gopherit
07-25-2006, 11:48 PM
Well, got my duo back from camp this past weekend. Just wanted to post a few details, since as you may recall, I was more than mildly trepiditious about the whole concept of leaving my dd for 3 weeks, and ds10 was not wholly keen on the plan, either!
Dd had a GREAT time. She was never homesick, though she did shed a few tears of joy when she spied mom and dad in the dining hall and ran to hug us! She has clearly been doted on by every older girl at the camp, as they LOVE to dote on the littlest campers like they are new puppies, LOL. She did SO MUCH while she was there (tennis, horseback, swimming, arts/crafts, dance, cheerleading, too much to name!) and through it all, I think she only wore 4 outfits! So note to self- put her in a cute cheap outfit on her first day of camp, because you are going to see a LOT of it in all the pictures, but it won't be worth a dime when she's done with it!! She came home with easily 2/3 of her clothes never even worn. Someone walked off (literally) with her sneakers, and she lost a few other small items too. Nothing strange came home with her, however. 2 girls left her cabin early due to illness -seems ther was a round of mono and strep working through the camp. Dd managed to get past those unscathed, but did bring home pink eye and an ear infection / swimmer's ear. So another note to self- probably NOT a good plan to have a vacation right after camp - good chance of your kid being ill and needing a bit of time to recover!
As for Ds - he was QUITE the camper. Spent a week at my sister's all-girls camp, then moved over to the boys camp. THis place was like you were plopped in the middle of the X games, I swear. Seems like every counselor we spoke to was Australian or NZ. One asked where I was from - I said West Virginia - he said, "awwwwesome" and proceeded to ask me all sorts of whitewater rafting questions. Sorry, pal, I just live there. SO anyway, ds comes running up, all excited, falls twice trying to get to us from across the field. I asked him which cabin was his and he pointed and said, "Dude, it's over there!" I looked at him and he said, "I mean, Mom!"
I turned to DH and said, "Egad - our son just called me Dude!"
But seriously, it was very "happenin" place, with SO much to do. DS was upset that he "didn't get to do everything" he wanted to do. Uh, so what DID he do? Let's see- basketball, football, gaelic football, lacrosse, mountain biking, whitewater rafting, kayaking, 2 trips to Sliding Rock, soccer, tennis, swimming, caving... I told him he needs to look at camp like I tell him to look at WDW - whatever you get to do is great, whatever you miss is a reason to come back! ANd he does want to come back, so that's a good sign he enjoyed it! In fact, he elected to stay the extra night there, while the rest of us went back to my sister's cabin for the night. I did 5 loads of laundry at my sister's, then did easily 10-12 more at home. I had to wash EVERYTHING - even the "clean" stuff - because it all smelled so musty. I think next time, I will send half as much clothing. One cool thing they had the boys do there - when they earned their paddles, they were instructed to go to the front of the campfire and shake hands with the leader - but they had to look him square in the eye and give a FIRM handshake, like a man. I think that's a cool principle to teach a young boy. Ryan was SO proud of his paddle (it's a full sized canoe paddle, stamped with the camp name. You earn it by being a conscientious camper - cleaning up, helping others, following instruction, chipping in, etc. Once you have the paddle, you earn brands on the paddle, until you have 9 brands and have earned the "Old Man Of the Mountain award" - kinda like working your way up to eagle scout, I guess! ANd let's face it - also a ploy to keep a camper coming back - typically you won't earn morn than a brand a week, if that, so I would guess most of the "Men of the Mountain" are long-time repeat campers.)
Well, all in all, it was positive. Dd misses the autonomy she had at camp, and ds missed the action, though it's hard to tell since he's been glued to the gamecube since he got back, trying to relieve his 3 weeks of abstinence from the techno-world! BOth want to do it again, so we think we will send all three next August - the timing looks perfect for the two camps. Glad I'll have a year to prepare for it!
Dd had a GREAT time. She was never homesick, though she did shed a few tears of joy when she spied mom and dad in the dining hall and ran to hug us! She has clearly been doted on by every older girl at the camp, as they LOVE to dote on the littlest campers like they are new puppies, LOL. She did SO MUCH while she was there (tennis, horseback, swimming, arts/crafts, dance, cheerleading, too much to name!) and through it all, I think she only wore 4 outfits! So note to self- put her in a cute cheap outfit on her first day of camp, because you are going to see a LOT of it in all the pictures, but it won't be worth a dime when she's done with it!! She came home with easily 2/3 of her clothes never even worn. Someone walked off (literally) with her sneakers, and she lost a few other small items too. Nothing strange came home with her, however. 2 girls left her cabin early due to illness -seems ther was a round of mono and strep working through the camp. Dd managed to get past those unscathed, but did bring home pink eye and an ear infection / swimmer's ear. So another note to self- probably NOT a good plan to have a vacation right after camp - good chance of your kid being ill and needing a bit of time to recover!
As for Ds - he was QUITE the camper. Spent a week at my sister's all-girls camp, then moved over to the boys camp. THis place was like you were plopped in the middle of the X games, I swear. Seems like every counselor we spoke to was Australian or NZ. One asked where I was from - I said West Virginia - he said, "awwwwesome" and proceeded to ask me all sorts of whitewater rafting questions. Sorry, pal, I just live there. SO anyway, ds comes running up, all excited, falls twice trying to get to us from across the field. I asked him which cabin was his and he pointed and said, "Dude, it's over there!" I looked at him and he said, "I mean, Mom!"
I turned to DH and said, "Egad - our son just called me Dude!"
But seriously, it was very "happenin" place, with SO much to do. DS was upset that he "didn't get to do everything" he wanted to do. Uh, so what DID he do? Let's see- basketball, football, gaelic football, lacrosse, mountain biking, whitewater rafting, kayaking, 2 trips to Sliding Rock, soccer, tennis, swimming, caving... I told him he needs to look at camp like I tell him to look at WDW - whatever you get to do is great, whatever you miss is a reason to come back! ANd he does want to come back, so that's a good sign he enjoyed it! In fact, he elected to stay the extra night there, while the rest of us went back to my sister's cabin for the night. I did 5 loads of laundry at my sister's, then did easily 10-12 more at home. I had to wash EVERYTHING - even the "clean" stuff - because it all smelled so musty. I think next time, I will send half as much clothing. One cool thing they had the boys do there - when they earned their paddles, they were instructed to go to the front of the campfire and shake hands with the leader - but they had to look him square in the eye and give a FIRM handshake, like a man. I think that's a cool principle to teach a young boy. Ryan was SO proud of his paddle (it's a full sized canoe paddle, stamped with the camp name. You earn it by being a conscientious camper - cleaning up, helping others, following instruction, chipping in, etc. Once you have the paddle, you earn brands on the paddle, until you have 9 brands and have earned the "Old Man Of the Mountain award" - kinda like working your way up to eagle scout, I guess! ANd let's face it - also a ploy to keep a camper coming back - typically you won't earn morn than a brand a week, if that, so I would guess most of the "Men of the Mountain" are long-time repeat campers.)
Well, all in all, it was positive. Dd misses the autonomy she had at camp, and ds missed the action, though it's hard to tell since he's been glued to the gamecube since he got back, trying to relieve his 3 weeks of abstinence from the techno-world! BOth want to do it again, so we think we will send all three next August - the timing looks perfect for the two camps. Glad I'll have a year to prepare for it!