Summer camp has been a major topic of conversation in our home recently. My boys are still on the fence, but K has been asking about it since last Spring.
We have attended a mother/daughter weekend and have a handful of friends who will be there at the same time. Last week we made it official, sending in the deposit and registration paperwork that secured my curly girl's spot in a cabin for six nights in June.
I am quite certain it will be an emotional experience for me when I drop my brand new 9 year old off for a week of sweet life experiences, but from where I sit several months away, I am at peace. She is thrilled.
Tonight as I tucked that precious girl in she whispered, "I am really excited about camp."
"Great, sweetie, I am too," I replied.
"But, Mama," she continued, "do you think I could spend the night with a friend at least once before I go so I know what it's like?"
Sigh. It's a good thing we have eight months.
My baby girl is growing up (and so am I.)
7 comments:
Yay! I'm not sure if you went to camp growing up, but I went to camp every summer from ages 9-15. Every summer except the first was for seven weeks, but I started out at a different camp for one week the first summer. I was really homesick (both that week and at the beginning of the next few summers), but camp was one of the most valuable experiences of my life (to date, at least - I'm only 23). Hope she loves it!
T- I only went once (at K's age) and it was not a good experience!! It rained all day every day...but my husband grew up with wonderful experiences as did many of my friends. I think/pray/hope she's going to love it.
Your girl is very smart - a diligent planner - to be thinking of a sleepover to prepare for camp. That is a great idea.
I did not grow up going to camp but our kids went to the same one that my husband did throughout his childhood. They started at age eight and, while our son lost interst, our daughter continued to go until she graduated high school; even staying to work as a counselor for the younger campers every chance she got.
One of the girls she met at church camp, at age eight, is now her college roommate. They have been close friends for ten years already and now are experiencing college together. You never know who God will put into your sweet girl's life through this camp.
She is going to love it!!
J- My A -9- went to Winshape for a week this summer. BEST WEEK of her life! She loved it so much and talks about it all the time! She can't wait to go back next summer! K will have an amazing time! I was nervous too, but had a complete peace the whole week she was away, and that was hard because we couldn't talk to her except through mail! God did amazing things in her little heart that week. I grew up going to camp and even accepted Christ as my Savior when I was 8 with my counselor. Forever grateful for campe like these! Excited for K!
Hope it is great for her. My girl went to her first camp - just 3 days, when she was 7 and it was way harder on me than it was on her. When she went to week-long camp at 9, she was thrilled and still goes now, but it is a different scenario now that she's in High School! (oh gosh, how did that even happen!!). I know what you mean - I'm still growing up too. It's still hard :o)
My love for camping started at age 6-yes, SIX! I still can't believe I went to overnight camp at six, but I loved every second of it. I went until I was old enough to be a counselor and then spent summers at two AMAZING Christ centered camps. My love for the Lord grew leaps and bounds while away at camp and I believe the role models I saw while I was a camper impacted me far more than I realized at the time. What treasures those college age girls were!
Now that I have two kiddos of my own, my prayer has been that they would one day 'want to go to camp' and that once there they would 'LOVE' it! We started our daughter at a day camp, with one night overnight at age 5 and then she moved up to overnight the next year-she hasn't looked back! Our 6 year old son started last summer and he adores camp! I could write forever, but if you are able to find the right camp 'fit' for your family, it can be a truly amazing experience and a lifelong blessing to the entire family!
Isn't that so hard. I have always been so protective of my kids that I found myself in a place I was VERY uncomfortable with a couple of months ago.
School had just started a couple of weeks before and my oldest, who was 10 at the time, was invited to a birthday party that was a sleepover -- camping out in the yard.
Since we had only lived in this town for 2 months at the time, we didn't know these people. I never let my children go to people's homes if I don't know them.
Since we were new in town, though, and really wanted our children to feel at home and have friends here, we felt that we should let her go.
I am here to tell you that I agonized over that decision from the time I dropped her off until the time I picked her up the next morning.
While I am glad that she got to go, I'm still not sure I will do that again for a while.
She's going to another birthday party this coming Friday night. Again, someone I don't know. BUT, it is NOT a sleepover and my child has been instructed to be sure she stays with a friend I do know so that she is no where alone.
It's so hard to protect them and yet let them grow up at the same time. I'm still not sure what the right thing is......
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