Using Camp Memories to Inspire Your Child

by Peg L. Smith, CEO, American Camp Association

The astonishing thing about our children is how they live in the moment. Waiting, gauging, reflecting-these are left for another time, for the person each of them will become. Capturing the memories of summer and particularly of new situations and friends from camp becomes a guessing game for parents of "right place, right time." Likely these moments express your child's newfound confidence at exploring the world and trying new things, making friends, and challenging themselves in ways they hadn't thought possible. This new confidence will spill out as they share their camp experiences in the course of everyday activities while traveling in the car, over a meal, or around the house-and these memories will be nothing short of extraordinary.

Memory should never be about what we have lost but what we carry in our hearts forever, the abundance of riches in the small group of youngsters grasping each others' hands on the way to the park, the leaves and pods that a child so deliberately positioned across the page decorating a drawing for a parent, the camp dog who secretly was 'a special friend' and he knew it, and the moment when a splash into the pool left everyone speechless just like a firecracker lighting up the sky. And the quiet times, too, the sounds of lights out, the covers rustling, the "good tired" after a hike, the sun glistening across the pile of towels at the lake, the songs on the bus with thirty-seven verses.

Memory indeed serves us well- and for our children it provides an important bridge to adulthood. When difficulties or challenges arise, memory promises that things will get better, and cultivating these memories of childhood is an important act of helping children grow into resilient and secure adults.

Childhood needs a healthy dose of memory from time to time, and as your children's capacity for memory increases, sharing their summer is the perfect model of connectedness, belonging, taking risks, and, most importantly, growing up. Camp is the ideal backdrop for childhood with its celebration of imagination and accomplishment, its freedoms for our young people to shout and wave their arms, and even the tiredness that comes when the fields are dark, the swings are still, the lights are out, and they are satisfied, filled to overflowing with a sense of being truly alive in the world-not half bad for a summer.

Camp is all about taking healthy risks, exploring possibilities, and making memories that never let us go. And it's about next year, always next year.

Peg L. Smith has twenty-six years of experience working with children, youth, and families. The American Camp Association is the only national association that accredits camps. To learn more about the American Camp Association, please visit www.CampParents.org or www.ACAcamps.org.

© 2007 American Camping Association, Inc.

Making the Memories Last

If your camp has a Web site, families and children can view together. Now your child will be able to identify new friends and activities.

Use your camp Web site response feature and help your child send an e-mail about his or her summer experience.

Try to recreate a favorite camp food in your kitchen with your child's help, of course!

Use snail-mail and help your children write a thank you card to camp staff or contact a new friend.

Let your child teach you a favorite camp song for the whole family to sing.