I have three girls and I have many more with my troop and I see so many different ages and stages. Some kids tend to be more outgoing and aggressive, but that does not always mean that they are going to thrive left alone in a camp experience. So what signs should you see to determine if they are ready?
I look at the child's separation factor from the parents for one. Are they lingering around mom and dad? Are they shy and despondent? Just because they may shy away from the unit leader or program assistants at first does not necessarily mean they will stay in that rut the whole time they are there. Usually the ones that glue themselves to their parent's hip are the ones that are smiling the whole day after an hour of fretting and shyness. A good way to learn this about your child is to see how they do with short-term separations away from you. And to make it more like the camp experience, you may want to leave your child with someone they aren't extremely familiar with such as grandma or auntie. You will be able to assess their actions and such from those separations.
I also look at the child's maturity. Some kids are immature because of their age... but that doesn't mean they aren't ready for camp. Some kids are mature at times, but revert when playing and such. If a child is too immature they may not fully take in what is offered to them while at camp. They may feel bored or even overwhelmed by some of the activities or other children there.
My daughter is a Girl Scout and has been now for two years. She is seven years old and wanted desperately to go to the weeklong Girl Scout camp this year. I bantered back and forth about this for weeks, but realized that...YES...she is old enough for a resident camp and takes separations well, but was just not emotionally ready for the whole experience. So we opted for daycamp. Daycamp allows the child to experience the separation and have fun at the same time. They will be offered age-appropriate activities and be kept busy at all times. The great part to daycamp is they get to go home at the end of the day... giving them the feeling of staying in control of the situation.
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