As the weather begins to turn warmer and the school year comes to a close, you may be wondering what you should do with your children for the summer. If you have a son who is at least 7 years old, a boy’s overnight summer camp may be a great choice. If you ever went to summer camp as a child, you know how amazing it can be and you probably would love for your son to experience that as well. However, before you make plans, you will need to determine if your son is ready for an overnight summer camp experience.
How to Determine if Your Son is Ready
One of the first things that you should look for in order to determine if your son is ready for an overnight summer camp experience is if you notice that his friends are going or if he has shown any interest in it. If your child doesn’t seem to have an issue with sleeping over at other people’s houses for a night or two or is a wanderer, always going off with his peers, these may be good signs that they will do well in an overnight summer camp.
Another thing that you should look for in order to determine if your son is ready for a summer camp is if he is fairly responsible. If he can keep track of his things, if he can make sure that his belongings have a place of their own and he has a basic understanding of money, he very well could be ready for summer camp. He will need to be responsible for his things at camp and will need to know a bit about monetary values as well, since there will most likely be a camp store where he can buy things he may need.
You can also look at his eating habits in order to determine if your son is ready for an overnight camp. Children who tend to be picky eaters will probably not do as well at camp where only one type of food may be served at each meal. Though dietary restrictions can generally be accommodated, most camps won’t go out of their way to accommodate the child that will only eat chicken fingers and French fries on a daily basis.
Consider All the Factors, then Make a Decision
Once you take all of those things into consideration, you will need to make a decision. You will definitely want to talk to your son about it and if you want to camp, share a few of those experiences with him. Many camps offer a short stay, like a weekend, to try it out, so that is a consideration as well if you think a week or two will be too much. Summer camp can be a great experience, but only if your child is ready for it.
