Tears on the day of departure, confrontation with more “adapted”, house longing – something to say, experiences in camp life are enough. But there are joyful moments: new friends, new experience, an unknown sense of freedom … what will be more? Depends not only on the camp itself, but also on the child.
I remember how I was going to my first-and the only-camp, ”says 32-year-old Marina. – How I waited for games with new friends, a note from boys, songs by the fire – all this camp romance that my mother talked about. And how hard it was for me to live in the ward on the six, where the girls endlessly exchanged personal things – cosmetics, combs, even underwear. How difficult it was to get up at 7 in the morning and there is a viscous, barely warm porridge. And the end of the shift generally turned into a nightmare-“Atamansha”, girl Katya from a dysfunctional family, hated me for something. She poured salt into my bed, undressed me at night and painted with coal, constantly ridiculed and forced others to say that I was a fat unwell. And I could not even call and complain to my mother – there were no mobile phones then “.
A feeling of disgust, helplessness and defenselessness – that’s all that remains in the memories. Marina says that he will never send her children to the camp: “I do
not believe that the camp’s institution has changed over the years. And my daughters are as sensitive and home as I. In which case they definitely cannot stand up for themselves “.
Kindergarten as a “litmus paper”: if the child liked it there, most likely there will be no problems in the camp
The 37-year-old Anna’s own experience of camp life is also not the most rainbow, but at the same time she sends an 11-year-old son for a summer vacation for the third time. “Of course, for the first time it was very exciting. But I chose a camp for a very long time – normal nutrition, many activities, sane, experienced counselors, so that there is no “hazing”. As a result, we went to the camp, to which the guys from our class already went to, and the reviews were the most remarkable “.
The rest did not disappoint. There were long campaigns with a backpack behind the shoulders, and team games and porridge at a stake with burned boots (“But the guy now knows that they need to be dry”), but about all the difficulties, according to Anna, his son told with a laugh: “” “” “He never – and we talked daily – did not ask: “Mom, take me from here”. On the contrary, rejoiced: “How cool is it here! I would also stay on the second shift!”
Will the child like the camp?
Anna’s experience confirms: it is very important for parents to find a camp with a good reputation so that the child is comfortable and safe from home. But whether it only depends on this whether he will be good in the camp? “Of course not,” the family and child psychologist Katerina Demina is convinced. – There are children who go to the garden perfectly, quickly adapt to new conditions, instantly start friends, willingly get up on a whistle – they will be very comfortable in the camp. But the vulnerable, tied to the house, extremely sensitive or squeamish there will have not been easy there. “.
According to the expert, a kindergarten is generally a kind of “litmus paper”: if the child went there and he liked it there, most likely there would be no problems in the camp. If not, you have to try very hard to prepare it for new experience, or maybe even postpone the experiment or completely abandon the idea of sending his son or daughter to rest far from the house.