There is an awful lot that goes through the minds of parents as they consider sleep-away camp for their children. While we can say with certainty that it’s different for every child – the very first question we like to ask parents when they inquire about Camp is if they are ready for their child to go to sleep-away camp.  We feel this is an important first question to answer as our children know us better than we often realize, and if we are showing signs of anxiety or reluctance to send them off – they’ll begin to share some of those emotions with us.

Assuming you are ready for them to go to Camp, here are some questions that will help your family make the right decision.

Who brought up the idea?  How did the idea of Camp enter the realm of possibilities?  Did your child ask about it – because they have friends or older siblings that go to Camp?  Is this an idea that you shared with them, and if so, what was their reaction?  Children who have hesitation at the thought of attending sleep-away camp are completely normal! Spending a week (or weeks) away from home isn’t something that they’ve likely been thinking about for years. Allow time for the idea to settle with them and include them in the decision making process.

Can your child follow directions?  Camp is filled with opportunities to learn new things, meet new friends, and experience a level of independence that they haven’t experienced before.  At Camp, we live as a community and setting boundaries with established rules helps everyone get the most out of their time with us.  Many times throughout the day, campers are given directions that will set them and their fellow campers up for success, and having the capability to follow those directions is important.  Whether or not they want to follow those directions is a different question for us to consider, later!

How are they with caring for their own personal hygiene? At Camp, campers will be required to take care of their bodies, just like we expect them to do so at home.  Can your camper brush their own teeth? How about shower independently?  We train our staff in supporting your campers in these endeavors and will provide reminders when it’s time to do these important tasks.  Camp is a great place for campers to master some of these skills that they are just beginning to learn.  If your camper can shower on their own but needs help adjusting the water temperature or sometimes uses too much shampoo – they’re ready for Camp!

In addition to these questions, we highly recommend that you don’t put too much emphasis on whether or not your child has been able to sleep-over at places other than home.  While it helps, Camp isn’t a sleep-over at a friend or relatives house.  When our children go on those outings, they don’t have space that is specifically theirs.  They’re a visitor in someone else’s home.  At Camp, everyone is in the same position.  Everyone has the their own bed just live everyone else; everyone is away from their parents, and everyone has the same space.  Camp is the great equalizer.  We’ve seen campers thrive in the Camp environment, even when they haven’t thrived at sleep-overs at home.

We also recommend not putting too much weight into whether or not they are the oldest/middle/youngest child in the family.  Every child becomes ready for Camp when it’s right for them and just because their oldest sibling went to Camp at age 7, doesn’t mean that everyone in the family will be ready at that same age.  We treat each child as the unique and special person they are and we encourage you to look at whether they’re ready or not the same way – evaluate them on their own abilities and not what has been accomplished by others in the same family.

Lastly, children are incredibly adaptable and sometimes we underestimate what they are capable of since we’ve been taking care of them their entire lives.  When you’re ready, we would love for you to give us a call so we can explore together, the right sleep-away camp experience for your child.

In the spirit of camping,

Aaron Cantor
Director, Emma Kaufmann Camp