John Vandervelde - Program Director
Most people register for camp during January and February. During these two months many parents are asking, "Is my child ready for camp?" Gone are the days when as soon as a kid hits age 7 he or she is loaded on the bus and shipped off to camp. Parents are much more cautious about making sure their kids have a good camp experience. They want their children to be safe and have a fun time, not a time full of homesickness or complaining. Parents know that sending their child to camp will be good for their child, but they want to do it right.
I am often asked via email, "Is my child ready for HoneyRock?" or "How do I get my child ready for camp?" Truthfully, it's a tough question for me to answer because every child is different and every parent is different. There are a few key things I usually suggest to parents to help them discern if their child is ready for summer camp and to prepare them for a HoneyRock summer.
Just to clarify, these suggestions are for parents who have children who seem not to be interested in camp at all or who are interested but are not totally on board:
1) Involve your child in the process early. If you know he's not totally into camp, don't spring it on him. Don't say, "Happy Birthday! We're sending you to camp this summer and it's all paid for! Aren't you excited?" First, take him to the HoneyRock website, watch some videos on YouTube, and show him the brochure. Find a friend or family who has gone to HoneyRock before and have them talk to your child about it. Give your child time to warm up to the idea of going to camp. Let him explore it a bit himself and don't force it down his throat. If he still just won't buy in at all, don't send him to camp! It will be a bad experience for him, his counselors, and the other kids in his cabin.
2) Practice being away from home for a night. The main reason kids don't want to go to camp or feel unprepared for camp is that they are not ready or willing to be away from mom and dad and the comforts of home. If your child seems to be attached to you and doesn't do well when she is away from you (at school, on sleepovers, etc.), she may not be ready for camp yet. I suggest that you give her opportunities to be away from you for a night or two to build up her confidence and to also ready her for camp. Please don't allow her first night away from you to be when she comes to HoneyRock. Send her to her grandparents' house for a weekend. Giving her the opportunity to be away from home briefly will allow you to assess how she did and see if she is ready for camp. If she did great, had a good time, and wasn't too homesick, she is probably ready for camp. The challenge for parents is that when she's at camp you won't be able to call every 30 minutes to make sure she is okay.
3) Start giving your child more independence. This will allow you to assess if he is ready for camp and it will build his confidence that he can handle camp when the day comes. As a parent I know how easy it is to micro-manage your child's life and be a helicopter parent. It is tough to balance protecting and advocating for your child while also allowing him to grow, fail, learn, and experience life on his own. Children who come from overly-sheltered situations are often the ones who are the most reluctant to get excited about camp and hardest to get ready for camp, but also the ones who need it the most. I strongly suggest enrolling him in activities in your church or community such as soccer,
youth group, or boys brigade that will allow him to interact with other kids and
adults outside your home. It's okay to be the coach, but you don't need to be the coach and leader for every activity he does. Don't get me wrong: be involved, but give him space and independence, too. As his confidence grows, he will be more likely to get excited about camp and he will be ready to excel at camp when he arrives.
4) Have them sign up with a friend. If kids know they are going to camp with a close friend they will be far more likely to get excited about camp. We have several campers who sign up to go to camp each year with their cousins who live across the country. It's a great idea because it builds family connections and memories and gives each child a buddy to go to camp with.
5) Wait a year. You may think I'm crazy for telling people not to send their child to camp. I'm not. I know that if you force your child to come to camp, he or she will likely have a negative experience and will never want to come back. Additionally, you as a parent will not want to send him or her again. If you wait a year, you will allow your child to gain more confidence, independence, and excitement about camp. Then your child will have a good experience and will come back to HoneyRock year after year. I would rather miss out on having a child here for one summer than on a lifetime of involvement with HoneyRock.
The discernment process involved in sending your child to camp can be a difficult one. If you have more questions, need another suggestion, or just want to chat about it, please call or email me. My phone number is 715-479-7474 x 202 or email me at johnv@honeyrockcamp.org.
Tomorrow, in Part 2 of "Is My Child Ready for Camp?", I will be giving suggestions to parents on how to prepare themselves for sending a child away to camp. Stay tuned.