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We are thinking about sleepaway camp next summer. Our child will be 10yo. I am interested in hearing what your experiences have been. Any homesickness issues? Do you think 2 weeks is a good amt. of time for the first experience. Do you know how YMCA camps differ from private camps? Any feedback is much appreciated.
I started going to sleepaway camp when I was 10 and it was a great experience. I'm an adult now but I can't imagine the camp experience has changed much other than with cell phones and computers it's even easier to keep in touch with your family. I think I started off going for two weeks and it increased as I got older.
I attended a YMCA sleepaway camp when I was about that age, except it was for 4 weeks. I had an absolute blast. I made lifelong friends, and the 4 weeks just flew by. I'll never forget my time spent at that camp, and I hope my girls will want to go too when they get old enough. I ended up going every summer for 4 years.
In my experience, cell phones with young kids makes home sickness worse. As a leader on these sorts of camps I see kids who are homesick. A phonecall home makes it worse. A letter or an email home is much better because often the kid just needs to off load the feeling of homesickness. A letter gives them the feeling that they are connecting with home but without the urgency.
Also they really love receiving letters on camp. Basically the best parents write by snail mail several times a week so about every two days the kid gets a letter. This basically means as soon as you get home from dropping the kid at camp, you need to drop a letter in the post box. Likewise parents love receiving letters from kids. I have seen some camps where they will have letter writing times and encourage the kids to write home. Even email. We would get some old laptops and just get the kids to write emails using notepad. Then a leader could organise the send them. In the early days I remember the leader copying them onto floppy disk and driving to the local town where they used someones computer to send them all. It was always a sort after job and seen as a bit of a reward because you would get real coffee.
If your kid has never had a sleepover then I would suggest that he/she has sleepovers at other kids houses and likewise have some kids sleepover at your place. You may wish to consider 1 week rather than two for their first sleepaway camp. A friend is always nice although again, good camps do a lot of friendship creating and get to know you activities so often kids who go on their own end up making really good friends and even though they only meet once a year, they sometimes phone and email and these days chat on the net during the year.
My youngest will be 10 this summer. She already has gone to camp several times. My oldest was 6 when he went for the first time. Granted, he went with a group of friends so it wasn't like he was all alone. My youngest didn't go as early because of vacation and activity conflicts.
We don't have any experience with Y camps, but we have used many private and church based camps. I like the private ones best. I do think church based programs are beneficial, but some religious based camps make the boys wear long pants because shorts are too "revealing"... yeah, I can't follow that logic, so we didn't do that camp.
The homesickness... that depends on the child. My youngest is more clingy but her camps are of special interest to her AND she has bffs who are going the same week. When I picked her up last summer, she did not want to come home.
As for the length, that too depends on the child. We only do a week at the time because of finances and honestly, we do many family activities together in the summertime and we miss them if they're gone for extended periods of time.
.........l, but some religious based camps make the boys wear long pants because shorts are too "revealing"... yeah, I can't follow that logic, so we didn't do that camp.........
Many years ago a camp director was explaining to a group of teen leaders including myself that the less the boys wear the more they turn the girls off and the less the girls wear the more they turn the boys on.
So I guess those religeous camps that rockinmomma was refering to are trying to get the girls interested in those boys
We started sending our kids when they were 10. Our oldest is pretty shy and quite so we were worried that he might not like it and have problems. We sent him to a 4 day camp to start. They were not allowed cell phones but you could send an email to the camp and they would distribute them to the kids. They made the kids call home on the 3rd night so we anxiously awaited DS's call thinking he would want us to come get him. The conversation went something like this:
"Hi Mom, I'm coming back next year, gotta go, bye" click.
He had fun and continued to go for several more years.
We send our son to the YMCA camp and he always has a blast! He keeps asking to stay for two weeks, but one week is enough, for him, and for me! Maybe when he gets a little older, he can start staying two weeks, but not right now. He`s 11.
My daughters have been going to Girl Scout camp for a week since they were 8. After they finished 6th grade they could go for a 2 week session. They love it.
I did 4 weeks when I was turning 11 and followed that with two years of 8 week sessions at age 11/12 and 12/13. I LOVED it and still remember the camp songs, etc... Color War was so much fun and I bet every girl that went there still remembers it and what color team they were on. I went to a camp that has been around for a very long time and was in a beautiful setting in the Adirondacks. I don't believe the kids are allowed things like cell phones and computers there, and of course when I went, we had snail mail and that was it. Phone calls home were only if you were in serious trouble or if you were one of the little kids (I think we had girls as young as 6 there - the ratio was something like 1 counselor to two girls in those bunks) and were very homesick.
It was such an awesome experience. I hope to send my kids to a camp like that for at least one summer each (the camp I went to is something like $10K for the 7 week session now).
Hey I just noticed you are in NYC. I lived there when I went to camp. My camp was Raquette Lake Girls Camp, and they have a Boys' Camp across the lake. I don't know your budget but just wanted to give you the name since you are in the area.
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Maybe when he gets a little older, he can start staying two weeks, but not right now. He`s 11.
