Camp can be a magical experience for your child. New friends, new adventures, and a different environment await him.
Just like the first day of school, the first camp experience brings up a range of emotions — from excitement to nervousness, and from freedom to loneliness. It is important to set your child up for it to be amazing from the start. Welcome all of his feelings and highlight the positive elements of this adventure over and over again. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Start the conversation early. Once you make the decision about camp, share it with your child. Notice it is you who is making the decision, this is the first way to make it an amazing camp experience. Don’t place the responsibility of this decision on your child’s shoulders. If you visited camps, you should absolutely get preferences, opinions, and insights from your child, but ultimately, you make the final decision.
Share camp details with your child. Tell him how long he will be going, what activities will happen there, why you think this is a great option for this summer, and how you know he will love it.
Share your own experiences. Specifically, the ones that worked out well — how you met your best friend that you still know today, or how you missed your family for a day and then forgot about home, because you were having so much fun.
Keep your conversation positive and excited. Keep any reservations you have to yourself. Letting your child know that you are anxious about camp will only make him feel anxious. As a parent, you need to keep those feelings to yourself.
Ask him what he thinks. When he shares positive thoughts, be engaged and encouraging. Extend the conversation and go into details. If he has fears or anxiety, calmly talk to him about it for a few moments and then change the focus of the conversation. Provide him with a safe place to be heard, but do not get stuck and spiral around fear or concern. A few minutes is all that is needed to let him know it is okay to be anxious. Then you want to refocus his attention on the positive possibilities of the experience.
Make shopping for supplies an adventure. Have him participate in the preparations for camp. This will make the experience feel more real.
Send him off with lots of love. Let him know he is ready — and so are you — for this next step. And make sure you have some adventures planned while he is away. This way, you will both have exciting stories to share after camp is over.
Dr. Marcie Beigel is an international speaker and trainer on behavior. You can find more tips in her new book, “Love Your Family Again,” available on Amazon. Since 1998 she has worked with more than 5,867 people and is the founder of Behavior and Beyond, a company dedicated to behavior change. Find out more at DrMar
