your child’s life
is your child
camp ready? CHRISTINA CASTLE pitches the question and discovers that, more often than not, our children are ready to head off to camp long
y parting words to my 16 year old were: “Be sensible. Drink lots of water. Use sunscreen.” He was about to embark on a three-week journey into manhood, deep in the Cederberg mountains. Yes, my lip was quivering and I was desperately fighting back the tears. “Ja, ja, I know. I’ll be fine, Mom,” he reassured me as he slung his backpack over his shoulder, gave me a fat hug and disappeared onto a bus. And I knew he would be. Years of overnight camps with the school, tours of sorts, sleepovers and holidays away with friends had prepared him (and me) for this journey. From the age of nine my children have been exposed to sleepover camps with the school. Camps are an annual event. Each year as the children mature, the independence, the social and physical skills required are challenged just a little bit more. What starts as an overnight stay in a cabin in Grade 4 quickly becomes a fend-for-yourself few days under the watchful eye of the teachers in Grade 7
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and eventually a man-making three weeks in the wild in Grade 10. While they are fun and physical, the school is acutely aware of the varying stages of physical, social and emotional readiness across the age groups. Their precamp preparation with the children addresses all aspects of readiness and the skills, responsibilities and anxieties that go with it. However, the reality of sleepover camps is not quite so textbook. Some children quite simply do not sleep out. The separation is just too much. Fears and other anxieties kick in. Or they just don’t operate well out of their comfort zones. While children should never feel pressured to go to camp, schools do expect your child to attend their camps; and they are more than equipped with the experience and expertise to help your child over this hurdle. Despite the wobbles and anxieties, school and commercial camps equip our children with skills they will carry for life. The independence, confidence, social
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PHOTOGRAPH: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
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before we are ready to let them go.