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If your Camp has visiting day how is it run?
We tend to have parents arrrive WAY early so we have to get up extra early. Then the kids that don't have visitors go on an off camp trip ( which is better than staying on Camp ). Then the parents can hang out and they also have like the circus show and other shows going on that day. Lunch goes from 12-2pm.

My Compaint was that being senior staff on visiting day sucks. One you don't get tips from parents ( unless you have been there for years and campers know you for years ) and that you always get stuck working some place for hours by yourself. I had to stand in the parking lot by myself for hours and had to bribe another counselor to stand in my spot just go to to the bathroom.

Does this seem wrong to you? I also told them that I can not stand for very long plus we had a HUGE rain storm toward the end of the day. Let's just say that I was not very happy at all.

How is your visiting day ran? What do counselor's do?, Senior Staff? Tell Me.

Visiting day is new idea to me. My camp runs 6 sessions (this summer we'll have 7) which are a week long each. So we see parents on Sunday when they drop off their kids, and on Saturday when the pick them up. It's definitely very different (I assume) than a camp which runs one long session (or two shorter ones) which has room for a visiting day in there.

Sorry I can't answer any of your questions, but I do have another to add: Do you typically see a second wind of homesickness hit right after parents have left from visiting? Does it typically come from campers whose parents just visited? Or is it from the campers who didn't see their parents while the rest of camp did?

The first camp I worked at had a visiting weekend between the two four week sessions for campers who were staying all eight weeks. To avoid problems of parents arriving ridiculously early, the camp set an arrival time (it was like 10 AM, IIRC), and until then the gate on the road to camp was closed and manned by a couple of staff. I was on duty for it one year and we kept seeing parents drive by like starting about an hour and a half early.....they knew better, but that didn't stop them from trying. :-)

The camp didn't run any formal visiting program really, in fact, most counselors had that weekend off. They did ask that some lifeguards stay so they could keep the waterfront open, but other than that the staff was off after lunch on that Friday, by which point the vast majority of parents had arrived. Parents generally spent some time at camp with the kids but almost always took them off campus for a large part of the weekend. For the campers who didn't have any visitors, some senior staff organized a few out-of-camp trips and such for them so they were kept occupied. Mostly though the camp let the parents know that if their kids were staying the full summer, the parents (or at least some relatives) were expected to come up on visiting weekend if at all possible.

Homesickness wasn't too huge of a problem after visiting weekend for two reasons. One, come Monday a whole batch of new campers arrived who were only staying for the second four and that kept the full-summer ones occupied. Two, most of the eight weekers were older returners or, in the case of young ones, they often had older siblings at camp. Those are the types of campers that were least prone to homesickness, in my experiences. That's not to say that we didn't have SOME homesickness after the fact, but by and large it wasn't anywhere near as serious as what we might see from totally new campers only arriving for the second four who might never have been at camp before.

visiting day is a ZOO at my camp. it is 1 day, a saturday, smack in the middle of camp. here's how it goes:

we wake up at normal time, 7:25. we have a normal line up at the flagpole and then its down to the bunks for clean up, which doesn't take too long since most of it was done the day before. of course parents get to camp as early as possible, some as early as 8. there is a giant rope that they aren't allowed to pass. to prevent kids from going crazy and trying to look for their parents, in the past 2 years we have started having saturday morning services at about 9:00. everyone goes except for the PC girls. (its a PC privilege that they don't have to go). anyway we are in the social hall for services with all of the windows and doors closed so no one can look outside or inside. visiting day officially begins with the PC's walking to the canteen arm in arm (a long standing tradition) and cutting the rope, allowing the parents to gather around the social hall. then the girls are dismissed group by group. once everyone is dismissed most of the parents go up to their cars with their kids to get the million bags of food they have brought for them and set out their blankets for the picnic lunch. after that, there is an activity schedule for each age group to use as a guide for the parents, but most of the families don't follow it, they either go to boys side to be with their brothers or just go to a random activity, or just hang out on front campus. lunch is a barbeque, but most of the parents bring up food for their kids for lunch. after lunch the senior girls perform their group sing and the rest of the families just hang out. visiting day ends at 4:00 PM with a bugle asking the parents to please leave immediately. no campers are allowed to leave camp at any time during the day.

counselors' jobs on visiting day are to be at their activities if they are specialists and if they are general counselors, just walk around and talk to their campers' parents. they are not allowed to accept tips but they are allowed to accept non monetary gifts, which many parents bring. the groupheads' jobs are to be walking all around the camp and talking to any of their campers' parents that have questions or comments.

we don't have the issue with kids not having any visitors on visiting day. its almost unheard of for a camper not to have anyone come. some parents have arrived late before though, sometimes causing some tears. the bigger problem is the end of the day when it's time for the parents to leave. the older girls are usually glad to see their parents go, lol, but the younger ones tend to have more of a problem with it. once 1 starts to cry, they all start. the way we deal with it is making sure the parents leave quickly and getting the girls right back into camp. while the parents are leaving, the lower camp is supposed to be changing into bathing suits for general swim. after all of the parents are gone they get into group lineups immediately and go down to the lake. if necessary, the groupheads will have a water fight with the girls or jump into the lake with their clothes on to make them laugh. by the end of swim everyone is usually ok.

wow that was a book, i commend you if you read the whole thing!

I don't get this. If your camp decides that some form of Shabbat morning service (whether traditional/creative/egalitarian/whatever) is a value that they want to provide to kids...isn't it ludicrous to make it a "privilege" not to go? Don't they want to instill an interest in these things?

sure canuck...we normally have our services on friday nights and everyone goes. there is no friday night service that week b/c its disco night. we wouldn't even normally have the service at all on a saturday, the point of doing it is to distract the kids from the fact that their parents are all outside. the PC's don't need that, and actually it was my PC summer that it was started. we asked if it was ok for us to keep the tradition of walking up and cutting the rope instead, and my mom said it was ok!

Our visiting day is on a Saturday. We get up and do breakfast as normal. Then we go to cabin cleanup, which is normal as well, except that every cabin has to get a ten on inspection before they can see their parents. It's amazing how much faster they can clean with that incentive. The day has a few scheduled events like the camp play and a dance recital. The week before the kids also sign up for times to do some of the activities like water skiing, sailing, climbing, and tennis. You have to be in a class to do it on Parent's Day. We have a really good lunch outside. Brothers who go to the boys camp can come over. At the end of the day, the 13-15 year olds can leave camp for the evening with their parents or another campers parents if the camp has written permission from their parents.
For supper, we have PB & J or turkey sandwiches because the kitchen staff work really hard on lunch and so are off. Then we break off into a dance pary in the dining hall to cheer the kids up because it's either going to be three weeks before they see their parents again or they're going home the next morning. Then we get the kids going home after first session packed and have a little party in the cabin before bed.
Counselors are assigned to work shifts during the day, for example I'm a drama counselor so I worked the play and then helped out with crowd control at lunch. It spreads the work around and gives the counselors some free time as well to hang out and meet the campers parents. All in all it's a fun day, but a sad one in part if you have campers going home the next day.

So it's a value of your camp to have kids attend services on Fridays - but they come second to "disco night"?

i really don't know why i'm arguing this w/u canuck...but we are not a religious camp lol it is not expected for us to have services all the time...we miss them on another week too...when we are in color war. think about it...most jewish kids (or at least most conservative and reform ones i know) do not go to services every week at home do they? if our camp was a religious camp it would be wrong, but we aren't. anyway thats it i'm not commenting on it anymore haha.

Visiting day. We don't have a set visiting day here. We have two four week sessions and we ask parents to wait a week before visiting. They need to call beforehand to make sure that their child will be onsite at the time and not on a trip. One reason there is no set visiting day is that some parents are unable or unwilling to visit during the summer and if all these families arrived on one day then it could make some campers feel left out.

I don't feel a set visiting day is wrong and it has it's own benefits that our way doesn't.

Canuck, is the fact that disco night is rated "more important" than religious services necessarily a BAD thing? I personally don't see that it is. As camper said her camp does not have a religious focus- the last residential camp I worked at was also heavily Jewish and had -optional- services once a week, but we didn't try to tell the campers if it was good or bad to go. That's not the place of the camp unless it is inherently religious by nature. If the oldest girls don't want to go what point is there in forcing them to?

actually boomis, everyone does go to services all the time unless they aren't jewish at our camp. the visiting day one is the only exception because there were traditions in place before for the oldest girls. but anyway, i don't think its a bad thing either.

mainer, when my mom was a camper and my grandparents were campers our camp had open visiting, so that definitely is not a horrible thing either. it changed only about 20 years ago. the reason was that having parents at camp all the time was really distracting for the campers and it was hard to keep track of everyone at camp...we have enough trouble doing that on tour days! thats why we give all of the kids touring uniform shirts to wear, so we know they just aren't a random kid.

Because my camp runs 5 1 week sessions and 2 2 weekers, we don't have visiting day. I do have a question though...has anyone seen an instance happen where the parents want to take the child home with them on visiting day, and not bring them back?

Camper, we definitely don't have a "set" visiting day and yes we do have tons of families but that's only usually over one weekend each month. So even though there isn't a set day it sometimes feels like it. We have all visitors wear a "necklace" which signifies that they are checked in and won't be asked every ten seconds if they should be here. We don't do big tours during the summer unless planned in advance for one family or another. We also don't have uniforms. Yeah we have camp t-shirts and such but no requirement to wear them.

mainer, it sounds like you guys have that totally under control and thats great that that works for your camp. this summer my mom freaked out when, the week after visiting day, a camper's cousin was touring and her parents showed up with the family. it was just totally unexpected and it created a distraction for the kids. thats the reason we could never do it...it would just be too hard to keep track of who was who.

and lovincamp...the only time this ever happens is when a kid was close to wanting to go home already. this is why we don't let kids leave camp with their parents on visiting day at all already. if there are no problems before visiting day, usually the parents trust us enough to know that if their child is crying when they leave after the day, we will handle it and update them on how the kid is after they leave. i have only seen 2 or 3 kids leave on visiting day and not come back. it can be scheduled beforehand to leave on visiting day for medical reasons, and the kid usually comes back a day or 2 after.

Camper, I am definetely not saying attending services is a bad thing. Obviously, the parents know what they are signing their kids up for when they choose to send them to a particular camp, and if the parents want kids to attend services every week, then that's the way it's going to be. I just don't think it's the end of the world if a group of campers happens to miss them in favor of something else, is all. I always used services time at the last res camp I was at to hang out with the non-attending campers/staff anyway, and we generally did some fun stuff.

lol boomis i think you misunderstood what i said...i meant that i don't think its bad for certain groups to miss services at certain times haha..100% agreeing w/you...anyway camp starts for us in 173 days! yay!

We don't have visiting day at my camp because the sessions are only 1-2 weeks long. Parents of campers who stay more than one session have the option of visiting them in between sessions, but there is no official "visiting day". Some parents come and take their kids out to lunch or home for a night if they don't live too far away, but there are many campers who stay at camp and that's fine too.

The kids who go with their parents sometimes tend to get homesick, especially after watching other kids get dropped off with their parents.

ahh visiting day at Kennybrook...
basically we all get up early, do final cleaning, the kids get dressed (the girls take a lil bit longer and they have more time), while counselors are all in staff shirts (one of the only days we actually have to wear them).

The kids line up and await parents who arrive, then run towards them..its cute to see the little ones, and even the older girls run.
Counselors basically have is light, our job is to walk around, mingle and meet camper's families, and if u have a specialty, the shops are open (arts and crafts, ceramics etc) so kids can pick up their projects to give to the parents to bring home. The families of Kennybrook campers are wonderful people, who bring tons of food for their kids, and invite (rather Tell) you to sit and eat with them. So all day (until aprents leave at 3pm), we basically eat. Theres food in the dining room, and tis really good, but aprents leave tons of stuff with their kids, and they leave dinner for a lot of counselors, which is nice.

To help the kids overcome the imapct of their parents leaving, we have one of our biggest nights of the summer- plaque night. the camp has a tradition of every age group making a plaque based off their group leader's name (for instance last year we had CinderEllen, and Margrats to name some), the oldert kids and the counselros in each group make one song, spoofed off another which they work on for about 2 weeks, and we compete that night. Its tons fo fun because everyone is in costume, and the kids and cousnelors get super into it.

Visting day is very tiring, and the kids are beat by the time lights out comes. The counselors are too! I think it was hardest for the counselors because most of our families didnt come to visit that day, and we grew very homesick that day seeing everyone with their families, so we came together as a counselor family instead, and it wound up being fun!

We don't have visiting days because we run on eight 1 weeks sessions, with staff staying for 2 weeks at a time.