Summer Camps

We do allow our teens (12 and up) to attend camps if we know the organization/people well.  We are normally pretty protective as well–we don’t do “overnights” at friends’ houses, for instance.  But things like Boy Scout camp for my boys are a really important part of their summers.  I like “nature” kinds of things, but other than that dh and I are not really, um, rugged or handy.  I feel it is good for the boys to get hands-on skills, opportunities to do things we’d never do, and if we know the adults involved, then we have no problem.  I’ve hesitated at some of the “academic” type camps, although we’ve been considering them for our oldest.  Lack of $$ and being unsure what the supervision is like have kept us from taking that plunge so far.  But our boys love Scout camp, and the occasional weekend camping with people from our church.  It works well for us.

My little guy is  harder to let go, though.  He’s at a Cub Scout day camp today (no overnights) and I miss him already.  🙂

Our boys love going to camp.  We do set an age limit on it-you have to have completed 5th grade (around age 11 or 12) before you can go to overnight, week long camp.  So far, our oldest has gone twice.  This would have been his third year, but because of visitation schedules it did not work out this year.  For our younger boys, they go to a week long, sports/VBS day camp at the church I grew up in.  The boys absolutely love these opportunities.  We’ve set an age limit for a couple of different reasons.  First, I don’t think that our kids would have been ready for that experience of being away from a parent for an entire week before.  Secondly, it can get very expensive (upwards of $500-$600/week for some overnight camps) and by having an age limit it ensures that we won’t have them all in at the same time, or at least spread it out a little bit. 

So far, we have only sent our oldest to a Christian overnight camp, which is local to our area (River Valley Ranch). It is an amazing camp, with great counselors, and people from all over the U.S. attend.  Our oldest loves it and always wants to go back.  He is also anticipating getting to the age where he can then be a consuleor himself.  We haven’t really looked into any academic or other specific camps for our kids, simply because they have not come up, not because we are against them.  Our middle child has been extremely athletically blessed, and has talked about wanting to play soccer professionally.  A specific soccer camp may be something that we would look into for him in the next few years to utilize and grow the gifts that God has chosen to give him.

My husband and I have chosen a different path for our family.  I know a lot of families choose not to let their kids do sleepovers, or go to youth group and Sunday school, etc.  We feel like these can be enriching, growing experiences for our kids (and this would include camp).  I feel like we give our kids a strong, God centered foundation at home and want them to carry that out into the world.  We spend a ton of time together studying, playing, learning, and living out God’s word, but there is more than that.  We feel like God calls us to share his word, meet the needs of others, and to fellowship with believers.  We know that nothing is perfect.  We know that some kids will talk about things that we would dissaprove of, that youth groups can sometimes form cliques, and that our kids may not, scratch that–will not–always make choices that please us.  But these are facts of life.  They will be tested, whether they are 13 and living with us, or 21 and own their own.  We feel that now is the best time for these experiences.  Let them learn about the world, make mistakes, and deal with the ups and downs of friendships while they are with us.  Now, we do not simply throw our children out into the world with no guidance.  First and foremost, friend/outside time never, ever, ever becomes more than family time.  Secondly, we are as involved as is possible.  If the kids want to play soccer, then we coach, team parent, and show up to every practice and game.  If the kids want to get together with friends, they nine times to ten spend time at our house rather than the other person.  We do make exceptions to families that we have grown up and know intimately.  When our kids go to youth events we take them, drop them off, pick them up, and chaffeur around their friends to and from so we can stay up to date with what’s going on.  We talk about the things they might be experiencing–cliques, for example (unfortunately, something that doesn’t go away when you enter “the real world”).  We try to find just the right balance–and this balance is different for every family.  Each parent knows their child and family situation best.  This is just how we do things in our little world 🙂

But, I digress!  Back to the issue of camps.  I think that if you can gather the money for it, and find a camp you feel comfortable with, I think it is worth a try for your kids.  Some kids will simply not like the idea of camp.  I, for one, hated it growing up.  I went only one year, with my best friend, and never went back!!!  Coincidently, I went to the same camp that our oldest now LOVES!!!  It shows you how different people really are.  If your kids dont’ like it, no harm done.  You let them try it out, especially if they are asking to go.  They may love it.  And, if it is a camp that is a good fit for them, great!!  It is a possibility that they like the camp, but it is not a good fit for them.  We’ve had some of the boy’s friends be like that, and we’ve made the tough decisions as parents to limit the amount of time they spend with them.  You may find that what is being tought, or being around the other kids is not good for your children.  They may not be ready for it, and are letting it bring them down.  If that’s the case, you might have to put camp on hold for awhile until they are more mature.  Or, your kid could love it and it could be truly amazing for them, like it is for our oldest.  He comes back each summer happy, vibrant, a good attitude, a litle more mature, and more excited about what he has learned about God.  I think that it is a good experience for teenagers to get out from under their parents wings for a short period of time to really live and hash out their faith and make it their own, and not just their families.  For me, personally, that was not something I really did until I was out on my own in college and struggled and made decisions that I should not have made.  I think that a Christian camp is a great way for teenagers to experience this in a controlled setting, go back home, and talk about it.

Anywyas, I just realized how long this is.  You know your children better than anyone.  This is just how we do things. 🙂