. The American Camp Association reports that 1,200,000 adults are employed by camps. Consequently,

 “What have you learned at summer camp?”

 is a common question among camp directors assessing the productivity of their counselors, college admission officers selecting new students and hiring managers determining the value of a potential candidate.

So whether you are 16 or 24, finishing your first year as a counselor or are a seasoned veteran, it can be helpful to take a few minutes to consider what new insights you developed over the summer. Personally, two of my most memorable insights this summer may have little relevance in the workplace unless I change my career focus to outdoor culinary arts.

While frogging I received numerous suggestions for the easiest way to remove a leech and now carry a piece of gauze when I head into bogs known for these (sometimes not so small) blood-sucking creatures. And one of my youngest campers introduced me to the culinary delight of bananas roasted plain over a campfire. Wrapping a banana in aluminum foil with marshmallows and chocolate creates a tasty, sugar-filled dessert, however, roasting a banana in 3” sections on a stick is a healthful delight that has the added benefit of creating no trash! Spinning either of these into compelling reasons to hire me might be a bit of a stretch, but either could certainly provide a few minutes of engaging introduction.

However, summer camp counselors do gain a plethora of valuable lessons each year that will be beneficial in classrooms, dorm rooms, and workplaces and yes, even in that far, distant future of parenting. When my camp director asked her counselors to mull over what skills were gained over the summer, common answers were patience, flexibility, organization, staying present—all of which are key for students, employees, roommates, and yes, parents. Although frequently a counselor adds, “and I don’t intend on being a parent any time soon!”

As you consider your college or job application, take the time to explain how you gained these skills and how you will be a better student, member of the college community or employee because you have benefitted from spending your summer as a camp counselor. Create a short story that encapsulates your learning and summarizes the benefits to your potential employer.

One afternoon I was gathering armloads of brush and tossing them into a truck. It was hot and sweaty and time-consuming work. The maintenance man came up to me and handed me a barn fork. A man of few words, he succinctly summed up his methodology, “save your arms for your boyfriend, use this barn fork.” From studying engineering to writing software code to designing business strategies to planning a family weekend, efficiency has been invaluable in both freeing up my time and making tasks more enjoyable in the process. As an employee I can get more done than my less efficient co-workers, and can also create processes to streamline the business overall.

Coupled with efficiency summer camp has taught me the value of assessing a situation before reacting. Hearing the high-pitched screams of campers racing toward me, I briefly wonder whether the Loch Ness monster has been sighted. However, before grabbing my camera and heading for the lake, I calmly request that the least flustered camper slow down and explain the cause of the agitation. Turned out, the camp goat had taken the liberty of investigating an inviting-looking cabin. A short pause for assessment can make the follow-up reaction far more successful. Livestock management to boating, classroom to business—life rarely rolls out as anticipated. Assessing the unexpected before reacting, has been a lesson I have learned and re-learned at summer camp where loose goats, capsized sailboats, and homesick campers are all in a morning’s work.