HDYDI: Pack Your Kids for Summer Camp

Because VBS kicked my tail, I’m taking a few days off from blogging. In my absence from the interwebs, enjoy this post from a couple of years ago about packing your kids for summer camp, along with my case for why every kid should go and how to choose the best camp for your child. Our kids will be heading to sleepaway camp later this summer and I know I’ll be re-reading this post! Happy packing.

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Raise a flashlight if you’ve been to summer camp.

Raise something alcoholic if you’ve ever packed your child for one.

This summer, I packed both my boys for a one-week, “away from home” sports camp. Talk about an educational experience. I’ve been a camper, a counselor and now a parent to a camper. With that in mind, I have a few tips to share on the must have’s and the must leave at home.

1. If the camp has a website (and it should, y’all), take some time to familiarize yourself with it. Pay particular attention to the “suggested packing list.” These people have done this before. Trust them. Better yet, ask a friend who’s been before for any packing advice.

2. Buy yourself a hard plastic footlocker instead of a metal one. You can get them at any sports supply place – Dick’s, Academy, even Wal-Mart. Why plastic? If you are the mom of a boy, the answer is simple. Powerwash. Yes, you will want to completely dip that thing in a bleach bath when it comes back to you. Metal and wood? Eww. Not to mention, the plastic is much lighter to carry.

3. I suggest laying out all those clothes/items in piles so you can get a sense of what you have, what needs to be packed and what should just stay home.

4. After you lay out the piles, put each day’s outfits in a separate plastic bag. Make it easy for ’em: underwear, socks, shorts, t-shirt. {Caution: do not assume they know they need to change clothes everyday. They won’t.} I labeled them with the day and had a separate bag for “special event” nights, as well. The bonus is even if your child wears the same outfit all week, you don’t have to wash all 8,000 other clothes in the footlocker because they stayed clean in those bags! Win-win.

5. Label, label, label. Well, label the things you care about getting back. I didn’t bother with undergarments and socks. If you lose those, no big shake. I did label the sheets, towels, shoes, sleeping bag, water bottle, swimsuit, t-shirts/shorts they loved and the toiletries.

6. Now, I only labeled the toiletries so they weren’t brushing their teeth wish someone else’s toothbrush! Then, I put all those toiletries into a caddy, purchased from Target, so they could cart it to and from the bathroom. Don’t be surprised if the shampoo and soap come back unused. Hey, we try. Consider buying the caddy and towels in August, when they go on sale, for next year.

7. Consider instituting a color for your child. My oldest loves green and his brother is a fan of blue. So, the sheets, the sleeping bag, toothbrush holder and the labels I made for the trunk were all in the corresponding color. It just makes it easier, I think. I also found some great velcro luggage tags (less than $1 for 3), in blue and green, from the Container Store that I attached to their footlocker, sleeping bag and duffle bag. It made luggage identification at pickup quicker and easier.

8. Print out a packing list and affix it to the top of the trunk. This was for both me and my boys. Me, because I kept track of exactly what I packed, and them as a checklist when they were packing it all back up. My oldest confessed that he forgot half his toiletries until he read the list. Granted, he’s the first-born, a rule follower. But, it doesn’t hurt. I ended up laminating it, too.

9. Send them with pre-addressed stamped envelopes. For a week camp, I sent them with two in hopes that I *might* get one back. And I did! The camp did offer an email service, but I’m a pen and paper kind of gal. The handwritten note never goes out of style. Plus, it gave me a snapshot in time of their handwriting, which I love to see. On the flip side, I made sure to purchase some cards and I sent them a few during camp. I think we were all happy to go to the mailbox that week!

10. These are the things we left at home:
> Blankets/stuffed animals:  granted the boys don’t sleep with these every night, but I knew there would be crying if they got lost
> Money:  they had a camper account, with a set amount; they learned to budget for the things they really wanted
> Nice clothes:  we bought cheap athletic shorts and they took t-shirts they knew might be ruined, the Sunday best we left at home
> Electronics:  the camp has a policy that none be brought and we agreed!
> Camera:  the camp employs several photographers to shoot pictures of camp so we opted to purchase those and then take pictures ourselves the first and last days of camp, it was one less thing for our boys to keep tabs

11. Lower your expectations. It is summer camp, after all. I tried hard to include all the things I knew they needed, along with a few extras. There’s nothing worse than going on a trip only to realize you’ve left an important item at home. In reality, though, the boys learned to adapt and live life without mom around. They survived and even thrived in their new environment. It was wonderful to see their faces and meet their new friends on the last day of camp. I look forward to many more summers full of wakeboarding, fishing, blobbing and making memories.

If you’re lucky, your kids will come home looking like this!