Recently, a parent asked if I had a favorite article about the kind of letters to write to kids at camp. I didn’t have one specific article to recommend, but there are a few things that I tell parents to keep in mind about writing letters to their campers: Tips on Writing a Letter to Your Kid at Camp 1) We always suggest that you write a letter or two before your child gets to camp so that it is waiting for them on their bed upon arrival. It’s like sending a big hug on their first day. (We even do this for our own kids!) 2) While it’s easy to send off emails, kids love getting letters from hom ..read more

After an incredible 25 summers running our tennis program at Camp Walt Whitman, Dave Porter has decided it’s time to hang up his NH tennis shoes. Dave will stay home in Utah this summer and spend more time with his family than camp has allowed.  It has been a pleasure having Dave at camp and watching the professional manner in which he ran his tennis program for so many years.  Thousands of campers and hundreds of staff members have benefited from Dave’s tutelage on tennis and on life. However, when one door closes another door opens- we are thrilled to welcome Whitney Kraft to the ..read more

One of the greatest gifts of a college education is time. Over the course of four years, you can pursue classes that excite you, drop subjects that don’t interest you, and ultimately find the perfect major that suits you.  Four years also gives you a wide latitude when it comes to summer jobs. In talking to former summer camp counselors at Camp Walt Whitman, we learned that internships were not the only stepping stone to their career of choice. For each of them, a job as a summer camp counselor gave them valuable work experience that set them up for success at a range of companies, from I ..read more

Camp Walt Whitman at the height of summer is a boisterous, busy place. On any given day at camp, water skiers zoom across the lake, volleys echo off the clay tennis courts, and guitar-strumming counselors lead campers in rounds of songs. It’s a stark change from everyone’s more sedentary habits at home, but the benefits of our sleepaway camp’s full slate of activities are not limited to exercise or sing-alongs. There’s also a profound transformation that takes place every summer among campers, many of whom experience a big, psychological boost. As children’s mental health conditions continue t ..read more

Every year it gets more challenging to wrestle kids away from their screens. The pandemic only exacerbated the problem. While parents were busy working from home, many kids were left to their own devices, quite literally, spending even more time on smartphones to stay connected to their social groups. But as multiple studies have demonstrated, spending too much time on social media can be a recipe for depression and anxiety among pre-teens and teens. One of the great, unforeseen perks of sleepaway camp is the fact that we take devices out of the equation for almost two months, freeing up time ..read more

At the start of every summer we give new parents a copy of Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help Kids Grow, because it really gets to the heart of how magical and transformative sleepaway camp is for kids. At the end of the book, author Michael Thompson, Ph.D., turns his attention to the way parents experience camp from afar, and names the feeling parents get after spending time away from their kids: childsickness. It’s natural to miss your kids, particularly in an age when we spend far more quality time with our children than previous generations. To manage this lo ..read more

Throughout the year I field many questions from parents about our policies and practices at Camp Walt Whitman. Since so many of my answers could easily apply to other camps, I’ve created this forum to answer the most common questions parents ask about sleepaway camp. Feel free to submit yours here for a future column. There is no magic answer to the question of what is the right age to start sleepaway camp.  It comes down to a number of factors, including the era we live in. Historically speaking, we send kids to camp at a much later age than what used to be the norm. Many of today’s gran ..read more

Choosing the right sleepaway camp for your child is a decision you’ll hopefully need to make only once. Rushing through the process could mean a summer at a camp that isn’t the perfect fit for your child, and then starting all over the next year. Every parent begins their camp search the same way, watching a camp’s videos and perhaps touring its campus or getting a home visit from a camp director or staff member. Once you reach this stage, make sure you also pose the following questions to gain confidence in your decision. Our answers could be just the reasons you decide to choose Camp Walt Wh ..read more

When Ernest Balch opened the country’s first summer camp in New Hampshire nearly 140 years ago, he intended it to be a place where the sons of wealthy families vacationing in the White Mountains could learn how to become self-sufficient and master the outdoors. Soon, parents who stayed in the city during the summer to work began sending their kids to camps for similar reasons. The separation from their parents and the city was meant to “toughen” them up, keep them occupied and out of trouble, and connect them with the great outdoors. (Not to mention the fewer family members sharing a cramped a ..read more

As your child grows up and grows out of day camp, you may be wondering the right time to send him or her to sleepaway camp. Is it the 3rd grade? At eight years old? If only the answer were as simple as a cutoff. Every child’s readiness to be away from home varies, and the pandemic might have set some kids back in terms of their comfort with being away from home. Generally speaking, though, a number of our campers begin bunking at Camp Walt Witman at six or seven years old, starting with our one-week Pioneer Camp, a greatest-hits introduction to life at Camp Walt Whitman.  It’s an easy tra ..read more