Getting Your Kids Ready for Summer Camp

Hello Pixie Parents!

This blog covers an important rite of passage for many of our kids – the transition into summer camp. Woohoo!!

For some of you and your kids, it is the first year you are experiencing this and for some of you this is already a tradition. For some it is an entrée into sleeping away from home, and others just a day out at a museum, zoo, or park that is so much more fun than a school day can ever be. Regardless, the entire thing is a transition from one routine to another. And regardless of the camp’s proximity to your house, hours, or length of time there is preparation and organization that needs to happen.

At the most basic level, take the following steps to get your kids ready for camp:

• Register
• Fill out forms
• Put together everything that needs to go to camp
• Figure out transportation and the schedule
• Get your kid to camp with everything they need and home again

Granted it is a little bit more complex than this. However, focusing on only 5 steps instead of all of the substeps will help anyone from feeling overwhelmed.

Classic Organization

The truth is that at this juncture everyone is envious of the Classic type’s ability to have everything organized and ready to go! ESTJ, ISTJ, ESFJ and ISFJ types seem to “nail” their camp choices, filling out the applications, submitting the forms, labeling everything and memorizing the new schedule down to the minute. These are the moms and dads who on that first morning exude confidence whose kids and bags look as though they were designed by a camp photographer.

Classics’ personality traits create this unique skill set. As we point out on our website, Pixies Did It, Classics ‘love being organized and always try to create routine and structure in their lives.’ You easily make lists and keep track of minute details, getting everything accomplished on schedule. If you fall into this category chances are that you don’t need our help to get your kids ready for summer camp. However, you still may want to read this entire blog to understand how everyone else is tackling what comes naturally to you.

If you are not a Classic, then you can still get yourself and your kids ready for summer camp like a pro. You’ll just have to figure out how to use your strengths to buttress your weaknesses. You might not do it without quite as much picture perfect organized perfection. But this is a perfectly legitimate way to approach this job.

Fun Practicality

If you are a Fun, you probably picked a camp for your kids that looks like an adventure. Afterall, you love adventures and want those in your life to share in the excitement. You know that you don’t have to perfectly plan everything out to have a blast. You are ok putting together what your kid needs at the last minute. The great thing is that all you ESTP, ISTP, ESFP, and ISFPs, are going to make sure that what is in their hand or on their back is pretty cool and creative. Instead of writing their name in block letters with black permanent marker, you might do it with a unique font. Realized that you forgot to buy something that is a must have for the first day of camp? You are unlikely to get flustered and highly likely to improvise with something that will work just as well. Yes there are recipes on-line for homemade non-toxic insect repellent and patterns for turning old tennis shoes into sandals. You may take a different way to get there, but you live in the real world enough to make sure that your kid is completely ready for camp the day it starts.

Smart Inventiveness

If you are a Smart there is a more than likely chance that you have not only figured out how to get things ready for camp, but you have also gotten involved with your kids’ camp enough to help them understand how they can do better. ENTJ, INTJ, ENTP, and INTPs are take charge leadership types of people that see the big picture and know how to get there. The details might overwhelm some Smart Freedoms. If this is you, though, and you have a level of self awareness, you need help with the finishing tasks. This is the time to delegate. Turn to your kids, spouse, or other family to ensure that forms are filled out, lists of must haves gathered and organized, and everything labeled and packed. When the big day arrives, you know you and your kids will be ready. You just might not take a straight line like the Classics to get there. And your labels and clothes might not be quite as perfectly put together. However, what you did takes into account the long game. It will get you through the whole summer, and possibly beyond.

Organic Idealism

Organic Freedoms might have the most difficult time with this whole process because there are lots of details. You guys do best when they get someone in the household to help with the minutiae of getting kids get ready for camp. Otherwise it might become a last minute scramble that generates a not quite complete set of things. They may be required, but are they really necessary? This would not be an uncommon thought for an ENFJ, INFJ, ENFP, and INFPs to have. What is most important to all Organics is that your kids grow from the experience. You care that the place they go is real and adds to their character. So things and lists just don’t stack up on the scale of what you need to focus on. However, chances are that you and your kid have had some pretty great and visionary conversations about the summer. That’s why it’s going to rock no matter what.