How to prepare your child for their first summer camp
Updated 2 July 2026
The session starts in a few weeks and the packing list has been sitting on the kitchen counter since it arrived. The child has looked at it. The parent has looked at it. Neither has done anything yet because the packing list feels like a placeholder for a bigger question that the list itself does not answer. It is not really about the socks and the rain jacket. It is about whether this child is going to be okay in an environment that does not have a parent in it. That question does not get answered by packing. It gets answered in the weeks before departure, in what the child practices and what the parent lets them practice.
Key takeaways
- Camp asks children to manage daily routines independently across all hours, and the most useful preparation involves practicing those routines without parental prompting in the weeks before departure.
- Prior overnight experience away from home, even in very familiar settings, gives a child reference points that make the first camp night easier to navigate than it would be without any prior separation experience.
- The program itself often provides preparation resources, including orientation materials, first-day descriptions, and packing guidance, that are worth using rather than setting aside.
- A child's own questions and expressed curiosity about camp are a useful preparation signal, and engaging with those questions specifically rather than generally tends to reduce the anxiety of the unknown.
Table of contents
Overview
Preparing a child for a first camp session tends to be more useful when it focuses on building the specific capacities the experience will require rather than managing the logistics of the packing list. In many cases the most meaningful preparation happens in ordinary daily life in the weeks before departure, in the routines a child manages independently and the overnight experiences that give them a reference point for being away.
What camp actually requires that home does not
Camp asks children to manage things that home manages for them. Getting up without being reminded. Choosing appropriate clothing for the weather and the activity. Keeping track of personal belongings across a shared space. Managing personal hygiene on a schedule that belongs to the group rather than to individual preference. Eating meals at set times without negotiating the menu. These are not unusual demands. They are the ordinary routines of daily life, and at camp they happen without a parent nearby to prompt, remind, or intervene.
A child who has been practicing those routines independently at home in the weeks before departure arrives at camp with more to draw on than one who has been managed through them. The practice does not need to be dramatic. A child who packs their own bag for a school trip, gets themselves up and ready on a school morning without reminders, and keeps track of their own belongings across a week has been doing relevant preparation without it being labelled as camp readiness work.
- independent daily routine practice observable in home behaviour in the weeks before departure, including self-directed morning routines, personal care, and belongings management.This tends to show up as one of the most reliable indicators of how a child will manage the self-directed parts of camp life, because camp does not introduce new demands so much as it removes the parental support that has been scaffolding existing ones.
How overnight experience before camp changes the first night
A child who has never slept away from home without a parent in the building is experiencing two things simultaneously on the first camp night: the unfamiliar environment of the camp, and the unfamiliar experience of being away. A child who has had even one prior overnight experience with a friend or relative has already navigated the second of those challenges and knows from direct experience that waking up somewhere unfamiliar is manageable.
That reference point is not a small thing. It is what a child draws on in the first difficult hour of the first night when the environment feels unfamiliar and the parent is not there. A child with no prior overnight experience has nothing comparable to draw on. The camp night is the first time that particular kind of uncertainty has been faced, which tends to make it harder than it needs to be.
- prior overnight stay away from home with non-family members in the period before camp enrollment.This often appears as one of the most practically useful forms of preparation because it gives the child direct experience of the emotional landscape the first camp night will involve, rather than encountering it for the first time without a reference point.
A staged approach in the period before camp, moving from an overnight with familiar relatives to a sleepover with a friend to a short group trip, gives a child progressively more practice with separation in increasingly unfamiliar social settings. None of these need to be framed as preparation for camp. They are simply the kinds of overnight experiences that give a child more to draw on when the camp departure arrives.
What independent routine practice looks like in the weeks before departure
- camp-specific gear or equipment requirement described in enrollment materials, used as a starting point for the child to practice packing and managing their own belongings before the session.This tends to show up as an opportunity for a practical preparation exercise that is concrete enough to be engaging for a child, and a child who has packed and repacked their own camp bag has a more accurate mental picture of what their belongings look like together than one who has had it packed for them.
Letting a child manage their own daily routine without parental prompting in the weeks before camp is a form of preparation that does not require any specific camp-focused activity. A child who gets themselves ready for school each morning without reminders, chooses their own clothes, manages their own bedtime routine, and keeps track of their own schedule across a week is practicing exactly what camp will ask of them.
The parent's role in this preparation is largely one of stepping back rather than stepping in. A child who has been prompted through every morning routine does not suddenly manage it independently at camp because someone explained that they would need to. A child who has been allowed to experience the natural consequence of forgetting something, being late, or choosing the wrong gear for the weather, has learned something more durable.
- child's expressed curiosity or specific questions about what camp will involve in the weeks before departure.This can point toward a child who is mentally engaging with the experience in a productive way, and engaging with those questions specifically rather than generally tends to reduce the anxiety of the unknown more effectively than general reassurance does.
How the program itself supports preparation and what parents can use
Many established programs send families preparation materials in the weeks before the session begins. A description of what the first day involves, how arrival is managed, what the cabin assignment process looks like, and what children do on the first evening, gives both the parent and the child a more accurate mental picture of the transition than a general description of camp life does. Programs that provide this kind of specific first-day information are giving families something concrete to discuss and prepare for rather than a general idea of what to expect.
Orientation sessions or pre-camp information events, where programs offer, give families a chance to ask specific questions before the session begins. A child who has heard the camp director describe the first night in their own words has a different relationship with that unknown than one who is encountering the program for the first time at drop-off.
- orientation or pre-camp information session offered by the program before the session begins, including whether children as well as parents are included.This tends to show up in programs that understand the pre-session period is part of the experience they are managing for families, and a child who has attended an orientation arrives at camp with less novelty to navigate on the first day.
- program description of what the first day involves sent to families before arrival, including the arrival window, cabin assignment, and first evening activity.This is more common in programs that have designed the transition as a deliberate moment rather than a logistical one, and a specific first-day description gives a child a mental rehearsal opportunity that general camp information does not.
- letter writing or communication expectation described in enrollment materials, including how often children can write and what the program expects from family letters.This often appears in programs where communication during the session has been designed as a structured element rather than an open-ended option, and a child who knows before arriving that letters are expected tends to find the communication format less surprising than one who encounters it for the first time mid-session.
Closing
The most useful preparation for a first camp session happens in ordinary daily life rather than in any specific camp-readiness exercise. A child who manages their own routines, has experienced at least one overnight away from home, and arrives at departure with a concrete picture of what the first day involves, is starting from a different position than one for whom the camp environment is entirely unknown. The program provides the environment. The preparation shapes how ready the child is to inhabit it.
Keep reading in Choosing the right camp
- How to evaluate the quality of a summer camp program
- Questions every parent should ask before choosing a summer camp
- Understanding accreditation: What it means for your child's camp experience
- Understanding the camper-to-staff ratio: Why it matters for your child
- How much do summer camps cost? A parent-friendly breakdown
- What to look for when choosing a summer camp for your child
- How camps handle early session difficulties: what programs do