I remember my first sleep away camp experience. My parents sent us to church camp for a few weeks when I was in the fourth grade. We sang a lot of “Father Abraham” and “The Butterfly Song” and of course the old favorite “Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory” – and we swam a lot…but mostly I sneaked into the boys dorms and convinced boys to make-out in the woods with me.
Yeah. That was me. I really loved church camp. Praise Jesus.
Anyway, I continued to enjoy my Summer camp experiences which grew to eventually going camping for nearly the whole Summer by the time I was entering the 10th grade(and yes I was perhaps still chasing the boys). These Summer memories are some of the best of my childhood and I’ve always hoped my kids would love sleep-away camp at some point if they chose to go. (Also, the camps would be girls only – for obvious reasons).
Last Summer Eloise asked if she could go away to camp..and I told her no, that I felt 8 years old was a bit too young but would reconsider this year. And she talked about it constantly for the past year.
So this Summer – at 9 years old Eloise is going away to a short week of sleep-away camp. And I’m sending her 7 year old sister with her.(I know, remember most rules you make only have to apply to your oldest child)
In case you were wondering if perhaps your child is ready for their first sleep-away camp – I’ve made this handy checklist for your reference:
1. Does your child ignore you when you call their name to come in for dinner?
2. Does your child leave toys out all over the house every single day?
3. Does your child not pick-up said toys without you asking 45 times?
4. Does your child pick fights with his siblings causing WWF activity in your living room?
5. Does your child now eat more than a 280 pound Sumo wrestler causing your grocery bill to soar?
6. Do you have to do your child’s laundry?
7. Does your child like other people more than he seems to like you as he gets older?
8. Does your child talk-back and sass you daily?
9. Does your child like to ride on a school bus?
10. Does your child occupy a bedroom that could be used as a fine craft room for a few weeks each Summer?
If you’ve answer ‘yes’ to 7 or more of these questions – then YES – your child is ready for sleep-away camp!
*****
In all seriousness though, I do feel my kids are ready. They already like to spend the night at friend’s houses, they are very responsible, they make good decisions, they are caring of others, and most of all – they are begging me to go!
We also have a few day camps scheduled, and a few short trips - but mainly we are just planning some relaxing in the Summer sun this year. I talked about it a little when I was interviewed last month for care.com. You can read the full article here on striking a balance in the Summer.
Do you send your kids to sleep-away camp yet or at what age did they start going? Also, when does mommy sleep-away camp start? I’ve heard the guys across the lake are hot!
I will now have “God told Noah to build him an arky-arky” going through my head all day now. Thank you for that.
My 9 year old will be going to camp for the second year this summer.
Karen recently posted..Pumpkin Love
“Build it out of hickory barky-barky..” You’re welcome.
My kids are 10 and almost 6. They’ve never even slept over at a friends house before (though my oldest did spend 4 days at his grandmothers house in NJ last year). I have a pretty good feeling once we move and the cousins are within a 5 hr drive…they will be having sleepovers of the long distance variety.
I remember going away to Campfire sleep away camp when I was in the 5th grade, and that’s the age my son is now ( I could technically say he could already go since he’s skipping 5th and going into 6th grade next year). I’m not ready for either of my kids to go even though they do more than 10 of the things on your list. It’s ME who’s not ready!
Andrea recently posted..Wordless Wednesday: Perspectives
New Business Plan! Let’s start looking for a run down resort to buy for a song and fix up and start our own summer camp-seriously! You can do fashion classes and I could do the crafts…of course we would need to hire a masseuse, and someone to do mani/pedis, and a really good chef. I think you may be on to something here….
maybaby recently posted..what not to wear
Obviously SOMEONE has to come with you guys to make sure you don’t forget to harass the boys…
(Pick me!)
julie gardner recently posted..My Favorite Post
I pick you to read us ghost stories by the campfire at night! You could be our resident grammar professional as well. Are you in?
maybaby recently posted..what not to wear
Gosh I hope we can go to camp this Summer!
My two-year-old fits most of that criteria- do you think they’d accept her if I sent her five and six-year-old brothers as chaperones? Wow! I could have a whole week of freedom this summer!
Gorgeous photos, by the way!
Corey Moortgat recently posted..Lil’ Vintage Story Books #27
YES – I wish I could send my 2 year old with them too. lol
I’m in the same boat as Andrea – I’m the one who isn’t ready. My oldest son *loves* sleepovers or weekends away from me, and each of my children spend a week alone with granparents during the summer. But the idea of sleepover camping makes me feel like a might blow chunks. Next summer, however, I expect I’ll have to get over it and let him fly. I also loved summer camp (there were no boys until I was a counselor. Remind me to look into boy-only or girl-only staff as well, now that I think about in-the-woods makeout sessions…) Your list made me LOL and btw thanks so much for the tune in my head (I am one of them, and so are you, so let’s just praise the lord!).
Jessica recently posted..We Are Warriors
So funny – all of us now singing church camp songs today..lol
As always you make me laugh even when talking about something serious like sending away my kids. Though 4 is too young. I think…
angela recently posted..Waffling
Yes – 4 is too young for your first child – but at 2 – I’m thinking that as my third child – Astrid is totally ready.
Am I awful, I am letting my 8 year old go but not my 9year old?! One is ready the other is so not! AS a bonus their brother will be at band camp the same week the 8 year old is gone, so maybe next year I will reconsider and have a peaceful, quiet and clean house for one ENTIRE WEEK!!! That is better than mommy summer camp right?
I do think you just need to send them all away. PARTY at your house!!!!
“but mostly I sneaked into the boys dorms and convinced boys to make-out in the woods with me.”
…ummmm, ME TOO!!!!
and I still sing “Rise and Shine” to my sons every morning.
No, I really do. Starting them early.
I can’t send 4 yr old to sleep over camp yet, but it’s nice to dream.
LOL, thanks for the giggle today. xo
Kir recently posted..100 Word Song:Gathering Buttercups:Lie of Omission
Oh you little camp hussy. I love you even more now. xo
I only went to sleepaway camp once. It was in the 7th grade and I loved/hated it. I didn’t go with anyone I knew was the trouble and apparently this was the kind of thing that everyone went to as a group so cliques were very established. At least they’ll have each other!!
My parents did ship me off to my relatives in Poland for the whole summer when I was younger though. But that’s not quite the same as sleepaway camp and THAT was lots of fun.
Marta recently posted..Call Her Beautiful.
I never did sleep away camp, but I love that #2 gets to benefit from, well, being #2.
I SO know how that goes! And Kate calls me out on it on a daily basis.
liz recently posted..My Loves
I did church camp too, but seeing that we don’t go to church I’m not sure my daughter will ever get that. Next summer she will be old enough for girl scout camp though. I just have to rope one of the parents into taking them.
Jennifer recently posted..Five Things
Yeah, church camp isn’t happening her either. I once sang the “Lord said to Noah – you gotta build an arky-arky..” and they asked who in the world this Noah guy was. lol
Ahh…I had to laugh. My daughter Kristin (now 13) is a gymnast. When she was 7, she begged to go to Bela Karoyli’s camp in Texas with the “big girls.” Like you, I told her I thought she was a little too young and we would discuss it next year. And like your daughter, that was all she talked about for the next year. I finally gave in, thinking “ok–you go to Texas and see how hard it is to be away from Mommy for a week.” No phone calls, no pining for me, nothing from a girl who still says (at age 13 nonetheless) we are “like BFFs!” This will be her 6th year of going to camp and I’ve come to accept gymnastics is thing she’ll leave me for. And all along, I thought it would be a boy!
Oh my heart just swells that she loves it so much(but tell her she must call home more..lol).
the WWF has been the WWE for quite some time now
and I know that because in high school and college I dreamed of being one of the pro lady wrestlers…no, I’m not joking…I was a bad ass bitch…though I was a kick boxer, not a wrestler, but I digress…
and making out at 4th grade? wow, I thought I was a ho, but you have me beat…congrats…
and send them, they’ll be fine…but poor Astrid, just you and the damn cat for company…
Not a Perfect Mom recently posted..An Extra Bulge
I know – poor me and Astrid.
Okay – now looking up what WWE means…can you tell my kids don’t wrestle each other?
My child’s Daisy/Brownie troop WAS headed to sleep away camp – until over half of us Mothers got wind of it. Now they are heading to appropriate day camp for 5-7 year olds.
My memories of summer camp are some of my fondest memories too! My parents put me on a plane alone every summer to fly from Texas to NC for a month of summer camp – LOVED it! I had always hoped to send my girls to the same camp I attended, but now I have THREE of them, and I have a budget that does not include that exhorbitantly expensive camp.
Guess that’s one nice thing about being an only child… I got to go to an expensive camp! 
Elise went to overnight Girl Scout camp last year for the first time at age 9, same as Eloise. I wanted to send Nina this year too, but she didn’t feel like she was ready, and she actually may not be. Elise is going again though. She’ll have a ball!
Ann recently posted..Spring Cleaning
Oh I know -I looked at one camp that was like $10,000 for the month – WTF and who are those people? Also, do they have a rich uncle?
Ash turned 10 in March and I would…I mean SHE would pack her bags immediately if they had an all girls sleepover camp near us, but they don’t. Believe me…I’ve looked!
Hope the girls have a great time. I know they will keep a close eye on each other and bring home lots of amazing memories.
Does that mean during that time it is spoil Astrid rotten time?!
We are so lucky to have so many choices for camps here. I mean TONS!
I went away to sleep-away camp (also a church camp!) for the first time at the age of 9, and continued to go back for the next nine years until I graduated from high school and they told me I couldn’t go anymore. And then I always meant to go back as a counselor but never got around to it because I’m so aimless and a poor planner.
But my memories from Craig Springs are among the best of my entire childhood – I made friends there that I still keep in touch with today. I had lots of crushes but kissed no boys until my last year there, at which point I fell head over heels in puppy love with a boy who, to this day, I reflect back on with nothing but sweet nostalgia. I had the single best date of my life with him, lying on a blanket on the softball field watching a spectacular meteor shower because there’s no light pollution that deep into the mountains of southwest Virginia. And then there was that time we made out in the field behind the clubhouse – that was fun too.
Now I miss camp.
Kristin @ What She Said recently posted..Close Encounters of the Celebrity Kind
Oh, and I also still sing camp songs to Lil’ Bit. Rise and Shine (we always giggled when the animals, they came off, they came off in threesies, threesies), Pass it On, Friends are Friends Forever, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, etc.
And now I want to sing, to SING!
Kristin @ What She Said recently posted..Close Encounters of the Celebrity Kind
When we meet up and drink a lot – can we sing all of the old church camp songs?
THAT’S IT YOUNG LADY – YOU ARE GROUNDED and YOU can never go to another camp in your life!!! That is it – I mean it.
Why is this the first time I am hearing about this?? Thank Goodness you had children:)
My mother just grounded me. HILARIOUS! Also, I’m running away from home and you cannot stop me!
Oh, don’t worry. I got kicked out of church camp in 11th grade for sneaking into a boys’ room and making out. That was awkward having Grandma come pick me up. Then I, naturally, convinced her it was “his idea”. And then had to talk to the priest. Have fun, girls!
OMG I’m laughing so hard. I am so glad I was never caught. lol
I was a camp lifer. Started when I was 10 and terribly shy and awful at making friends. My parents shipped me off for two weeks in the mountains of Pennsylvania. I cried a lot upon hearing the news. Two weeks later, I arrived home and cried on the dining room floor because I did NOT want to be home. Spent about 14 more summers there (eventually as staff). Camp is my family. It was my one constant as a kid who moved several times and it was heavily steeped in tradition which meant I could count on it to not change. I learned so many (practical and impractical) things and I could definitely see the difference when I headed off to college and lived with kids who had no experience being away from home and on their own. I know it’s not for everyone but I think it should be for nearly everyone.
Mandy recently posted..Introducing….
Oh I so love your story. Swoon. What beautiful memories and an incredible experience! xoxo
I started going to an all-girls sleep away camp when I was 10. I spent 6 summers as a camper, 4 as a counselor and now I’m on staff and work for the same camp full-time. To say it was the best thing my parents did for me would be an understatement.
Oh Claire – How incredible. I would love this for my children. xo
Yep – sounds like my 10 year old is MORE than ready for sleep away camp. But she’s been cast in a summer theatre production so will be rehearsing daily all summer M-F from 1-5. That’s pretty close to sleep away, right?
Missy | Literal Mom recently posted..No Guarantee
Oh wow – yeah, I would say that would take-up any camping possibilities. Good for her!!
Hey, count me in! I’ll go to camp with you!
I would let John go to sleepaway camp but I only have one girl and I’m not ready to let her out of my site just yet. Maybe I’ll feel differently next year.
m.
Mark recently posted..Pillow Talk
Pretty please come to camp with me???
So when they’re away, you’re doing big girl slumber nights right?
Alison@Mama Wants This recently posted..The Race
Um yeah. Thank goodness Astrid is in bed by 7:00. PARTY AT MY HOUSE!
For years on a row I did church kids camps, I took care of other people’s kids and had it was so much fun. No my oldest is 9, and I’m a total wuss.
I do’t want him to go, I think he’s too young (Yes, I know, it’s ridiculous.)But after reading your list, I kinda think he’s absolutely ready to go.
Mirjam recently posted..Just below the surface.
Oh, I forgot to say, those pictures are beautiful!
Mirjam recently posted..Just below the surface.
Thank you so much! xoxo
i really wanted to send our 8 year old to sleepaway camp this summer, but my husband wasn’t ready (admitted it was him, not her – she’s totally ready).
i really hope he agrees to next year, camp is the best.
Anna recently posted..Handprint Craft for Mother’s Day
Both mine went to sleep away camp last year (at age
and both will return again this summer for 12 days. I think it is such an amazing experience for kids to be away from their parents! I realize it’s not for everyone, but for those who show an interest I bet they’ll love it!
Amy ~ Eat. Live. Laugh. Shop. recently posted..Mother’s Day Gift Ideas
I am totally seeing you in Little Darlings. My oldest went for the first time last year at 10. She does NOT want to go back (well, not to that camp, at least). There is an old legend about Old Man Clutch. Of course there are 50938784093840983487 versions but the camp counselors at this camp (that yes, I fully investigated first) were mainly teens. These teens decided to scare the crap out of the kids every night by telling the Old Man Clutch stories: he’s in the woods coming to get you right now, he’s decapitated and living in the shack next door and will hack you up in your sleep, he’s RIGHTBEHINDYOU. They scared her so bad one night she threw up. This year, she wanted to try a Girl Scout sleepaway camp but unless you are poised at the ready at 6 a.m. on some obscure January morning ready to click add to cart and buy, that’s just not gonna happen. And then there are the camps whose prices are high as a giraffe’s ass. Seriously? You want $2K for ONE DAMN WEEK of camp?
My 8-year-old expressed interest this year, but we’d already chosen other things for her to do. I think she would handle even the camp my other daughter hated well (she’s more of the “If Old Man Clutch comes in here, he’ll get you first” type).
Arnebya recently posted..Mothers and Daughters: A Review of You Have No Idea
You were only ten?? My child is never NEVER going away to camp.
Just kidding. Still the nervousness gets weighed with the idea of a week of freedom.
Lady Jennie recently posted..I Have a Stalker
Griffin was 8 the first time he attended a sleep-away camp and he loved every minute of it. He went every single year after that through 10th grade. It was the highlight of his entire summer.
Giving kids this option is a two-fold victory for everyone. They get time away and learn a little bit about functioning outside the nest, and we give them wider wings to fly. Everyone wins.
Kate recently posted..on second chances (and a giveaway)
Hee! Love this, you!
And I think that they’re so brave going!
(Do you want to go to camp with me? You take the red wine, I’ll take the white?)
Galit Breen recently posted..Sunshine and Cookies and Friendship
I accidentally sent the girl to God Camp one summer.
She still hasn’t forgiven me.
Suniverse recently posted..Let me explain this to you
I don’t think God has forgiven my parents for sending me to God Camp yet. I won’t be making the same mistake.
I had missed this the first time around. You’re my favourite blogger. Wish I had your ass. I mean sass…
Dana
Dana @ Bungalow’56 recently posted..A Family Photo… Is Always Worth The Pain
[...] Are Your Kids Ready for Sleep-Away Camp This blogger takes a very humorous approach to giving you things to consider before you send you kid off to camp. [...]