How do you handle missing home?
Missing home and homesickness (two different things in our eyes) is a natural occurrence at camp. It is a great opportunity for growth and independence for kids, and our staff are poised to support your camper to make it through.
Our highly qualified staff are trained to make camp a welcoming and safe environment for every child. We establish routines, build immediate rapport with campers and keep kids’ schedules jam-packed to limit downtime. Additionally, our Get To Know You form in Camp Doc (the online site with your CampDoc paperwork) helps us understand and address your child’s specific needs.
The biggest component of getting past missing home at camp is conveying to each camper that they have support from staff, friends to enjoy camp with, and needs that are being met. This takes campers time and it varies depending on the camper. We can understand it - camp is new, exciting, and unfamiliar. This, combined with getting to know fellow campers and staff makes missing home an easy result and normally during downtimes in the camp day. Our staff are trained to spend the time to build relationships, create short-term goals, celebrate successes, and have as much fun as possible.
If your camper is homesick to the extent where our efforts are stumped, we will reach out to families for advice and bring you into the situation. This can be hard news to hear and we want to be transparent to get your help as we want to have all campers make it the full session!
We know that for many families, there is a strong desire to speak with your child. In our experience, a homesick camper speaking with home almost always makes the homesickness worse, so we hope to work with you to help get your camper through it.
If you have any questions, please contact your Camp Director!
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