Regardless if they’re a veteran overnight-camper, or it’s their first time away from home, being away from family, familiar spaces and familiar routines can be difficult. It is completely normal for campers to miss home—sometimes our staff miss home too! The key to managing feelings of missing home, and ensuring they don’t overtake your camper’s experience while at camp, is all in the perspective you offer. Try some of the below suggestions to positively influence your campers perception prior to their arrival at camp:

1. Validate their feelings. When they bring up worries about sleeping away from home, or not seeing you all day, acknowledge them! Everyone likes to know that their feelings are being heard and understood; perhaps you can share a story of how you handled being away from home at their age.
2. Encourage them. Let your camper know that you think they can do this, and that they can have that confidence in themselves too! Tell them you’re proud of them for trying something new, and that you know they’ll make lots of new friends and fun memories. Try to avoid using language that sounds like “you can call me anytime and I’ll pick you up” or “I can come get you whenever you want.” While these sentiments are always in the right place, they often set children up to believe the worst about camp, and further their belief that they won’t be able to do it. Instead, you can encourage them to speak to their leaders if they’re having trouble. All our camp staff receive specialized training in how to help campers navigate feelings of missing home.
3. Focus on the positives! It is good to acknowledge and validate your camper’s feelings, but dwelling on all the worries won’t be helpful either. You can remind them that just because they’re nervous doesn’t mean they can’t have fun too; our bodies can feel different things at the same time. You can try looking at the camp website together, looking at the pictures, and the lists of activities. Remind your camper of what they’re excited for! Share how excited you are for them, and talk about all the stories you can’t wait to hear once they’re home.
4. If your camper has questions, we likely have answers! Sometimes a simple answer is all that is required to make a camper feel better about the new place they’re going to. If knowing what meals typically look like at camp, how the cabins are organized, how an activity works, or what animals we have around the property will help your camper feel better about their time at CHC this summer, we are happy to help! Send us an email at canterburyhillscamp@gmail.com or call us at 905-648-2712. 

As an additional note for caregivers, we do offer “mail” deliveries to campers every day at lunch. If you are worried your camper will be missing home, pre-writing letters and dropping them off to us during registration will ensure that your camper(s) gets a positive and encouraging note from you every day.

Packing for camp is a big undertaking! Regardless what program your camper is signed up for, ensuring they have all the right materials and belongings is essential to their camp experience. While detailed packing lists are sent out in each registration confirmation email, below are some additional tips to help you and your camper pack for their time away:

1. Have your camper pack their bag with you. Nothing helps them identify their own belongings, and where they are located, better than being a part of the physical packing process. Remember; they will be the one packing their bags at the end of the day/week to return home! This is a great time for them to practice that skill when you are available to help.
2. Camp runs regardless of the weather, so always ensure you are packing your camper according to the forecast. Just to be on the safe side, a rain jacket and extra socks (as socks always get wet somehow) are always a good bet! Selecting brightly coloured/patterned socks is also very helpful for your camper when trying to keep track of their own belongings in their cabin. It’s hard to miss lime green polka dots!
3. Pack clothing, shoes and belongings that you don’t mind getting dirty and/or lost. Camp can get messy! Between arts and crafts, play time in the muddy creek, and the gaga ball pit, kids can get dirty. For their enjoyment and your own, don’t send expensive or newer clothes that you would hate to have ruined. Likewise, with so much fun and excitement going on, it is easy for campers to lose track of things, and try as our staff might, it’s even harder to keep track of a whole cabin’s belongings. While we do our best to return lost items to their owners, it’s good to be aware that kids can mistakenly grab something thinking it’s theirs.
4. Speaking of the never-ending quest to reunite lost items with their owners, while packing your child for camp, make sure you LABEL EVERYTHING. Clothes, towels, toiletries, decks of cards, sleeping bags, shoes, etc. Permanent marker on a tag or the underside of an object like a water bottle tends to work best. Please remember that a last name is always more helpful than initials; you’d be surprised how often we have campers with the same initials at camp within a week!
5. Canterbury Hills Camp has a strict NO CELLPHONES policy. We are blessed to have a site so immersed in the natural world, and we firmly believe in the benefits of unplugging and enjoying that time outdoors. Cell Phones and smartwatches only ever detract from campers’ experiences, and can quickly lead to privacy issues when campers use them to take pictures. For the comfort and safety of your child and others, please abide by these rules and encourage them to do the same. Should anything ever need to be communicated to you at home, you will always hear from our Senior Staff team in the Camp Office.

Camp is a very busy place, and families like yours are busy as well! Between these two factors, things are constantly changing, and because of this, our Senior Staff Team does not organize cabin placements until the week prior to the session starting. Even then, it is not uncommon for cabin placements to change up until the day before a session starts, and as such, we do not reveal cabin placements until registration begins on the first day of your campers session. Finding out what cabin you are in is a fun and exciting part of the arrival process that we would hate to have confused by informing you sooner and having plans change. 

Just like cabin placements can change for many reasons, many factors are considered when organizing them. While we do our best to accommodate cabin requests, we also need to account for campers ages, cabin spaces, campers gender identities, accessibility, available staff, and additional camper support needs. For any one of these reasons, we may not be able to accommodate a cabin request. Campers can have opportunities to see friends in other cabin groups during meals, and during whole-camp activities like campfire, evening program, and chapel. They also may have group cross-over at activities like swimming, gaga ball, thicket, or on campout. Either way, everyone is still in for a week of fun and excitement as they get to know their cabin mates and enjoy everything camp has to offer.