Summer Camps

Odd question for winter time but hear me out:


Did any of you go to Summer camp when you were younger?? I wasn't allowed my dad forbade it so I got stuck in playscheme programs during the summer which sucked. I kinda wish I was allowed to go.  I'm looking to allow Jess to go when she is older to a camp in America..(we'll see though) so I'm curious to find out did you go ? Did you like it? Have you wished you didn't ? Have you sent your kids to one ? good or bad idea?

I went to summer camp from age 5 to 8 but then again it was a family camp and all of my older siblings were there as well, so it felt "safe" to me and it was only for a week.    I had a BLAST and would recommend it to anyone    
  I also went to camp for a week during 6th grade (during the school year) which if I hadn't been earlier I don't think I would have enjoyed as much.
 

I did.  I went to Day camp for 3 1/2 years and sleepaway for 4 years.  All of them were for 8 weeks at a time. I had a great time up till my last year of sleepaway (I think I was 14)  But otherwise, I LOVED it!!!  So much fun, so much to do.  One of my good friends is actually a head counselor at  a sleepaway in PA.

I did every year for about 5 years......I was a Camp Fire Girl and I went away to the annual camp..but I didn't go till I was 8yrs old.....

I always had a blast....rode horses..swam..did archery..loved it!

I went to summer camp for a week at a time every year when I was a kid.  I had a great time.  I've sent my kids to day camp here and sleepover camp in the states.  They loved going to camp in America.  Really LOVED it.  

I worked at camps during the summer every year that I was at university.  It can be a great experience.  You might want to sign her up for Brownies and Guides here-they do sleepovers during the weekends and summers sometimes.  That way she'd have some experience with it.  

My friend dragged me to Summer Bible camp and look where it got me today! 

lol! I wasn't allowed because the camps that the school promoted where coed so Dad forbade it. In fact I wasn't allowed to go to any school excursion that was coed!!

I went to those one-week/ten day away jobs from the time I was about 8 till I was 13.

I enjoyed it and I'm sure my parents did as well.

lol..I mentioned to Phil about Jess going to camp *perhaps* either next year or the following and already he's hyperventilating about her being away from home....to Day camp in N. London

"No way , No way!!" he said

they are right when they say "you do marry your father"...

I did daycamps from about 7 until I was 12, and loved it so much I volunteered as a junior counselor from 13 until I was old enough to get a real (i.e. paying) job.  I also did sleepaway camps two or three times - they were all Girl Scout camps and I had a blast.  I always loved daycamp because it was like going to school without all that annoying learning.

I was forced to go to either day camp or summer camp every year and absolutely hated it.
The funny thing is, when I finally got the courage to tell my parents that I didn't want to go, instead of being upset, which I thought they would be, they were relieved because they had been spending a lot of money to send me to camp, and now they didn't have to. If I had only told them after the first year that I didn't want to go back, I would have been happier and they would have been happier. They thought I wanted to go, and I thought they wanted me to go 

So it would depend on the child, and also on which camp you sent them to.  I was sent to camp with a lot of spoiled upper middle class girls who would tease me about my clothes, etc.

There was an Irish counselor who was sent to my camp on some kind of exchange program.  The other girls teased her about her accent so much that one day she just ran off in tears. These are the kind of girls I got sent to camp with.

So you could probably send Jess for a summer and see how she likes it, but make sure she doesn't feel pressured about it.

I only went once, and it was to a week-long Bible camp.
I liked it at the time, but never felt the desire to go back again.

I totally forgot, I was a camp counselor at a Day Camp near my home for  4 years.  I loved it.  I had 4 year old girls, they were the cutest!  Plus I made a lot of money!  (Well, for my age it was)

Sweetpeach, really sorry about your experience.  That is what happened to me my last year.  The girls were awful.  Spoiled girls that were together for years and years and then I was put in their bunk.  Pure torture.  The rest of my years though as I said were great!  I was in camp in Upstate New York for three years and CT for one.

That's one of the reasons why I ask ...I would like to talk to Jess and ask if she wants to go or not . Instead of my Dad just making the decision for me which pissed me off. Even though I would have liked to go when I was younger it may not be the same for Jess so I radther get some knowledge from others that went to find out if they actually enjoyed their experience.

I started day camp when I was 7 and then sleep away camp from 12 - 17.  It was always a few weeks at different camps depending on what kind of scholarships I got.  But the most fun was the YMCA camps.  They always planned it that we all went away the same week.  Until my brother was old enought to goto sleep away camp he went to grandma and gramdpas for the week.

I can't say I had the greatest time since I was never very good at making friends, but I learned alot and grew alot.  I think it was a good thing in the end.