During a vacation colony departure, separation is not always easy for parents and children. Especially since the contact is very limited. But an essential element is to be expected a few days before departure.
The summer camps offer children a unique experience of autonomy, discovery and socialization. Far from the family setting, they develop their self -confidence, learn to live in a group, and open up to new activities. These stays are also an opportunity for the youngest to weave strong friendships and to create memories that mark permanently. But if the benefits are numerous, separation, especially during the first starts, can sometimes be difficult to live, both for children and for their parents.
Indeed, leaving the family cocoon, for some for the first time, is a new step to which you have to adapt. For Géraldine, mother of two, the most difficult is not having much contact. “When they go to Papi and Mamie, we can call them as much as you want, by phone or on video, but there, the contacts are very limited and we don’t really have time to discuss, to know how it goes, what he does,” tells us the young mother. So, there remains the essential of summer camps: mail, distributed every day to all children. But beware, everyone surely lived it being small: not to receive the long -awaited letter, and watching your comrades open the envelopes is a real moment of loneliness!
During the colo of her children, Géraldine had not anticipated this detail. However, she had taken the time to write a letter to them every day. But the letters only arrived at their destination too late: when leaving! “The first days, her children thought that dad and mom had not thought of them, it was a heartbreak. Now I understood, and I do otherwise,” she says. Indeed, for the mail to arrive from the first day at your destination, “it is absolutely necessary to prepare all the letters and send them four days, even a week before departure,” she advises. A tip that we tend to forget, but which is essential not to seal children’s morale as soon as they arrive.
Do not hesitate to write all the letters and send everything suddenly, asking the manager to keep your envelopes aside. You can number them so that it can give your child a mail a day. Also remember to vary the content: an anecdote, a riddle, a small photo or a soft word can comfort much more than we imagine.
And why not slip into the suitcase a first letter to open upon arrival? A small gesture that makes a big difference.
