Schools are out. The long days of summer are stretching before us. Double income families and single parent households have to do some extra juggling in the summer when the kids are home. More & more, families with a parent who stays home with the kids have also turned to summer camps to fill some of the hours in their kids’ days. American parents spend a collective $3.5 billion on summer camp each year.
I can’t think of summer camp without visions of the movie Parent Trap with the young Lindsay Lohan—my kids must have watched that movie 100 times and can quote a lot of it by heart.
**Did WE ever attend camps as kids?
Bonnie: One GS day camp for about a week. One weekend church youth group event. I was not a fan of large groups of people I didn’t know.
Renee: VBS was my only “camp” experience.
**Did our kids?
Savannah—horse day camp; week-long Spectrum day camp (mtsu student teacher practice + enhanced learning units); church kids’ camp and church youth group events (incl mission trip to Mexico, Impact, Winterfest, girls’ retreat), VBS
Ben—church kids’ camp, Impact, Winterfest, guys’ retreat., some Boy Scout campouts/outings. (Boxwell scout week-long camp). Also Impact 360.
Emma & Houston: We didn’t do a lot of camps. We did VBS and we did lessons year-round (horseback riding, dance, piano etc). My cousin and her husband are directors at Summer’s Best Two Weeks in Boswell, PA. For over 50 years, Summer’s Best Two Weeks has run summer sports camps for kids ages 8-18. This year over 3000 campers will come to SB2W to compete in athletics, strive to accomplish goals in dozens of activities, and live in community with one another.
MidSouth Youth Camp–some families we know attended this every year & looked forward to reuniting with their “camp friends” each summer.
So what are the benefits of going to camp? What things should you consider? Is it just to get your kids out of your hair?
A great camp experience involves making new friends, offering kids opportunities to practice the skills needed to build and maintain relationships. For most campers, this social function of camp is central to their experiences, unlike school where academic outcomes drive most of their daily activities.
These days, there’s a camp for everything. You can have the day camp experience or an overnight camp.
There are camps with specific focuses like music (band camp), science (thinking for older kids programs like Governor’s Schools or Boys’ and Girls’ State are also examples of camps), camps for particular sports, camps for kids with challenges (Special Kids camp), or kids experiencing loss/grief/illness.
More broadly, when we think of “summer camp,” we’re thinking of the iconic cabins in the woods, near a lake where you can swim/canoe, do arts & crafts, and have s’mores each night.
Camps can range anywhere from one week to 12 weeks (the entire summer). Average stay is about 9 wks.
What camp is good for:
Independence. Traditional overnight camps create a “third space” for kids to learn valuable life skills in different ways than they do at home or school. Going to camp offers kids needed time away from family and regular friend groups. These experiences give them the space to gain independence.
Qualities to seek in a summer camp include high expectations and opportunities for campers to be responsible and accountable for individual and group tasks. These opportunities can be as simple as pitching in on kitchen duties or as involved as leading the planning of the camp-wide talent show. A quality camp experience is one in which kids gain the confidence that they can take care of themselves and also contribute to something bigger.
Relationship Skills. A great camp experience involves making new friends, offering kids opportunities to practice the skills needed to build and maintain relationships.
The social environment at an overnight camp can be intense, as kids can’t escape the daily drama by going home at night. This means that camp counselors encourage kids to deal with conflict rather than avoid it. Great camps have well-trained, caring adults able to guide kids through conflict, providing opportunities to practice communication, empathy and compassion – key components of maintaining positive relationships.
Appreciating Differences. Great camps provide a space where kids can interact with people from different backgrounds and worldviews. At some camps, this might be interacting with kids of different cultural, religious or racial backgrounds. At others, it might mean making friends with campers and counselors from different parts of the world or being with kids from different economic or family conditions.
Getting Outside. Summer camps have connected kids to nature for about as long as kids have been going to camp. Around the turn of the 20th century, many camps focused on being a place for kids from the city to experience the wonders of the natural world.
Former campers often report that camp was the place that helped them develop an affinity for nature and outdoor activities more than any other place during their childhood.
Lets them be kids. In a highly connected and stressful world, there has been an increased interest in being more authentically engaged with others and our world. If you are a parent looking to help your kid put down their phone, reduce their screen time, worry less about “likes” on social media and just be a kid, then the old idea of camp seems like a custom-built solution.
Great camps allow kids to play in non-virtual worlds and interact with friends face to face rather than through a device. And most importantly, at camp kids get to be kids – and that might be the most compelling reason why camp still matters.
What’s the Right Age to Start?
This depends on you, your parenting style, and your child’s temperament. Many kids have fun and successful camp experiences as young as six years old, but that’s too young for most kids. And for some parents the thought of their child ever going to camp (without them) is unimaginable. Sometimes “he’s not ready for camp” actually means you’re not ready. Realizing that your child can be okay without you is sometimes hard on parents and it’s a big step to let them have the independent experience of summer camp.
5 or younger: too young for overnight camp alone. Try a family camp together or a day camp.
6 to 8 yrs old. For young kids, focus on whether your child is ready. This is not the age to force camp upon a hesitant child.
9-10 yrs old. Probably an ideal age to start. If she is excited to go, sign her up. If not, talk with other families whose kids go to camp to expose her to the idea. Hearing how much other kids like camp might encourage her to want to go. Attend camp information sessions.
If she is still hesitant, you have two choices.
The Hard Choice: Explain all the benefits of camp and how you think it will be great for her and an important step in her growth and development. Let her know you think it’s an important experience and you don’t want her to miss out.
This choice requires being able to stand your ground and not give in to whining. Sign up but don’t talk about it too much, too far in advance if your child is especially anxious.
The Easier Choice: Give your child a one-year “pass,” but follow through.
Know that kids who are hesitant about camp at 9 or 10 are likely to still be hesitant at 13 and possibly at 18 about going to college. Parents need to figure out how to work through those feelings and a week or two at camp is an easy way to start. It’s actually easier to start camp at 9 or 10 and work through those difficult homesick emotions without also contending with puberty.
11 & Up. If they want to go, let them. An older child will likely not be the only first-year camper his age. There will be fewer new kids at camp at that age, but camp kids are welcoming, so don’t worry. Many families wait until their child is 12 or 13 years old, only to later be disappointed that they had so few summers to enjoy at camp.
COST
The average weekly rate for day camp ranges from $199 to $800, while overnight camps will set parents back between $680 and $2,000 a week, according to the American Camp Association. Average is around $1000/kid.
Several prominent programs provide access to camp experiences for low-income youth. They include the C5 Youth Foundation in Boston, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas and Los Angeles; Sherwood Forest in St. Louis; and College Settlement in Pennsylvania, just to name a few.
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter From Camp)
Song by Allan Sherman
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Main Results
Lyrics
Hello Muddah, hello Faddah
Here I am at Camp Grenada
Camp is very entertaining
And they say we’ll have some fun if it stops raining
I went hiking with Joe Spivey
He developed poison ivy
You remember Leonard Skinner
He got Ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner
All the counsellors hate the waiters
And the lake has alligators
And the head coach wants no sissies
So he reads to us from something called Ulysses
Now I don’t want this should scare ya
But my bunkmate has Malaria
You remember Jeffery Hardy
They’re about to organize a searching party
Take me home, oh Muddah, Faddah
Take me home, I hate Grenada
Don’t leave me out in the forest where
I might get eaten by a bear
Take me home, I promise I will
Not make noise, or mess the house with
Other boys, oh please don’t make me stay
I’ve been here one whole day
Dearest Fadduh, darling Muddah
How’s my precious little bruddah
Let me come home if you miss me
I would even let Aunt Bertha hug and kiss me
Wait a minute, it’s stopped hailing
Guys are swimming, guys are sailing
Playing baseball, gee that’s bettah
Muddah, Faddah kindly disregard this letter
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Allan Sherman / Lou Busch
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter From Camp) lyrics © Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc