Summer Camps: Options and Inspiration for Parents

With summer winding down, many parents are already evaluating their children's summer experiences and making decisions for next year. One of the most common quandaries we face as parents is whether - or when - to send a child to camp.

When broaching the topic of summer camp, it doesn't hurt to acknowledge that the camp concept is currently suffering from misuse of enormous proportions. In recent years, an onslaught of businesses who cater to parent markets - movie theaters, toy stores, and craft emporiums to name a few - has begun offering some type of pre-paid series of two-hour sessions, while slapping on the "camp" label for the sake of increased exposure. For the purposes of this article, let's clear up the confusion: If the destination is located in a shopping center less than twenty miles from the child's home, it should not be regarded as a camp.

What about a legitimate day camp? Many parks and recreation programs offer summer childcare services that are advertised as day camps. The question could be asked: Are these valid camp experiences for children? Armchair wisdom dictates that while all day camps are not created equal, these programs are likely to bear a closer resemblance to an authentic summer camp than their aforementioned counterparts. More importantly, they can be helpful transition experiences for children who plan to attend an overnight camp in the future, but have never spent any time from home. In fact, one past president of the American Camp Association, an accrediting body for qualifying camps that mandates safe facilities and quality counselors for its members (www.campparents.org), calls day camps a "terrific first experience."

All things considered, how does a parent know when their child is right for overnight camp? One simple way to find out is to ask your child. Some children, particularly those who have heard about the positive camp experiences of their peers, are already eager to take the plunge. Others may be apprehensive initially, but after reviewing a Web site or publication that lists numerous camps geared toward their personal interests (i.e. sports, art, science, and others), they are more open to considering it. The lesson for parents? Enlist your child in the camp research process. Also, parents of particular religious affiliations may wish to contact their children's minister to inquire about group trips to a camp centered around their denomination. If friends from church or synagogue are going along, children are more likely to have fun. The same principle applies to scouting troops. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts each independently operate hundreds of accredited camps nationwide.

The polarity between parents who argue for or against camp leads some to ask: What can children attain from summer camp that they don't already have access to? Seasoned camp parents, many of whom are camp veterans themselves, will tell you that in addition to authentic nature exposure, lessons in group cooperation, and the building of skills, children experience a rite of passage that is built upon every year that they return. This is often magnified if the child attends the same camp annually. Although the past decade has led to a reduction in the length of camp sessions (parents and grandparents may remember attending six or eight-week sessions, while their children are now staying one week or less), we can still find the camp experience woven into the fiber of Western tradition. In an age of children's dependence on electronics and other extraneous stimuli for entertainment, camp has arguably never been more relevant.