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.

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!

Visiting Summer Camp

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August is a great time to visit summer camps in Maine—visit in the next few weeks and you are likely to find the camps full of campers immersed in activities, working for honors, and playing in the water with friends. While a winter camp fair is a good place to ask the camp director lots of questions about camp (see Questions to Ask), a summer tour is more about gaining an appreciation for the pulse of the camp. Is this a place where your child would thrive in the summer?

A few tips to get the most out of your visits:

• Call ahead to let the director know you are coming. She or he will most likely be able to set aside some time to show you around or have another staff member show you camp.
• Bring your child with you!
• Ask when the best time is to visit. Right after lunch may fit your schedule best, but you may find that lunchtime at camp is later or the campers are at rest. You will likely get to know the camp best when the campers are engaged in activities.
• Find out if there is a weekly campfire or other gathering on the day you are visiting. There may be other parents who will be around camp at the same time who may be able to answer some of your questions as a parent.
• Find out if the camp has each family tour camp together or offers prospective campers a chance to interact with current campers without their parents. If so, talk to your child in advance so she isn’t surprised by the separation.
• While the staff likely is very happy to answer your questions, take the time to simply get the feeling of camp—is the energy level what you are looking for, do the campers look happy, are the variety of activities ones your child may be interested in trying?
• Finally, while summer camp can certainly help build lifelong friendships and skills, this isn’t a college tour and your child may be a bit overwhelmed to approach campers and strike up a conversation. Let your child simply absorb the place; selecting a summer camp is a decision that a parent can make.

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.