Even the most social child could get nervous before attending summer camp for the first time. To ensure that your kids have the best possible experience, Henry DeHart, interim president and CEO of American Camp Association, suggests bringing them into the selection process. “Involving the child in that from the very beginning is very helpful,” he says. From there, you can determine which kind of camp — sleep-away, full day or half-day — is the best fit for your children. For sleep-away camps, DeHart notes that there are ways to ease them into going on their first trip without their parents. “A lot of camps have family camp weekends and some have family camp weeks, where you can go be at the camp as a family and your child gets to know the camp staff and the director and the facilities and maybe the next year or later that summer, they’ll go on their own,” he explains. Lisa Tai of Huntington Beach, California, sent her 9-year-old son to summer camp in Colorado for the first time last summer. Since 2019, though, Tai’s family has been attending a camp together in California and she says that helped prepare her son for his first summer camp adventure. “He had an idea of what the camp was like,” she says. Related Articles The benefits of summer camp far outlast a single summer Recipe: When life gives you strawberries, makes preserves with balsamic vinegar ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip’ review: Very OK Travel: I love Philadelphia, but I’d never taken a City Hall tour. Don’t make the same mistake Disturbed’s ‘Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour’ slamming into Rocket Arena It helps, too, that Tai’s son attended camp in Colorado with his cousin. And Tai herself had attended the same camp from third grade through high school, so she was able fill her son in on what the experience might be like. “It was fun for me to prepare him for it and, when he was done with that camp, to see his entire face light up every time he was telling me every single detail,” she says. “They still play some of the same games that I played when I was little.” If you’re not already personally familiar with a summer camp, you’ll want to do research before you make your selection. DeHart recommends asking if the camp is ACA accredited, with a peer-reviewed process gauging health and safety standards. Beyond that, you’ll want to find out about the camper/staff ratio. “How do they handle supervision when staff has downtime or time off?” DeHart asks. You might want to tour the camp and meet the director, as well as inquire about staff training. In addition, ask about refund policies and communication policies. For sleep-away camps, which need more preparation than day camps, DeHart suggests talking to your kids beforehand to find out their concerns and come up with strategies to address them. “It’s helpful for children to have had an overnight experience away from home before they go to camp,” he adds. DeHart also suggests packing a familiar object with your child and, if possible, sending a letter in advance so that it’s at the site when they begin camp. If your child has any medical needs or dietary restrictions, be sure that the camp is aware of them. As for packing, Tai has a few suggestions. “I packed a lot more than I’m used to packing for each of my kids,” she says. Remember that, with all the activity at camp, kids might need to change clothing more often than they would on any other trip. “He had four packing cubes and I had a label maker and labeled what was inside every one,” says Tai. “I think that’s the biggest thing that helped him is that he didn’t have to worry about everything when he woke up in the morning.” But, Tai does have an addition to her packing strategy for this year: Trash bags to store dirty clothes. ...read more read less