How old for sleepaway camp or for boarding school exchange?

[Anonymous]

I’m starting to look at 2 week to 2 month programs, summer camps or summer boarding foreign cultural programs. What age do you think I’d right for these?

I don’t have much experience with children but my initial thinking was 8-9 years old for 2 week sleepaway, maybe 7th grade for 2 month summer boarding in another country. I would really like to hear other opinions and reasons!

[Anonymous]

My kids each started month long sleep away camp the summer before 4th grade. It was the right time for them.

[Anonymous]

It really just depends on your child's maturity. What people do varies a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids each started month long sleep away camp the summer before 4th grade. It was the right time for them.

Same. They started the same year because of Covid shutdown. Going into 3rd (two week Junior sleep away camp). Going into 4th 4 week sleep away.

[Anonymous]

In college I worked at a summer camp that had kids as young as first grade for four and even eight weeks.

Lots of crying and bed wetting in those cabins.

[Anonymous]

We did first grade and that was young. 6n. Seven with friends and siblings was young.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, so 8-9 seems like it’s pretty agreed upon. What about for international programs? They take kids in older elementary, but I’m not sure how I feel about it. DS insists he is ready but he’s never been away from home for that long, let alone abroad for that long.

[Anonymous]

Abroad alone at that age? that would be a huge stretch. I would try a one week camp first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Abroad alone at that age? that would be a huge stretch. I would try a one week camp first.

+1 I wouldn’t let them do an abroad camp until high school. Mostly because I don’t see the need unless you are looking for language immersion. I’d be very uncomfortable with my kids being an international flight away at a summer camp.

[Anonymous]

So much of this is dependent on the kid. My daughter started sleep away camp when she was 10, and would have been ready earlier (but covid). She reported that multiple girls in her cabin were homesick and cried a lot. She's now 13 and will be doing a 2 week exchange overseas through a school program this summer. She's nervous about that, in a way she was never nervous about camp. And had she not been doing overnight camps for the last few years, I don't know how she'd feel about going on the exchange. She definitely wouldn't want to be away for 2 months yet though, and she's a pretty independent kid. Easing them in by starting with shorter stints and seeing how that goes is helpful.

My son is 10 and adamantly does not want to go to overnight camp. I'm also pretty sure that if he went, he probably wouldn't shower the entire time and would lose half of his belongings. He's a much younger 10 than his sister was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Abroad alone at that age? that would be a huge stretch. I would try a one week camp first.

+1 I wouldn’t let them do an abroad camp until high school. Mostly because I don’t see the need unless you are looking for language immersion. I’d be very uncomfortable with my kids being an international flight away at a summer camp.

It would be for language and cultural immersion for a language they are studying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, so 8-9 seems like it’s pretty agreed upon. What about for international programs? They take kids in older elementary, but I’m not sure how I feel about it. DS insists he is ready but he’s never been away from home for that long, let alone abroad for that long.

I’m not sure that 8-9 is pretty agreed upon. That can still be a little young for lots of kids. I would say 10 would be a better age for the average kid and then work from there in consideration of an individual child’s personality and general nature.

I’ve worked many years at summer camps and seen what a bad result it can be when kids sent before they are ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Abroad alone at that age? that would be a huge stretch. I would try a one week camp first.

+1 I wouldn’t let them do an abroad camp until high school. Mostly because I don’t see the need unless you are looking for language immersion. I’d be very uncomfortable with my kids being an international flight away at a summer camp.

It would be for language and cultural immersion for a language they are studying.

That’s a wonderful opportunity. But I’d stay in driving distance the entire time.

[Anonymous]

You want to send your kid alone with older males and adults?

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the kid. Some kids have zero interest in sleep away camp. Some kids want to go as early as age 7 and thrive there. I had zero interest in either until age 15. Had I been sent earlier I would have created a huge commotion.