You've Got Mail, But Maybe Not Yours - New Camper Blog Series

Hi everyone! It is Greystone mom Kelly back this week for another fun parent perspective blog for all of you new camper families. Let’s talk camp mail!

When you send an elementary school-aged child off to summer camp you realize just how much you do for your children on a day-to-day basis. Something simple like sending mail is not something they likely have a lot of experience doing. When my little Kennedy went off to camp two summers ago she could barely read and write. I knew that all of her extended family would be sending her letters, so I pre-addressed and stamped a letter to each of them and placed them on her cabin shelf with some stationery and extra stamps should she like to send additional notes.

I could just picture her trying to interrupt her counselor every two minutes of Rest Hour asking, “how do you spell Evening Program?” I typed out some sample sentences she might like to write in her letters and made an additional list of names and addresses. I thought I had considered everything, but clearly the concept was lost on her. As the week wore on, family members began receiving letters but were surprised when Aunt Marifrasier got a letter to Uncle David and Grandmommy got a letter written to Daddy. Furthermore, the letters and other items on her bunk shelf were decorated with postage stamps as if they were stickers.

Needless to say we needed to have a discussion about the value of postage stamps, the importance of matching envelopes with the letters inside, and maybe just managing our expectations of receiving letters from a 7 year old. When I asked why she didn’t write all the letters I had pre-addressed for her she replied, “Mom, I was busy doing other things during Rest Hour (like passing notes to her bunkmate). I knew I’d see my family when I got home.”