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Connecting Parents With Summer Camp

We just returned from a week of summer camp with our elementary kids.  One thing is certain… Summer Camp Rocks!!

There are few things I love more than Summer Camp.  There is so much work that goes into it.  So many details to hit.  So much programming, safety protocols, communications and trainings that go into the five-day event. But when it all comes down to it… Summer Camp rocks.

Knowing what a great experience Summer Camp is for our kids, I wanted to incorporate ways for parents to connect with the Summer Camp experience, as well.  Here are a few things we did to make that happen…

  • Facebook – We’ve got an fpKIDS FaceBook page so we just used that as a resource to update our parents throughout the day. Anything from random camper quotes to the daily winner of the Clean Bunk Award, we posted in an effort to let parents know they’re camper was having a great time.
  • Parent Devotional – Each parent received a devotional book prior to camp to use while their camper was away.  The booklet contained one devotional per day based upon the same teaching topic as their camper. And we incorporated our common language through Parent Challenges to help parents move toward the kind of relationship they desire to have with their kids.
  • Kids Devotional – We included an additional page each day in the Camper Devo that was an open Journal Page. The question at the top is, “What happened today that you want someone at home to know about?”. The idea behind the question is to provoke kids to document something they loved about the day. The idea behind the page is to encourage conversation starters at home in the weeks following camp.
  • Parent Night – Our camp location was only 90 miles away. So on the final night of camp we had a big Parent Night.  We invited all parents to visit camp, fed them hot dogs, chips & cookies then led them off to experience the final Main Event with their camper. Main Event was our nightly worship service where we had worship, skits and focused teaching. On the final Main Event, we abbreviated the line up slightly to ensure we ended within 45 minutes but still gave our parents a clear picture of what their camper experienced all week long.

There are a few tweaks I’m considering to make next year better but the feedback so far has been positive.  My hope is that parents got a taste of summer camp & are equipped with the right questions to ask in the aftermath.