Hey, Camp Parents!

Last week I posted about sending emails to your camper—when it’s appropriate and how to write a good one to your camper. Today’s post, the final installment in our camp correspondence series, concentrates on the two least-used forms of communication during your kid’s summer camp stay: phone calls and care packages. Let’s talk about the telephone first.

Phone Calls
As discussed in last week’s post on email, the same is true for phone calls; all camps are different with differing views on allowing their campers to talk to their parents over the phone.

Some camps allow phone calls once a week, believing talks with parents to be helpful and supportive. But most camps discourage contact by phone and ask that calls are saved for rare emergencies. The popular philosophy is that the sound of a parents’ voice can stir a deep longing for home which is often detrimental to the chief goal of camp—independence!

Neither philosophy is wrong, but talking on the phone—an immediate means of communication—hinders independence while other means of communication (i.e. letter-writing) take whole days to be sent back and forth and, thus, foster independence—and support too! If your child’s camp does allow phone calls, try to keep it to a minimum so your camper gets the most out camp.

CampMinder.com or Bunk1.com are great online services that help parents schedule time to talk with their campers by way of phone. You can learn more about these services in our post from last week.

Care Packages
Campers have been known to get boxes of goodies like fun toys, cool clothes, favorite magazines, and other gifts from their parents. Care packages certainly make a kid feel great, but no parent should ever feel obligated to send one to their camper. As camp experts Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski say in ‘The Summer Camp Handbook’, “Camp is a huge gift in itself.”

Should you decide, however, to send a care package to your camper, it’s important to follow the camp’s policy on what items campers can have. Keep in mind that your camper is part of a group. Here are some things to think about when you send a care package.

SIZE
Don’t send anything too big. A ridiculously big care package may be funny to other campers and embarrassing to yours. Remember, the point is not to spoil your child, it’s simply to put a smile on their face and remind them that you’re thinking of them.

FOOD/PERISHABLES
Send only what the camp allows. Some camps allow campers to receive food, candy, and gum. Others do not. Food can be problematic as it attracts animals and bugs. Without proper storage, food rots and becomes a health hazard. Don’t put your kid in an awkward situation.

GAMES/TOYS/BOOKS
These are great care package items—especially things that your child can share with his fellow campers like board games, Frisbees, playing cards, and fun reading material like MadLibs, Choose Your Own Adventure books, and comics. Other good items that your camper won’t have to share are a shirt, family photo, a novel, or a small stuffed animal.

So that’s all for our June series on camp correspondence. I hope these posts have been helpful for your camper’s upcoming summer camp experience. As always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Parents!

Last week I posted tips for writing letters to your camper—the best option for communicating with your kid during their time away at camp. Today’s post focuses in on email. Lots of camps out there offer a one-way email service to provide a speedier way to communicate with your camper. Speedier messaging methods may be handy, but they also sacrifice the personal touch that a handwritten letter delivers.

As camp experts Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski put it in their helpful guidebook, ‘The Summer Camp Handbook’, “Sending your child an e-mail may make her feel more like a business colleague than your own flesh and blood. There is no substitute for a handwritten letter.”

Is it ever okay to email?
Sometimes it might be your best option. If you have an urgent message or you don’t have time to write a letter, email may be the way to go. It’s smart to confirm the camp’s policy when it comes to email. All camps are different. Some allow kids to receive emails but not to send them. Some camps will send parents a PDF image of their child’s handwritten reply.

If you find yourself in a situation where email is the best route, keep in mind that it should represent a letter as much as possible. That means including a salutation, proper punctuation, paragraph breaks, and a warm closing. You’re sending your kid word from home, not typing out a careless office memo.

Check out CampMinder.com, a service parents can use to communicate with their camper. Parents log into their account, type out an email, and CampMinder sends your word to your kid’s camp where it’s then printed out and delivered to your child along with stationery and a pre-addressed, stamped envelope to reply.

Another similar place to visit is Bunk1.com, offering the same service as well as a fun photo platform so that parents can sneak a peek into the camp life and maybe even see the permanent smile that their kid is wearing. These sites take privacy very seriously and have taken measures to solidify the security of their sites.

Your kid is likely out playing, having fun, and making the most of every day! They aren’t sitting in front of a computer, so don’t expect an immediate response to an email. In fact, some camps have their computers whole miles away from the cabins and, consequentially, emails are checked just once a day. In that case, email isn’t necessarily any faster form of communication than a mailed letter.

Tune in again next Monday to get a closer look at making phone calls and sending care packages to your camper. And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Parents!

Last Monday began our four-part series to share tips and advice on correspondence with your camper during their camp stay. To review, I broke down the four different options of communication, the first—and best—of the options being a handwritten letter, followed by email, phone calls, and care packages.

Borrowing great tips from Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski’s ‘The Summer Camp Handbook’, today’s post focuses in on the first option: a handwritten letter.

Keep your letters newsy, upbeat, and encouraging. Try to save mildly bad news until you can talk to your child in person (we’ll cover how to break major bad news to your child in a couple weeks for our post on phone calls). Of course, you can tell your kid that you miss them, but don’t make it sound like life at home is so depressing without them around—that would be mildly bad news.

Bringing up mildly bad news is just introducing things that your kid can’t do anything about. No matter how big or how small, bad news makes campers feel helpless. And helplessness is a road that leads to darker places like homesickness, anxiety, and depression.

Write about positive news from home like the family dog having a fun trip to the dog park or how you’re catching up on your reading. Mention when you’ll write again and include lots of questions to invite a response—though you’re likely not to get one because too much fun is being had.

It’s always nice to include other bits of interest to your kid. I remember my parents sending me the comics page from the newspaper my first time at camp. You could also send photos, drawings, or anything else you can fit in an envelope that your camper will appreciate.

What if your kid DOES write you from camp and the letter is a concentrated mess of homesick words and pleas for you to go get them. Don’t overreact—things are most likely fine and the letter was simply written in a bad mindset. A lot is sure to happen at camp in between the letter being written and you reading it.

The right move is to call the camp and talk to a counselor who can update you on how your kid is doing. Chances are that the homesick feelings are gone.

In very extreme and rare cases, your camper might require more attention, one-on-one supervision, or potentially even an early pick-up. Keep in mind that it almost never gets to that point. Calling the camp is a good move, but you should certainly address your campers homesickness in another letter that you write back. Write back as soon as you can.

Make it from the heart, but, once again, be newsy, upbeat, and encouraging. Convey that you understand how they feel in your letter. Typically, the moment your child knows that you truly understand how upset they are is typically when they start to feel better. You can check out an old Blog post from Chris Thurber himself about writing to your kid during their summer camp stay!

Tune in next Monday to learn about communicating with your camper by email and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Besties!

Happy Best Friend Day! Today is a day to hang out and have fun with the friend you treasure most. Best friends do everything together from hanging out to going on family vacations with one another. So how come summer camp has to separate the inseparable? It may not be easy to tell your friend about your summer plans to head off to overnight camp, but today’s post is here to help you break the news to your friend without breaking their heart.

Friends are likely to feel a little dejected when you tell them that you’re leaving for a week, two weeks, a whole month, or even longer. The idea that they’ll be minus a friend for the summer can hit hard. They might make some attempt at trying to attend camp with you which may or may not be in your best interests. Take a look at an old Blog post written by camp expert, Dr. Chris Thurber about the pros and cons of attending camp along with a friend.

But even more than just being minus a friend throughout fun summer days, your friend may be concerned that you’re heading off to camp where you’re sure to make lots and lots of new camp friends. After all—a big part of summer camp fun is making new friends. It’s not, however, the only part—nor is it the part that kids love most about camp.

What kids love most about summer camp is the chance to be themselves.

Summer camp gives kids the opportunity to shed their reputation from neighborhood friends, school, and even home life. When your reputation is nonexistent, kids get the clearest picture of who they are and discover their most “authentic personality” as Dr. Thurber puts it. What kids get most out of summer camp is a sense of self identity and personal growth.

The company of an established friend at camp could make for lots of fun, but it can also hinder personal growth. If you’re headed off to camp without your best friend, fill them in on your summer plans directly—don’t be worried about their reaction. For all you know, your friend is just as worried to break the news of their summer plans to you as you are about breaking your news to them.

Maybe not, though.

Maybe they’ll be sad to learn that you won’t be around to hang out with. Reassure them of the strength of your friendship and highlight all the fun opportunities that camp offers—like activities and personal growth as opposed to making new friends. You can promise to write them while you’re away. What will help the most, though, is helping your friend to move past the sadness by enjoying as much time together as you can. Have fun!

Celebrate Best Friend Day with your best friend and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Folks!

Today begins our four-part series throughout June, focusing on how to best keep in touch during your child’s summer camp stay. Working with the wealth of excellent information about proper summer camp prep from a wonderful guidebook called ‘The Summer Camp Handbook,’ this series of posts delivers practical tips for positive correspondence with your soon-to-be-camper.

Receiving mail at camp means the world to your kids. Tearing open a letter from home makes them feel cared for and remembered. Camp experts Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski discuss in their book, “Personal letters and postcards—whether from parents, friends, and relatives—renew the connection with home. Even pets can ‘write’ letters, with the help of their owners.”

Thurber and Malinowski break camp correspondence into four basic methods of communication. We’ll take a quick look at them right now and then get a closer look throughout the series for a more in-depth understanding of these forms of communication.

Letters
A handwritten letter is typically the best way for you to communicate with your camper. They’ll feel so great receiving mail, but when it comes to getting word back, you’ll be lucky to hear anything at all. Not to worry—silence on their end typically means that your camper is having a blast…such a blast that they don’t think to write back. The best you can do is pack pre-stamped, pre-addressed envelopes and paper, and write letters that encourage your child to write back.

Electronic Messages
Many camps now have one-way e-mail services that allow faster written communication with your child. However, speed comes at the expense of a personal touch. Sending your child an e-mail may make her feel more like a business colleague than your own flesh and blood. There is no substitute for a handwritten letter. We’ll go much deeper into this topic next week.

Phone Calls
As with faxes and e-mail, different camps have different policies about phone calls. Be sure you and your child understand the camp’s phone policy before opening day. During camp, it’s important to respect that policy because it’s based on years of experience with what works and what doesn’t work at that particular camp.

Care Packages
Kids feel really special when they get a care package. It can even be something of a status symbol. Still, you shouldn’t feel obligated to send a package to your son or daughter. Overnight camp is a huge gift in itself.
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Tune in next Monday to learn about sending electronic messages as well as an online service called CampMinder. As always, thanks for reading.

- John