We encourage our camper parents to interact with their children about their camp experience for several reasons. It allows you to be informed about what they learned and any commitments they made so you can follow-up with them, it gives you an opportunity to bond with your child as they share stories with you, and it allows you to affirm their experience away from home.
Many campers make commitments to read their Bible more, or be better siblings. We see where they write it on their evaluations, but we don’t often get a chance to see them implementing a change in their lives. You are the one who can see this and who can assist them in their desire to grow in their walk with the Lord. A counselor or chapel speaker may have initiated the idea, but you are the accountability they need to follow through.
Camp is a place where lasting memories are made. Telling stories and repeating these memories to others is a way that the campers will solidify the memories in their minds.
Even if you had a homesick camper who ended up coming home, they can be encouraged and affirmed for how long they made it. Encourage your child in their independence by acknowledging that they overcame a hardship whether they stayed for one night or 4.
Of course, some of you may be thinking that your camper needs no encouragement to begin sharing every detail of their experience, but if you have a quieter child, please take the opportunity given by camp to bond with them and draw them out with some open ended questions about their time here.
Many campers make commitments to read their Bible more, or be better siblings. We see where they write it on their evaluations, but we don’t often get a chance to see them implementing a change in their lives. You are the one who can see this and who can assist them in their desire to grow in their walk with the Lord. A counselor or chapel speaker may have initiated the idea, but you are the accountability they need to follow through.
Camp is a place where lasting memories are made. Telling stories and repeating these memories to others is a way that the campers will solidify the memories in their minds.
Even if you had a homesick camper who ended up coming home, they can be encouraged and affirmed for how long they made it. Encourage your child in their independence by acknowledging that they overcame a hardship whether they stayed for one night or 4.
Of course, some of you may be thinking that your camper needs no encouragement to begin sharing every detail of their experience, but if you have a quieter child, please take the opportunity given by camp to bond with them and draw them out with some open ended questions about their time here.
