Camp IoDisECa

Sarah has been attending Camp IoDisECa for the past 8 years. Kristen has been with us every year that we have taken Sarah out to camp. She used to cry for the entire 2 hour drive home. We could never figure out why she was crying until she turned 2. That summer on the Monday morning she woke up walked into our bedroom and in her loudest, most demaning, I mean it voice, Said "GO GET MY SISTER NOW!!!!! The next 3 years continued to be hard on her, but last summer her time finally came. To attend this camp you must be going into 1st grade. The Explorer's camp is only for 2 nights, Sunday evening around 5:00 until 11:30 on Tuesday morning. Kristen couldn't wait to go. She was so excited that she also couldn't wait for us to leave. This year was almost as bad, except that she has been complaining and crying for several days that it isn't fair that Sarah gets to stay for an entire week, Sunday until Friday, and she doesn't even get 48 hours. What she doesn't understand is that there are many kids her age that have a hard time leaving home for even that short of a time span. Anyway she had a blast with swimming, canoeing, air gun riflery, archery, horse back riding, campfires and other camp type activities. She had so much fun, that she fell asleep on the way home.
Each year the camp makes a sign out of craft sticks. The paint the theme on the sign and then have all of the campers sign the sign on empty craft sticks. This is a picture of Kristen signing the banner.
I know that many people don't agree, but it is experiences like this that convince me that it is a good idea to allow your children to go off on their own as soon as possible. (of course, I make sure that it is somewhere that is well supervised) I think that it helps them to develop their own identity.