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Prevention Is the Best Medicine
Planning activities that help campers get to know other
campers and showing them around the camp grounds helps
campers get familiar with the facility and the people and
makes them feel more at home. Often such activities can help
prevent homesickness.
Break the ice
Icebreakers and get-to-know-you games provide campers
and staff with a way to get to know the likes and dislikes,
skills, talents, attitudes, and personalities of the people
that they will be spending time with during their stay. One
resident camp for girls asks each camper and staff to learn
the names of at least seven new people within the first hour
of arriving at camp. A director walking by may test staff
and campers at any time. Learning names may seem like a
simple thing, but when someone calls you by name, you
instantly feel like you belong.
Play a lot of these games, and don't
stop after the first day. It may take two or three days for
your campers to really feel comfortable.
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Set goals
If you find yourself with an unhappy camper, one of the
keys to curing the ailment is to set attainable goals, both
for the camper and for yourself. The goals may be as simple
as making an agreement with the camper that he needs to stop
crying until dinner time. You may ask a camper to try to
remember three times during the day that he smiles and then
tell you about these times the next time you meet. The staff
member may try setting a goal to continue to encourage the
camper and to work on the problem for an entire day before
asking for help from another staff member or the camper's
parents.
Ask for help
The great thing about working at camp is that you are
never alone. Other staff members are there to support you,
and they are ready and willing to help. Keep in mind that
experienced staff have handled these kinds of problems
before, and they might have some good ideas to get your
camper through the next hour, day, or week. Sometimes it
helps to have someone else in camp who understands the
situation and can talk to your homesick
camper.
Give a little extra TLC
Homesick campers might just need a little extra care.
Spend a little extra time with them or ask the assistant
director or other staff member to take a special interest in
the camper. At first the camper may cling to this newfound
friend, but little by little the camper will become more
independent and join in activities with the cabin
group.
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Raise campers' comfort level
Tell campers absolutely everything that they need to
know about their camp stay. Tell them about what will happen
on the first day, what their daily schedule will be like,
when they will have free time, when their bedtime is, what
time they have to get up, and when they will take their
showers. Make sure to take them on a tour of camp and show
them where everything is. Don't forget to show them the
location of the nurse, the outgoing mailbox, and any meeting
places that you might use during the week.
Establish ground rule
Make sure everyone is on the same page as far as cabin
rules, camp rules, acceptable behavior, and what the
consequences are if any of these norms are broken. Sometimes
having campers come up with some of their own ground rules
will raise their comfort level, too. Keep 'em
busy
During down times, campers tend to
think about home and focus on the fact that they aren't
there. Rest hour, early morning, and before bedtimes are
times when campers may get homesick because these are times
when they are used to being with their families. Try to keep
their minds on other things. Play some quiet games, pass a
story around, or write a group letter that you can copy and
mail home to parents.
Remedies
What if homesickness strikes despite your attempts to
prevent it? There are a couple of things that you need to
remember. First, homesickness is highly contagious. It can
spread before your eyes. Second, there are remedies, and
many stories of homesick children have happy endings; some
campers even want to return to camp next
year.
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Don't make promises you can't
keep
Kids can be devious when it comes to getting something
they want, and counselors must be sure they don't make
promises that they can't or aren't willing to keep.
Sometimes when you're trying to get a child to stop crying,
you may promise a phone call home or something even worse.
Remember, your campers' parents or guardians sent them to
camp for a reason, and it is best to find out what that
reason is before you start making promises. Maybe a mother
sent her daughter to camp to become a little more
independent; maybe a camper's parents are on an extended
vacation in Europe. Call the parents to see what they think
before you make any promises.
Share
At times, campers just want to know that they belong.
Give them your favorite stuffed animal to borrow while they
are at camp. (As a counselor, I used to bring a suitcase
full of stuffed animals just for homesick campers.) Share a
funny story about when you were a camper, or share a secret
that helped you not feel homesick. Have them share some
things about their lives, too. Ask them about school or
their baseball team or their last dance recital. Keep them
talking and thinking about anything, and show interest in
them. And sometimes, you just have to share a smile to help
your campers feel better.
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