How to Choose the Right Type of Summer Camp for Your Child

How to Choose the Right Type of Summer Camp for your Child

Finding the Right Camp for Your Child

You are considering a summer camp, but how to choose? There’s a camp that is ideally suited for every child, providing a summer of growth and fun whether your child attends a day or overnight camp, a specialized or traditional camp. With a little help from the camp professionals at the American Camp Association, here’s some sound advice that helps parents sort through the choices and benefits that camp delivers.

How to Decide When Your Child is Ready for Overnight Camp

Children are ready for new experiences at different stages. Parents know their children best and these questions can help gauge whether this is the summer your child will start camp.

Letting Kids Be Self-Reliant at Sleepaway Camp

American Camping Association - Kids Running

Letting Go—Parents and Camps Foster Children’s Self-Reliance

Print a List of Questions To Ask Camp Directors

See North Texas Kids Guide to Summer Camps & Kids Activities

by Marla Coleman

I have witnessed, first-hand, the incredible journeys of children who come to recognize their own power in steering their own destinies.

Camp is a stepping-stone to self-reliance! It is one community in which children can learn to navigate on their own without well-intentioned parental course-plotting to avert choppy waters.  As a parent, I confess to the compelling desire to negotiate smooth sailing for my own children. Yet, over the years, as a camp director, I have witnessed, first-hand, the incredible journeys of children who come to recognize their own power in steering their own destinies. Opportunities for decision-making and problem-solving at camp, which foster a culture of success, allow children to discover their strengths and their abilities to make good choices and to influence positive outcomes for themselves.

After all, coaching kids to feel capable is what camp directors do. Not quite so obvious but just as central is their proficiency to coach parents to support their children with just the right combination of back-up and encouragement. Kids learn quickly to rely upon themselves and the adults they trust at camp instead of their parents, who could be one hundred miles away or more!