Megan is a big 5th grader this year and along with that goes camp. This is her last year at her school and she'll be moving on to middle school. She was so excited to go camping I think I heard about the plans for months ahead of time.
Megan would come home and tell me about the shirts and name tags and cabins and on and on. She was just over the moon at the chance to go to camp. I really wanted to volunteer to chaperon and go with her this year. Megan had other ideas. She wasn't too thrilled with the idea of me tagging along. She really wanted to have this experience on her own. I wanted to respect her wishes so I declined to go and made sure to send her with a camera.
I told her since she wasn't letting me go she needed to make sure to capture her experience on the camera. She was thrilled to be the picture taker as that is usually my role. So she got to go on her own and have the camera. What more could the girl ask for?
I told her to make sure to be in some of the photos so I could see her in action and not take a ton of everyone else. What she came home with was a few photos of people and the rest were of the camp and surrounding area. She was so busy having a great time she said she forgot half the time to take her camera. She'd rather have fun and experience everything then be bother with a task. Totally understand that thought, maybe this whole picture taking is better left to Mom?
She came home totally exhausted and dirty. Her bus was an hour late bring her home so we only had a bit of time before Andrew was home to join in. Both kids loved having a small 3 day break from each other and just getting to have their own space. Three days was just long enough for her to have fun but not miss her terribly.
She loved learning camp songs and all the activities. She had a new appreciation for eating all the food on your plate and not wasting stuff. She was using camp terms as she was talking to us and letting us know almost every detail of her camp experience. She had a great time.
I think she wished she could have gone for longer but did appreciate what she did get. There are 6 elementary schools in the district and only 3 schools still go to camp around here. I was saying to her teacher that when I was a kid we went for a whole week so 2 1/2 days is really not long enough. That's when he said they are just doing everything they can to keep it going year after year as it's not that supported. This makes me sad. Camp is a huge milestone for kids and so much fun. I hope that it stays around long enough for Andrew to go and then they can do what they need to.
Megan loved being on her own and didn't mind not having me there. She did wish that Jeff could have gone but it just wasn't working out. Then he's a male and wouldn't be able to spend that much time with her and what is the point of going if you don't spend the time with your child. It all worked out the way is needed to and all of us were happy.
I'm super happy that she had a great time and that she got to have the experience. It really made a difference to her. She created some lasting memories and brought home a few keepsakes to remember her time. Next up is her graduation from middle school in a few days. I'm so torn with her moving on. Both excited and scared to see what comes next.
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