Summer Camp...

[PrincessFiona]

We dropped our three oldest kiddos off at german camp yesterday. It turned into an all day affair, with the finishing touches on packing, driving there, the check-in, etc. They were all really excited and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to leave them there. We're all struggling through that mid-summer hump and have been on each other's nerves but with the exception of Andrew going to boy scout camp for a few days each summer, they've never been away from home for more than a night.

Amazingly, I was able to leave without tears...I even felt a bit...giddy :>

The phone started ringing last night though around 10pm and it was Alex (age 7)...He was afraid to go to sleep and wanted to come home. Thomas and I stayed up really late and I figured I would have to go pick him up after 1am....but...he finally fell asleep after Andrew crawled into bed with him. DH and I slept in this morning and then when we woke up, he had to race to work.

I had my doubts about sending Alex because he is just 7, but I was assured by the camp that there were 2 other 7 year olds...plus..we put him in the same room as Andrew.

I'm wondering now if it was a mistake? I have worried all day long about him and I am considering calling the camp and suggesting that I pick him up at 10pm after all of the activities and return him at 7.30am when they start again. Would that be crazy? :!

kris

[houseelf]

Alex is so outgoing that he is going to be FINE! He has Andrew and Amanda to help him and this is such a fabulous experience for him.
It is a temporary growing pain that he will overcome and be better off for it. Promise!

Kelly

[PrincessFiona]

Kelly...God knows how long we would have slept if you hadn't woken us up! DH is eternally grateful..he had a meeting this morning.

kris

[houseelf]

I'm so embarrassed.... I know that I'm secretly labeled "crazy friend" (and rightfully so ).

Kelly

[PrincessFiona]

No you're not...When the phone rang, I actually thought it was the camp director calling me (so you know I must have been dreaming about all of this) and I was confused...I felt like an idiot after I hung up the phone.

I drove out by the camp today and *almost* drove to it...but I stopped myself. I suppose this is a temporary growing pain for me too. Amanda was so thrilled..."I feel like an adult...It's like I'm going away to college", she said gleefully before refusing to kiss me good-bye in front of her roomates.

[alison]

German camp? What's that like?
That sounds really neat. How long will your kids be there?

[Sheherezade]

I think he'll be fine with his siblings along. I'm too chicken to do a sleep away camp. I never went as a kid -- until high school extracurrirulars had sleep away events. It's totally foreign to me and DH.

BUT....that said....the people I've spoken to hear that do sleep away so the first kid is hard, but the younger ones do fine because they have their siblings. I'm sure you'll find that too.

Enjoy your time! (And maybe this is just the amount of independence that Amanda needs to relieve her tween pains. )

[PrincessFiona]

Alison,

It's a Sunday-Friday immersion camp that has been running here for >25 years. We just found out about it this Spring. Our older two (11 and 10) have really good passive language skills...they just simply refuse to speak it and when they are forced to they stumble through...but they can unfortunately understand everything dh and I say to each other. My 7 year old is more interested in expressive speech and the few things that he can say well he says all often (asking for ice water at the dinner table, etc)...His vocabulary is much more limited though because I have worked with him the least.

Unfortunately, we didnt' speak german exclusively in our home when the kids were little and so...they don't speak it here. We even attempted two years ago to switch completely over to german in the house...and gave up after 2 days. It was dismal around here for that time too. People tell us if we had stuck with it we would all be speaking german now though.

We're hoping this will jumpstart the kids and that they will be more comfortable speaking and that this will lead to us being able to speak more german at home.

kris

[MissCrabette]

Kris, the german immersion camp sounds wonderful! Hopefully the camp will give your kids enough confidence to speak German at home too. I totally understand how they're feeling because I'm just like your kids when it comes to Spanish. I can understand almost everything but I'm too shy to actually speak it.

Seeing how my fiance is half Ecuadorian, I forsee a bit of a problem with teaching our kid(s) to speak English, Spanish AND Romanian. Yikes! At least Spanish and Romanian are Romance languages and very alike. Then again, German is very much like English. Hmm...

[Sheherezade]

My son had a friend in Boston who spoke Russian, French, English and Croatian....and was learning Chinese at school. She was 6 years old at the time. Her parents were Russian/Croatian and they lived with extended family. I say go for teaching the kids whatever languages you have. It is amazing what they pick up.