Preparing Your Child for a Positive Summer Camp Experience

Sleepover summer camps provide a wonderful opportunity for children to learn new skills, develop friendships, and gain a sense of independence and autonomy. It also gives them a chance to practise their etiquette skills. Before sending your child to summer camp, review these skills to help him feel more confident at camp.

Meeting New People

Summer camps generally assign children of similar ages to cabins. This arrangement allows children to form close bonds with their cabin mates and to develop new friendships. But, for children who are shy or reserved, meeting and sharing close quarters with people they don’t know can be unnerving.

You can prepare your shy child by reviewing tips for introducing themselves, making conversation, and joining in activities. Outgoing children, on the other hand, may not understand how this situation could cause anxiety. If your child is very outgoing, discuss how introverted people might feel and offer tips for including a shy child in conversation and encouraging them to join in activities. Also, let them know that introverted people need time alone and not to take it personally if a shy child chooses to read a book rather than join in a game or conversation.

Being Considerate of Others

When sharing a living space, it is critical that everyone think about how their habits and behaviour affect their roommates. Remind your child to be tolerant of differences and to accommodate other people’s needs. If your child is an early riser, she may need to occupy herself quietly until the others wake up. And if your child usually stays up later than the cabin lights-out time, he will need to abide by the rules and turn off lights and be quiet after that time. If your child is disorganized at home and leaves her belongings wherever she happens to be at the time, discuss the importance of respecting shared space. For a child who is very particular, you might remind him not to hold others to his standards and to tolerate more disarray than he is used to.

Respecting Other’s Property

Children often live in the moment and don’t appreciate the costs of items or the importance of caring for them. Remind your child that the use of the camp property is a privilege not to be taken lightly. The cabins, furniture, sporting equipment, craft supplies, kitchen dishes, and so on are the property of the camp and must be used by future campers. However, if something should break or become damaged, regardless of how it happened, inform your child that they need to report it to their cabin leader or counsellor immediately.

It is extremely poor etiquette to hide the damage or deny being involved if you were. At camp, children must also respect the property of other campers. If they use or borrow something that belongs to someone else, they must treat it with the utmost respect and return it in the same condition they got it. If they break something belonging to another camper, etiquette also requires them to take responsibility by repairing or replacing the item.

Dining Etiquette

Basic dining etiquette applies to eating at camp. If your child is particular about their food, point out that people are working hard to prepare good food for him and all the other campers and encourage him to try new things. Generally, summer camps offer a variety of meals and some will be unfamiliar to your child. Encourage her to try new dishes before deciding she doesn’t like them and, if she takes something to try and doesn’t like it, she can discreetly deposit it in the garbage at the end of the meal without making negative comments about it. Also remind your child that he needs to abide by and support the clean-up rules set by the camp.

Reviewing these etiquette rules with your child can help to improve their camp experience. With a solid understanding of expected behaviour, children can feel confident and relaxed going into any situation and that includes summer camp.