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During breaks, it is common for children and teenagers around the world to attend a summer camp to enrich their experience and knowledge in various fields. Depending on your child’s preference, he/she could choose from various activities to join.

There are camps which are required as part of the school curriculum. Examples of these are academic camps focusing on advanced or remedial Mathematics lessons or computer and technology camps.

There are also camps which focus on music, teaching children to play various instruments and techniques in singing. Furthermore, to develop one’s personality, there are dance and acting camps that your kid could join.

On the other hand, if your child is more inclined to sports, there are also lots of camps offering this summer program on different kinds of sports. Also, some camps teach children basic and advance martial arts.

Finally, there are special interest camps which basically are for children who would like to enjoy their school break and meet other kids. There are adventure camps wherein coordinators prepare for fun playful activities that the kids could enjoy.

A summer camp could be a day camp wherein the child could go home after a spending a day of activities. Alternatively, there are lots of camps which require the kids to go overnight or stay for days away from home. Parents are not allowed to go with the children because this is the time to train them to be independent. However, parents could bring their children to the meeting place before departure and they could also fetch them upon arrival.

In situations such as these, parents sometimes feel separation anxiety from their children, especially in the case when it is the first time that they would experience this. Because parents are very much used to their children being at home during the breaks and on school days, they tend to become lonely as they don’t have their children to have fun with. However, parents must learn how to cope with their separation from the children as they should let their kids have some fun in summer camp.

Here, we will enumerate for you the things that you could do to combat the separation anxiety that you feel while your child is in summer camp. Take a look and learn the ways you could do to pass time.

• Enroll in a special interest class. While your kid is away learning something new during the break, you too could see this as an opportunity to also address your personal interests. You could try enrolling in cooking classes or yoga courses. Whatever your preference might be, there is an available adult summer class for you.

• Go out with your other half. Who says only kids could have fun? While they are away, you could plan on an intimate beach trip or a short getaway for two. Alternatively, if your spouse is not available, you could always ask your friends to go with you.

• Learn a hobby. You could learn how to do cross-stitching, baking, photography, or other things that interests you. This is the perfect time because your children won’t be around in a few days so nobody could disturb you.

• Read on your piles of books and finish watching your tons of DVDs . Nothing beats days of lazily doing nothing in the house and just being a couch potato. It would feel like you are back to being a teenager again because there are no kids to tend to.

• Pamper yourself for a day in the spa and a stroll in the mall to shop. Surely, you won’t really be depressed if you experience the things you love, right?

Now, are you still suffering from separation anxiety?

Is your child too old for summer camp? As the Holiday season winds down and camp enrollment season heats up, many parents with older kids are asking themselves this question.

Here’s the problem. Once your child reaches a certain age, they may feel like they’ve outgrown the traditional summer camp scene. But as their parent, you are well aware your child still needs positive, worthwhile and supervised activities during the summer.

Here’s the solution, and it’s good news! There are MANY summer camps designed exclusively for older kids and teens (no younger kids allowed!), meaning your child can still enjoy a camp experience doing lots of safe, fun and exciting activities with kids their own age while being supervised by adult staff and camp counselors who are experienced working with older kids.

According to Theresa Torrone, a volunteer for the American Camp Association, when kids know they are attending a camp program designed exclusively for them, they are much more likely to enjoy the camp experience and want to go back the following year. 

Where is the best place to find summer camps for teens? For starters, you can ask your friends who have kids the same age as your child where they plan on sending their kids for the summer. Maybe your kids can attend camp together, which could make the camp experience even better!

Another place to look is the Internet. The Web is rich with a host of beneficial camp-related information. One site you might want to visit is Teen Summer Camps.com, a free directory of summer camps and programs for kids and teens everywhere.

Here’s another option. Simply Google “summer camps for teens” or “teen summer camps” and see what comes up. You might be pleasantly surprised at all your search result options!

Surely when kids reach a certain age, they want more challenging and exciting activities than what the typical summer camp offers. It’s nice to know your older child has so many options available to them. Just because they’re older doesn’t mean they can’t attend camp anymore. To the contrary, many summer camps are designed just for them!

Copyright Eric D. Naftulin. All rights reserved.

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How do you know if your child is ready for their first camp experience?

Send your kids to camp before they’re ready and you can expect a potentially disastrous result. Wait too long before sending them, and you might have the proverbial, “I wish I’d done this sooner” regret.

Some kids are ready for camp before others. If your child is independent, goes to school, is accustomed to being separated from you for extended periods and/or has older brothers or sisters they look up to, they may be ready for camp this year.

On the other hand, if the above criteria do not apply, you might want to wait another year.

Sit down together with your child and bring up the idea of camp. Frame the conversation in a way your son or daughter will understand. Ask questions such as, “Would you like to go to camp this summer and make new friends?” or “Do you want to play some fun games and do some new activities at camp?”

Many parents start their kids off with a day camp experience before sending them to overnight camp. For younger children, this is a great way to go. Day camps are a natural stepping stone to sleepaway camp.

Also, since day camps are generally local establishments, you can visit the camp and meet the director ahead of time. Make sure to bring your child along. If he or she is excited about what they see, this is a good indication they’re ready for camp. If their reaction is mixed, negative or indifferent, now may not be the right time.

Summer camp can be a powerful experience for a child in terms of making new friends, building social skills, and increasing their self-confidence and esteem. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your child’s first camp experience is positive from the start.

If your child doesn’t enjoy camp the first time they go, they might never want to go back.

But if they have a ball, there’s no telling what a fantastic positive impact the experience can have on their lives.

One of the chief treats for any child could be departure to summer camp. It can in fact be one of the largest challenges they may face. Each year over and above 10 million children go for summer camps, usually with mixed feelings. Often, enthusiasm could take a turn into fear and nervousness. Following are a few tips to make sure summer camp for your child to be a positive occurrence for everybody involved.

•    Ask your child to choose their preferred camp – Ask your child to join you when searching for camps through web sites, videos, reviews and broachers, or it even better to attend open houses. Get in touch with people who have already attended such camps and talk with them on their experiences about it. Always choose a camp that is well compatible with your child’s interest and character. There are loads options such as sleep away camp, co-ed camp etc

•    Make a note of the first day at camp on the chart, and “count down” in concert with your child. Expend a little bit of time sharing your encouraging camp experiences, and if at all possible, take out your own camp photos or scrapbooks in case you have. Talk about their hope and reply their questions.

•    Get keyed up with your child to encourage them and make an important thing of raising a checklist of things for camp, and work with the child in collecting them together. Give confidence your child to get preferred books, melody, games, toys, and any other reminders of home such as photos.

•    Do ensure to maintain the family bond, so send some special letters few days before arrival to camp so that your child receive mail on the initial day. Also pack up fun papers, addressed and stamped postcards or envelopes and writing apparatus so that even he/she could easily write a letter back to you. Keep sending care packages; mail call is forever a stimulating, confident affair for every camper.

•    While your children are involved in the camp, do not plan any important family event. This is because the enjoyments of summer camp would not supplant the child as it would distress him about missing a unique celebration or amusing family outing.

•    When returning back to home, show great interest in your child’s camp summary and give confidence to carry out new skills they aimed. Promptly make pictures and/or make a photograph album with your child. Also assist them maintaining significant friendships grown at camp. Get collectively with friends who stay nearby. Use email, letters, or even phone calls to bond with others who say far.

Summer Camp is an exciting thing for parents; as their child is going to learn loads of new thing in the camp. However it could be a nightmare for the child if he or she is not ready for camp. Following are the ten excellent ways to get your child ready for the next summer camp.

# Go through books available in association with camp. These books must be read by both parents and children. After you both finish reading discuss the summer camp experience with your kid and mention some of the issues that were raised in book.

# Talk to people who have gone through such summer camps to get some useful information. You get information of such families from camp director. Get your children talk to other child may in person, email or over phone. Take a chance to ask questions and talk about various concerns.

# Get familiar with camp surroundings. Check out where your child is going to sleep, swim and eat. Also check out daily routine and plan sheet of the activities. Know the evening activities and do visit the camp if permitted.

# Teach your child to take care of themselves. Practice camp is very much necessary. Send your child to spend a long weekend at your relative or friends place, teach them how to pack and unpack and how to make bed, how to set dinning table and more things. Do not call them when they are at your friends place, discuss it later about how they felt without parents’ involvement in any activity.

# Problem solving with your child is very important. Think about defensive issues, “What if? You drop baseball glove or feel sick.” Give your child different ways where they would have to solve the difficulty at camp. It is dissimilar than at home.

# Do a role-play with your child on how they are going to respond to the camp situations. Walk in the moon light with a flashlight on.

# Communication at most of the camp is generally through letter writing only. Assist your child learn letter writing and practice. Also find out the camp policy on making phone calls.

# Homesickness feelings are common when it comes to adjusting to any fresh environment. Homesick feelings are more common during meals time, free time and also at night. They generally don’t last very long after the child gets well-known and engrossed in camp life.

# You also need to get ready for separation. Parents usually feel anxious about sending their child to summer camp or any other day camp especially if it is for the first time. This is a normal feel; however remember that you have got a safe camp for your kid where he/she will be well cared. Camp is obviously a positive growing experience.

# The camp manager is presented for concerns. Always call them in case of any questions or clarification.

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What’s the best way to familiarize yourself with a summer camp before you make a final decision? Naturally you should do as much research as possible, but if you can attend a camp open house in person, you are in terrific shape.

Attending a summer camp open house is one of the absolute BEST ways to know you’re making the right camp choice for your child. By going to an open house, you can meet the camp staff (including the camp director), play games, enjoy refreshments, and discover in person how the camp operates on a day-to-day basis.

This gives you a major advantage over other people who sign up for the camp sight-unseen. You are in a better position to get your personal impressions of the camp and the people running it. And ultimately you will have a better idea of whether the camp is a good fit for your child before making a decision.

Some camps offer personal tours of their facility. Touring the campsite can be a very valuable experience for you. (In fact, some people think this is even more worthwhile than attending an open house, because you might get more one-on-one attention from the camp staff.)

The drawback is, with an individual facility tour you generally don’t get to see the camp in a group setting, and since your child will be attending camp in a group setting, you might not get a clear picture of how things operate when the camp is filled with kids.

If you live far away from the camp, attending an open house might not be practical. But you can still get a basic picture of things from the camp’s website and brochure. Many camps also offer a free informational video or DVD which can be a valuable tool in helping you learn more about the program.

All in all, there is nothing like attending a summer camp open house to get the best picture of whether the camp is a good match for you.

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Twenty-five years ago weight-loss camp campers were mostly teenage girls who were at least 100 pounds or more overweight. The menu usually consisted of food such as beef liver, fish and alfalfa sprouts and the only form of exercise was running and doing sit-ups. The ultimate goal at these overnight summer camps is to lose as much weight as possible in as little time as possible. They were often considered special needs camps. There are also many teen and adult weight loss camps.

Today things are a lot less extreme than they were in those days – approximately 39 percent of the campers are boys, the kids usually need to lose between 21 and 41 pounds, the menus offer a much broader range of food, and the exercise is a lot of fun, with activities that include fun sports like tennis and kayaking. The weight loss camps today emphasize very healthy lifestyles and long-lasting skills that the kids can take home with them and actually put into use.

To summarize, these so-called “fat camps” usually resemble regular overnight summer camps and just happen to specialize in teaching excellent decision-making techniques as they relates to food.

Now according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 16 percent or so of children from ages 6-19 are overweight or obese and this number that has tripled since 1981.

The number of overnight or sleepaway weight loss camps has remained about the same. There are about 16 to 20 of these camps out of 10,000 sleep away camps in the United States alone with some of these having offshoots in other locations. There are many other weight loss camps in other countries.

In most of the overnight summer camps the children will be between the ages of 7 and 12. This age group tends to be most successful because parents have more to say about the child’s eating and exercise habits. Usually bad eating habits are less instilled in the younger children.

All sleepaway fat loss camps work at building good habits, not just dealing out quick fixes. You will find these camps have classes on good nutrition, proper portion control, emotional eating, handling situations like pizza parties, birthday parties and ice cream parties.

You’ll find they teach by example. In the old days weight loss camps offered 1,250 to 1,350 calories each day. Today they’re more realistic, usually about 1,800 to 2,000 calories daily. On the menu along with healthier foods you’ll also find there are hamburgers, pita pizzas, baked potato chips and low-fat baked goods.

It’s long been a misconception that overnight weight loss camps don’t offer enough food and they overwork the kids. It’s actually the opposite. The right amount of food is served and they provide workouts for the kids at the right level. Campers never find they are hungry.

Changing the camper’s behavior is the key to sustaining weight loss. Many campers learn to cook, shop for groceries, order out at restaurants, and work with camp psychologists on managing stress, frustration tolerance, and identifying emotional eating.

Generally the campers want to be there. Years ago when their parents made them go they didn’t want to. Kids are happier that they’re making a change and develop confidence and independence as a result of the experience. They learn to make healthier choices also. Kids learn to feel better, breathe better, run faster and become more active as a result.

Some overnight weight loss camps can cost about $1,000 a week. Many of the camps offer scholarships and that’s worth exploring. Your health insurance may cover some of it because of the weight loss therapy. And some churches run free weight loss camps, but may be harder to find.

Choosing the right summer camp for your child may mean doing a lot of research and checking out reviews of weight loss camps. Talking to parents who have sent their kids to those camps would give you some idea as to the successful experience the child has had. Ask the director of the camp you’re considering if they will give you some names of previous campers’ parents so you can contact them. Cost may be a factor too. There is a wide range when it comes to cost and be sure to compare weight loss summer camp ratings online and offline. Check the public library for Consumer Reports magazine’s ratings.

Any overnight summer camp is great because it will force the child to have structured time in the summer and even traditional overnight camps focus on kid’s fitness and health, serve healthier food and encourage a lot of exercise. If you can’t find or afford a weight loss camp, you should choose a camp anyway even if it’s a special camp like arts or science that has some activity. The important thing is to keep overweight kids active in the summer.

Hopefully your child will be among the 12 million other kids going to camp this summer. The positive benefits kids gain from a camp experience – such as learning to take responsibility for themselves, making new friends, and building self-confidence and esteem – are well-documented and indisputable.

You don’t want to make a mistake when picking a camp, so here are the top 7 things to consider before you sign on the dotted line.

Make sure your child is ready for camp

Kids develop at certain rates. Some kids are ready for camp before others. If your child is mature, gets along well with others, and is comfortable being separated from you, he or she is probably ready for a camp experience. Otherwise, you might consider waiting a year or two.

Include your child in the decision-making process

It’s been proven time and again: The kids who enjoy camp the most are those who’ve been involved in choosing their own camp. When parents pick a camp without consulting their kids, their kids usually don’t like camp as much.

Check references

One of the biggest mistakes parents make when signing up for camp is not checking references. Always ask the camp director for at least three references, and be sure to follow through on making your calls. If you don’t hear glowing reports from the references, look into other camps.

Only pick a camp with activities your child likes

This one’s easy. If your son wants to learn to surf, send him to a surf camp. If your daughter wants to polish her gymnastics skills, look into a gymnastics camp. Don’t send your surfer kid to cooking camp. Don’t send your daughter who’s obsessed with gymnastics to an archery camp.

Meet the director ahead of time

It’s not a good idea to register for camp sight-unseen. There’s too much potential for something bad to happen. The camp might not be as safe as you thought, the counselors might not be as nice, the director might not be as qualified, and the facilities might not be as clean. So meet the director ahead of time, and/or take a tour of the camp, if possible, before the summer starts. You wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive, so don’t sign up for camp without a test-drive, either.

Choose an ACA Accredited camp

Most parents would not send their kids to a non-accredited school, so why would you send them to a non-accredited camp? Picking a summer camp that’s accredited by the American Camp Association is the ONLY way you can be sure the camp meets or exceeds up to 300 best-practice industry standards relating to child safety and program quality, among others. If you don’t choose an accredited camp, watch out.

Find out the camp’s refund policy

What if your child doesn’t like camp? What if they break their arm before camp starts, or even during camp? What if something unexpected happens and you need to drop out? While many camps have no-refund policies, others are more lenient. Make sure you understand the camp’s refund policy in advance and get it in writing. You don’t want to make a finical mistake, especially in this awful economy.

These are the top 7 things to remember when choosing a camp for your child. Summer camp can be one of the most rewarding experiences of a child’s life when you pick the right program.