My little camper
pamelamyers | July 1, 2016
We enrolled Sam in camp for the first time this year. We had talked about it last year, mostly because we got an email from Tyler Arboretum, but we really didn’t think she was ready for an all day camp. I also thought she might like camp at Busy Bees, since she loves it there, but alas, you needed to have finished kindergarten to go so last summer was out. This year, she is ready. We chose one week at Tyler (an all day camp, from 9-3) and a week at Busy Bees (but only half day because, really, how much crafting can you do?). She seemed really excited about going to camp when we told her about it, but well….the night before camp brought to light how she really felt.
She was excited, to be sure, but apparently, she was also scared to death. I tried to get her to sleep on Sunday night, but she was up until 11pm! There was lots of whining, and some crying, and lots of excuse making. Mind you, bedtime started at about 7:30 so this was a long night. I won’t go into all the gory details of how the night progressed, but finally, at almost 11:00, she finally informed me that she was afraid to go to….first grade. I said, Sam, I think maybe it’s not first grade you are worried about, but camp, right? She quickly agreed. Once we got that all out of the way, and she just admitted she was scared, she went right to sleep. Ugh. My girl is just like me. At least, how I was when I was little. I kept all my feelings bottled up inside.
Once camp day arrived, Sam was over her fear and ready to go!
We got there a bit too early since I left very early from home. I didn’t want her to be late and I had no idea how long it would take to get there. It was ok though, since it gave us time to wander around a bit. We visited one of Sam’s favorite things, the crooked house, then she posed for me. A few kisses goodbye, and off she went!
Thankfully, her first day was a huge success. We met her teacher, Taryn, and she came home telling me that she made a friend, Natalie. Natalie is the only other girl in her group so I guess it is not surprising they bonded. The camp week we chose was specifically about exploring bugs (which Sam loves). Each group of kids at camp was given a group name. Samantha was thrilled that her group was the Bug Busters! She was singing at bedtime (e.g. If you see a caterpillar…crawling in your bed….who you gonna call? Bug Busters!! If you see a spider….in your hair….who you gonna call? Bug Busters!!). I asked her what they did that day and she told me they explored under lots of rocks and in the woods for bugs and she was happy that she saw 2 praying mantises! I haven’t seen one of those in years so she was very lucky.
Here is a picture of her in the adorable grass hat they made that day.
I asked her what else they did and she told me they hiked to where the fairies and elves live. They saw lots of fairy houses but no actual fairies or elves, although, they did hear one move. She also asked me if I think her tooth fairy lives there. Hmmm….you never know. She tried to take me to where the houses were, but she couldn’t find it. After taking a little time time to explore the butterfly house and chill in the hammock, home we went. The best part was when she asked, “Am I going back tomorrow?” and when I said yes, she replied, “Good.” 🙂
As the week went on, they went to the “lake” (I have a feeling it was a pond) and saw tadpoles, frogs, turtles and crayfish, they painted, hiked, caught water bugs, and came home absolutely filthy and exhausted. She was loving it! By the third day, she wouldn’t feeling so confident that she wouldn’t even let Mark walk her to her classroom. The only downside to the whole week was the horrible splinter she came home with on the fourth day. Man, was that awful. Mark called me at work and I could hear her screaming and crying. Long story short, it was massively imbedded in her finger and that meant doing some digging to get it out. This took hours of cajoling, pleading and otherwise. Eventually, it came out. And she had lovely band-aids to show Natalie.
On the last day, we met Natalie’s dad and exchanged contact info to hopefully arrange a playdate some time. Luckily, Natalie lives nearby. Overall, I would say camp was a resounding success! Sam’s first experience being on her own went better than expected. I was very proud of her and I think she was a bit surprised at how much fun she had. Here are some final pics that her camp teacher took. Now it’s time for vacation!
