The Simple Life

Work/Life Tools

Family and Friends

• Keep things simple on kids' first night back. Plan a simple welcome home dinner, but save visits from friends and relatives for the following week.
• Resist your urge to attack your child with a barrage of questions about camp. You'll be bursting with curiosity, but let kids tell you about camp in their own time. Children are much more apt to share their experiences on their own time schedule.
• Don't be surprised if everything at home gets compared to camp for the first few weeks. "We did it this way at camp..." "Nobody here is as cool as the guys at camp." "They didn't make us eat (blank) at camp!" Be patient, the comparisons will die down as time passes.
• Encourage your child to call or write new camp friends. Lifelong friendships have been forged in homesick nights at camp.
• If a particular counselor was very close to your child or was exceptionally helpful, have your child write him or her a note. Many counselors need an extra nudge to keep hanging in there at the end of a summer and an encouraging note from your child could prove to be very helpful.
• Assuming your child had a positive experience at camp, consider sending him or her back to the same one next year. "Camp hopping" can mean kids miss the chance to develop long-term relationships with the camp staff and other campers.
• Encourage your child to share her new-found skills at home. He or she could teach you, a friend, or a younger brownie troop or cub-scout den a new camp skill. This allows kids to practice their skills and get a real self-esteem boost in the bargain.
• Take some time throughout the following months to help your child re-live his or her camp experience. If he or she took pictures, develop them and get a special album for store them for safekeeping.

Peggy Middendorf is a parent of two and editor of a regional parenting magazine. Contact Peggy at middendorf@mindspring.com.