Posts Tagged 'Letters to camp'

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Published July 6, 2009 Letters to camp , Links to other sites , Opinion 1 Comment
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Ah, letters to camp… Letter-writing is all about communication.  And since I was a camper sometime way before 1990, things have changed… and how!

My loving parents used to pack us off to camp on a bus and that was the last they saw of us until visiting day over three weeks later.  That’s just the way they did things back before 1990.  Now parents can instantly send email, sometimes even receive email from campers, send and receive faxes (policies vary of course), see pictures of their campers, read blog posts, and even see videos!  Check out Julie Kraut’s guest opinion in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for more thoughts.

Parents become experts at picking up little hints about their kids’ experience from posted phots and blog posts… who is she standing next to?  Why isn’t he smiling?  Why is the other kid in so many pictures when my kid is invisible? Problem is, we’re not really experts at deciphering this, and believe it or not, there really is no way to know what your child is experiencing.  Heck, it can be hard enough to tell when your kid is standing right in front of you, let alone in a picture from camp (OK, I’m exaggerating a bit but you get the point).

This became even more clear for me recently when I visited a great camp that’s similar to my own kids’ camp.  As I sat at dinner watching other kids happily sing songs, dance and engage in many special camp traditions, I realized just how few of the songs, dances and traditions I actually knew from my own kids’ camp.  And because I didn’t go there as a camper, I realized that I will never be able to fully understand their camp experience as they do. But I can see that it’s OK for my kids to have their own special and unique experiences.  Those experiences are just a part kids’ growth into independent individuals.  When they choose to share, they will.  And when they don’t, I’ll have to trust the highly capable people that run their camp.   

Remember, camp is really all about your camper’s experience, not yours.  The bottom line: for your child, the most important form of communication is the letter, email or fax that you send them.

Great Letter-Writing Advice from Camp Greystone

Published July 5, 2009 Letter-writing advice , Letters to camp , Links to other sites , Overnight camp Leave a Comment
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What do letters to camp have to do with camp atmosphere?
As it turns out, plenty!

A great summer camp will work to create a specific type of atmosphere in camp.  Many camps believe that summer is a time to disconnect from email, cell phones, etc.  When sending letters, emails or faxes, remember that camps set their policies to reflect the atmosphere and values of the camp.  In other words, expect that policies will vary widely from camp to camp.

I come across many camp websites that offer thoughtful suggestions and guidelines for letter-writing.  For example, check out Camp Greystone in North Carolina.  They also had great advice about birthdays too – see the last blog post.

Among other things, Camp Greystone advises parents to:

  • Write letters by hand
  • Be creative
  • Take time to do a good job
  • Write often
  • Allow plenty of time for “snail mail” to work

You can read more on their site.  As you can tell from their tips, kids enjoy letters and letter-writing is an art that requires time and even planning.  Of course, that’s why I started this blog – to help parents write great letters to their campers.

A final note on logistics. As I mentioned earlier, while most camps allow and encourage hand-written USPS mail (aka “snail mail”), email and fax policies vary widely between camps.  Unlike Camp Greystone, most camps seems to allow email although many will charge extra for it.  Make sure to check with your camp to ensure that you fully understand their policies.

For more tips, see last summer’s post on letter-writing advice .

Birthdays at Camp

Published July 3, 2009 Birthdays at camp , Letters to camp , Links to other sites , Sending packages to camp 1 Comment
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The Letters to Camp blog is all about, well, letters and parent-camper communication.  And from time to time, we’ll discuss related topics.  Today we cover birthdays.

If your child has a birthday at camp, you’ll want to make it as special as possible while keeping to your camp’s rules.

Every camp is different (and most don’t seem to allow any sort of food for birthdays) but Camp Greystone in North Carolina offers some great birthday tips for parents that including letter-writing and cards.  For example, they say that you should:

  • Let your child know special their birthday will be at camp.
  • Have a separate family and friend celebration at home either before or after camp.
  • Send birthday cards, letters, and [if permitted by your camp,] a package.
  • Mark the delivery day on the package or letter so that the camp can deliver it on that day.  [Check with your camp to see if they’ll do this.]

They ask parents not to:

  • Send food.
  • Send balloons… they really clutter up the cabin.
  • Send lots of presents… the best thing to get at camp is a letter; give most of the presents at the hometown party.

…This is all outstanding advice.  As a long time parent of campers whose birthdays fall during camp, I suggest that you also contact your camp to understand how they celebrate birthdays and what you are permitted to do.  Each camp’s birthday observance will vary.  Some camps celebrate the birthday on the day of the birthday while others will have a single celebration for all kids with birthdays during that session.  At our camp, our kids are also allowed to call us on their birthdays.

You can help your child to have a great birthday at camp… Happy Birthday!

Wahoo! Another season of letters to camp.

Published July 1, 2009 Letters to camp , Musings Leave a Comment
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And so it begins – another great season of LETTERS TO CAMP! I just emailed my first letter of the year.

My fingers are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to type up the next email tomorrow!  Only 44 more to go.  But that’s OK because our daughter wants to know just how much we love and miss her EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Not sure why, but she must also enjoy the mundane details that we tell her about too.

Actually this year is going to be a rather unusual: For starters, we can only send email to one of our two children – our daughter who is at a camp.  Our son is traveling on a camp program so he can’t receive much email.  Just the same, we’ll probably send an occasional email to his Yahoo! mail account.

But there’s more… as it turns out, my wife is yet another camp too.  So she’ll have to send her email to me so I can add it to mine in order for us to keep to the one email per kid per day rule at our daughter’s camp.  Sounds complicated?  It is.  I suggested alternating Mom and Dad writing days but everyone (except me of course) thought that was too confusing.  But that’s OK because I ‘ll get ideas from the Letters to Camp blog (that you’re reading).

Wow – My Kids are Home Again….

Published August 16, 2008 Letters to camp , Musings Leave a Comment
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….So we won’t be writing any letters to them at camp for another…. 10 months. That 10 months may go by faster than I might think, so I had better start preparing now!

Oh, and yes, things are a little less quiet than they were before we picked them up on Thursday. But that’s OK – we like it this way, most of the time.

Letter from your family dog

Published July 28, 2008 Funny , Letters to camp , Sample Letters 2 Comments
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Dear Mikey,

This is Fido! “Wuff.. huff… flibbit…. Wuff wuff wuff slurp drool slurp!”

Oh, you need me to translate? That means… “I sure do miss you! The place is not the same without you. But I’ll save a great big slurp for you when you come home!”

Anyways, it’s been a busy day around here! This morning I went for a nice long walk. It was fun because I chased a few squirrels. I chased my tail too – but I could never catch it! I came home and had a great breakfast of yummy dog food… you would have loved it.

Later on, the mailman came by to drop off a package. But I barked really loudly so he jumped and DROPPED the package (ah ha!). I thought it was funny but the package contained the crystal bowl that Mom had ordered and it broke and she was not so happy. I don’t know why, but I spent the rest of the day in my crate….

Well, I’ll bark at you soon! Hope you’re having fun.

Love, Fido

If you have time to post to a blog…

Published July 28, 2008 Letters to camp , Musings Leave a Comment
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….then you probably have time to write letters to your own kids! Hmmm, did my wife say that? So of course, I wrote an email letter to my kids today. The good news – their camp only allows us to send one page of email per day. Sometimes that’s good and others, well, it makes for a lot of news in not-a-lot-of-space! Of course there’s always snail mail….

Steve

www.LettersToCamp.net

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