camp
Hello, muddah
continued From p. 23
Camp Pok-O-MacCready, across Lake Champlain in Willsboro, N.Y., accepts boys and girls as young as 6 years old. It’s the kind of traditional k12h-Davinci0212.indd 1 1/26/12 10:13 AM camp that offers sailing, archery, horseback riding and riflery. Sarah Disney, who is director of recruitment and admissions, has been connected to the camp since she became a counNow enrolling for 2012-2013 selor when she was 18. Her parents Come for a tour • Give us a call sent her brothers to camp there for several weeks, starting the summer Check out our NEW website they were 6. Each of Disney’s three PRESCHOOL • KINDERGARTEN daughters enrolled at age 8. ELEMENTARY • AFTER SCHOOL SUMMER CAMPS Announcing… Disney favors starting kids early. She says the 8- and 9-year-olds Summer Camps experience camp differently from for children ages 4-8 the teens. “They’re just sponges,” she June 18-Aug 3 says. “They are just so excited about everything they do.” 1186 S. Brownell Rd. • Williston • (802) 863-4839 • BellwetherSchool.org To help young kids ease into the overnight experience, Disney encour8h-bellweatherschool0212.indd 1 1/24/12 12:03 PM Visit our ages first-time campers to sign up website for our for Pok-O-MacCready’s three-week 2012 Summer day-camp session. They can spend the Camp Schedule. first two weeks as day campers, and if they’re ready, sleep over during the final week. Disney points out that the longer parents wait to send kids to camp, the fewer years the campers have to bond with their friends, which returning campers say is one of the Champlain Discovery best things about the experience. As co-ed Kayak Adventure kids get older, she says, it becomes This Summer! ages 13-16 increasingly difficult to separate them from their social circles at home. That’s especially true of girls. “I think Vermont’s only certified parents are really doing a disservice to Irish Dance School! their children if they wait until 12, 13, 14,” she says. All Ages…All Levels Lucy Norvell, director of public information at the New England chapter Did you enjoy of the American Camp Association, watching Riverdance? agrees that there’s no one-size-fits-all Why not learn some of the steps! age when kids are ready for camp. Some kids, she says, are ready at age 6 Call now for a spot in or 7, though “most first-time campers our Winter program! are between the ages of 8 and 11.” A good first sign that kids are Classes offered in ready for camp? According to Norvell, Williston & Middlebury “They show interest.” Often kids hear about camps from family members or friends, or see some promotional maBeth Anne McFadden T.C.R.G. (802) 475-2022 (802) 999-5041 terial on the web or at a camp fair and www.lcmm.org www.mcfaddenirishdance.com start asking if they can go. “If you’re lucky enough to have a child who says ‘I want to do this, and I really think I k8v-LCMaritime0212.indd 1 1/26/12 k8v-McFaddenAcademy0212.indd 10:06 AM 1 1/23/12 11:58 AMcan,’ I would encourage parents to try to work with that,” she says. In addition to assessing whether kids are comfortable sleeping away
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Find more information on evaluating camps and assessing your children’s camp readiness at the american camp association websites, acacamps. org and acanewengland.org. representatives from more than 60 camps and schools will attend at the Kids Vt camp and School Fair on Saturday, February 4, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hilton burlington. from home, Norvell also suggests that parents consider their children’s self-help skills. Can they keep track of their stuff ? Do they get along easily with peers? Can they ask for help if they need it? Norvell points out that parents can work on these skills with kids before they go to camp. Have them practice putting their clothes away in drawers, or pack their own lunches and backpacks. Give them more choices: Would they like to shower before dinner or after? Those are the kinds of decisions they’ll have to make when they’re away from home. But Norvell also reminds nervous parents that “camps are ready for kids.” Their programs are designed to help young kids learn some of those skills, too. Norvell advises parents to research multiple camps and ask a lot of questions. She recommends visiting camp fairs and open houses at camps before the season starts. Many programs also offer family camp sessions at the end of the season that give parents and their kids an opportunity to stay over, get to know the staff and use the facilities. Yep, parents get to go to camp, too! My kids might not be ready to start camp on their own yet, but I think I’m ready to go back for a few days. K