[AmyAnne]

Anyone here sent their foster or adopted kids to an overnight summer camp? Would you recommend it? We're thinking of sending Austin this year. He'll be 8, going on 9 by then and will have been placed with us for 18 months.

[kforkids]

No,
We haven't done it, but are considering. I'm looking forward to seeing the responses!

[punchkin]

We sent our fs to a week long camp when he was 9. It was great. DCS even paid for it.

[lambeausam]

My oldest son has been attending overnight Scout camp since he was 7 years old. He was placed with me at 2 1/2 years and his adoption was finalized when he was 4 years old.

My 6yo will start attending overnight camp this year.

My best advise is to make sure you son has spent nights away from home before.

Sam

[tybeemarie]

You could try camping together as a family first, so he could get used to that experience, and see if he's interested in going to camp alone. As I recall, your son doesn't have RAD, but I thought I would mention that Nancy Thomas does camps for families who have RAD kids. I've heard great things about them. Maybe there are family style camps that might also be fun for your family.

[mallory4]

I think whether your son will enjoy himself or not really depends on his temperament and the camp.

If he is highly social and enjoys new places and people, he might really enjoy camp. If he is socially awkward or shy, or is just a guy who likes to sleep in his own bed, camp may not be a success.

My daughter is super-social, popular with peers and up for almost anything, and I sent her to sleep away camp when she was ten. She didn't HATE it, but it wasn't a big success. She liked all the activities but hated not being able to ever retreat from the crowds.

When I was a kid, I went to sleep away camp every summer starting at age 8. It was a fantastic camp and I liked it, but there were a lot of miserable kids there, too, crying themselves to sleep or sitting on the sidelines of group activities.

Since there are more families now where both parents work, there are many more camps that have started up mainly as a form of babysitting that don't knock themselves out trying to be fun for kids. I would only consider a camp if you had heard from more than a couple of KIDS--not parents--that it was fun and they would recommend it.

[jackiesbooks]

I think at 9 I would try day camp first. I have seen plenty of first yr boy scouts (11yr) have issues at camp - and they go with their troop!

[LadyBugz]

I went to camp in my middle school years. Alcohol, sex, and flat-out bad behavior were pretty common. And that was with constant supervision. They just figured out how to get around the rules. One time, the "house mom" actually sat up all night long in the hall staring down the row of doors to catch them and they managed to fool her! The girls went as a pack to get water and as she watched them intently go back, one slipped off in the other direction. They also brought phones in that hooked into the already present jacks and were able to call between rooms without the supervisors knowing. They hid alcohol in a place you would NEVER expect to find it. (I won't say where for fear of giving some future camper an idea.) They had cigarettes. One room had stuffed animals hanging in effigy. And a visiting parent would have never seen any of this. She would have seen good kids smiling and following the rules and having fun.

I say all of this to warn you that with overnight camp, the adults who are supervising make a huge difference, and then the kids who are attending are next. Mine was a yuppy scholastic-oriented camp, fwiw.

Then again, I remember my 6th grade camp. They wore us out and we didn't have time for getting in trouble. Our time was strictly structured from waking to bed. We were never out of sight of an adult. Even our shower time was timed to 2 minutes. And I don't remember any problems, either.

Do the adults sleep in the room with the kids? What is the adult:child ratio? What is it at night? Is it co-ed? What are the rules and how are they implemented? Will your son know any of the adults there? How much leisure time do the kids have (especially between dinner and bed)? Just questions to consider when evaluating possible camps. Hope it helps you to discern.