Help kids shake off homesickness

The weather is warming, school is winding up and the little ones are just big enough for an elementary rite of passage: summer camp.

Soon, young campers will be packed and ready to brave what may be their first trip away from home. Far away from parents, grandparents and their old familiar bed.

It can be a little scary.

But it doesn’t have to be. Veteran camp counselors share tricks of the trade to turn homesick campers into happy campers.

The first rule: Homesickness starts at home.

If you’re nervous about your little ones being away for three whole days – or even a week – don’t show it. It will make the camper think there’s something to be afraid of.

“For parents to be excited for the girls to go to camp, that really helps with homesickness,” says Sarah Betts, director of Girl Scouts Camp Four Echoes.

Don’t dwell on how much you’ll miss them while they’re away. That’s just planting the seed for them to really miss you, too, instead of savoring every minute of summer fun, Betts says.

Betts also recommends packing pens, paper and pre-addressed envelopes so the campers can write home whenever they get lonely. Some parents, she says, give the camp counselors one letter for every day the camper will be gone, so she has a steady stream of contact with family.

The second rule: Sadness at camp is usually short-lived.

The first camp experience is often a short one, two-night mini-camps for beginning campers as young as 6 years old. Most kids can handle that, says Landon Crecelius, program coordinator for YMCA’s Camp Reed.

It’s the slightly older campers that get homesick more often, he says. The 8- or 9-year-olds, going to full-time camp for the first time, sometimes are daunted by spending an entire week away from home.

Sometimes a camper will think she’s homesick, really expect to be homesick, but it turns out she’s not.

“Usually the first night is the saddest, then it gets easier as the week goes on,” says Betts.

At Camp Reed, campers hardly ever get so homesick that they have to leave early. They usually get wrapped up in what Crecelius calls “the best week of their lives.”

The final rule: Camp rocks!

There’s no time to be homesick if the camper is excited about the activities at camp. “The rule of thumb is to keep them focused on what’s to come,” says Crecelius.

Counselors strive for a spirit of anticipation about the next campfire, the carnival or the upcoming dance. It’s part of the magic of camp, where every moment is fun and everyone is a friend.

At Camp Four Echoes, Betts says campers are given one hour of “me-time” per day. That’s time for reading or resting or writing letters home – whatever the campers want to do.

The rest of the time, they’re engaged and busy, with no time to get lonely. By the time they get home, Betts says, the campers are knocked out by all the activity of the past week.