Parents / Family Day

[triplethreat]

Do you have a visitors day at your camp? When is it held? Do you have any special activities? Do the parents participate in any activities?

[tigerfan]

At my camp, sessions are only one week long, but parents come to supper on closing day. We show the camp video and give an overview of that week. Also, parents can go on a tour of the camp with their children if they wish.

[camper]

ohhhh visiting dayyyy...ours is smack in the middle of camp, the 3rd weekend of the summer. the parents get to camp at 10 AM and leave at 4PM...very short haha. the kids get a good 6 hours w/their parents. we used to have a special visiting day schedule that everyone was expected to follow, but now we give out the schedule but don't force anyone to follow it...the parents can go to the activities that it says for their camper's age group on the schedule or they can just wander around camp for the day. most of our families bring picnic blankets and huge amounts of food for lunch, but we provide a huge bbq for those who don't, and a GREAT dessert buffet! the senior girls also perform their sing for their parents on visiting day in the afternoon. we get all of the parents out by 4 and our youngest girls have a general swim with their camp "big sisters" to make it easier when their parents leave...our girls are all exhausted and STUFFED with food by the end of the day! haha!

[speedx5xracer]

the time frame for ours is the same as campers. we open the ropes course, waterfront, for families. We also allow them to see the art shops, have a BBQ and some live music by campers in the sessions theater group

[runrachrunn]

Our kids have lunch with their parents (the camp is open from 1:00 - 5:00 pm). The waterfront is open, there's an ongoing general swim, and the kids can run around - they can't leave the camp though.

[prettysocks]

Somewhere within the first 3 ten-day sessions, we have an OPEN HOUSE. It's not really a parents day.. It's more of a day for people who donate to Easter Seals to come and see their money at work. They just wander around camp all day. It's awkward and weird having strangers watch and talk about the stuff you're doing, and distracting campers by asking them questions and stuff.. They offer short tours, too. There's a BBQ for lunch, and we usually have some kind of Ambassador-speech ceremony or something.

It's a bizarre day, but you get to inform people about camp life (which I obviously love doing), and it's a fun change from the regular camp life!

... THEN.. we also havea camp called Family Camp.. The whole family comes and sleeps in a cabin together with a counselor. La la la la!

[Mouse...]

We don't really have a parents day but we did have a summer carnaval last summer for girl scouts, campers and their parents.

[Flower]

Parent's Day is a fairly major affair at my camp. It's the Saturday of the fourth week of camp. The girls sign up for some activities such as water skiing, tennis, and the rock wall. Other activities are open at specified times such as archery, boating, and swimming. There is a buffet style lunch and performances from dance, gymnastics, riding, and drama puts on a musical. The 13-15 year old girls get to leave camp with their parents in the late afternoon and come back that evening. The 8-12 year olds have a simple supper and dance party in the dining hall to cheer them up after their parents have left. It's a fun day, but very long, and the evening can be hard after they've said goodbye to their parents. The next day is changeover, so the 8-12 year olds are also saying goodbye to some of their cabinmates who will be picked up the next summer. (13-15 year olds all stay all summer.)

[happy_camper]

In the spring we have "Open House" for prospective campers and their families to picnic, fish, and get a tour of the camp.

In the early summer we have "Mom and Me" and "Family Camp", where campers come to camp for a weekend with their mom or entire family, respectively.

Being that we have week-long sessions during the summer, we do not host a "Parents Day" during the camp sessions.

For those of you who do have a Visiting Day, what do the campers whose parents do not come to visit do all day? Do they get upset that everyone elses's parents are there and their's aren't?

[camper]

happycamper- we make it a point to make sure that 100% of our campers have someone there for them on visiting day. in fact, i have never seen or heard of a camper who didn't have someone. the families are all sent info about when visiting day will be months before (actually around december i think) so the parents have plenty of time to plan to take off from work or traveling if it's necessary, or, if for some reason they can't be there (living far away or something is the only reason i can think of, and even then they all get there) ask grandparents or other family members to go visit. most of our families are actually pretty exclusive about it though and love visiting day, they don't even want grandparents coming with them!

we have worse problems with divorced parents who can't stand to be near each other for the day and parents who decide to break major news to their children on visiting day (such as a move after camp or a grandparent being sick) than with people not having visitors. to solve the divorced parents problem, the day after visiting day (a sunday) is a designated day for the "other" divorced parent to come visit, and also grandparents who did not come on visiting day b/c the parents wanted their kids to themselves to come. it's kind of a pain, but it works for us!