Preparing for Summer Camp – Finding the Perfect Week
Our family calendar always fills up faster than I expect with school, vacations, work obligations, extracurricular schedules, family gatherings, and other activities. When Camp Ondessonk opens Summer Camp registration in October, I know it’s time to sit down and figure out which week will work best for each of my kids. Between ensuring their week of Camp is booked before our schedule fills up and Early Bird pricing ending in February, it pays to start early!
This year, Summer Camp at Ondessonk runs each week beginning May 31 through August 1, which gives us plenty of options. But narrowing it down isn’t as simple as pointing to a week on the calendar. We’ve learned to think about several factors before hitting “register”:
- Other commitments: Sports schedules, family reunions, and work obligations must be considered.
- Weather: June sessions are typically cooler, which can be nice, but hotter days in July can mean fun, impromptu water activities.
- Holidays: Independence Day falls on a Saturday, so there’s an opportunity to see fireworks at Camp Ondessonk and with friends and family at home.
- Friends: For both new and returning campers, Camp is always better with friends.
This year, our oldest has upgraded to Traditional Camp after enjoying a few years of Mini-Camp. We will work together to confirm which friends he wants to reunite with and who he’d like to invite to experience Camp for the first time. At the same time, our younger kids are signing up for their first Summer Camp experience in Mini-Camp. Similarly, we are having conversations about which friends they want to bring along, so their experience is shared with familiar faces.
To avoid having to juggle multiple group chat threads, this year I want to take advantage of free online tools to make the process easier. Layering online calendars, like Google Calendar, could help us layer everyone’s schedules and see potential conflicts.
Online polling tools can be a lifesaver because everyone can mark which weeks work best, and we can quickly spot overlap. Many options are available like:
Choosing the right week of Camp Ondessonk may take some planning, but the payoff is huge: kids return home sun-kissed, full of stories, and more confident than ever. For our family, making the calendar work so they can experience the magic of Ondessonk is always worth it.
Click here to learn more about Camp Ondessonk’s Summer Camp programs.
