Well, I've only experienced 4 day-11 day overnight camps. I've worked day camp in a camp that also had overnight camp and we shared the staff so we went to dinner with all the kids then had 2 hours off and then had to be in our living units to help out if needed.
I work primarily with the younger kids so while some could do it, I think that anything more than 7 days is too much for them to be away from home. I'm sure it works out for some of them, but for many a week is just long enough or for some too long. Another benefit for week longs is that it's more affordable so you get a lot of kids who couldn't go all summer.
I think whatever length the session is, they should be separate of the others. So have all the campers in camp (or at least in a unit) there for the same amount of time. I worked at a camp where we had a 7 day and then a 4 day but you could also choose to stay for the full 11. Any more than that and you had to go home in between the next session. It gets confusing and possibly a little disasterous when you've got some kids in a group there the whole time and someone new comes in.
Next week will be the first time I will work day camp and then go home in the evenings so I'll let you know how that goes! It's a spring break day camp but there are no resident campers so I go home each evening. Granted, there's only about 14 campers and 1 other counselor so it will be different for sure.
So I love resident camp as a counselor, but I guess it's also nice to have nights off to go home or do whatever. But it's also crazy time while the kids are there with not as much down time for rest hour or anything since they can rest when they go home.
Ever since I saw Parent Trap I've wanted to go to a longer session camp and looked into working at one but it's just never been in the cards for me.
