Developmental Milestones and the Camp Experience: Ages 8-10

Developmental Milestones

• Spend increasing amount of time with peers
• Form friendships with others in school and other activities
• Begin to formulate identity independently of their role within the family
• Choose to play or socialize in smaller groups (for Girls)
• Gravitate toward socializing with larger groups (for Boys)
• Evolve a moral standard that moves from seeking rewards and avoiding punishments to a more sophisticated understanding of what’s right and wrong and how their own behaviors affect others

What's on their Mind

• Begin to compare their progress in appearance, school, and sports performance to others
• Realize that rules can be altered if it is mutually agreed
• Compose social groups (e.g., wonder who they will sit with at lunch)
• Share secrets with friends
• Resolve how to end a fight or disagreement with a peer using words

Building Child-Parent Relationships

• Support child's emerging individuality
• Set clearly defined limits that reinforce child's strengths
• Spend significant time with child in activities; let them direct the play
• Avoid comparing child's performance to that of others
• Ask specific, open-ended questions about your child’s peers, activities in school, and life outside the home

Maximizing the Camp Experience

• Share some aspects of the camp selection process (e.g., what kind of camp, how long to stay, whether to go with a friend or not)
• Identify goals of camp with child and fit the camp to these goals (i.e., work together to find a camp that matches your child’s interests and abilities)
• Allow child to assume responsibility for camp preparation (e.g., help to shop for necessities, help to pack, help to complete registration forms)
• Consider a camp that offers special programs for a specific strength you have identified in your child (see above)
• Reserve a family time for activities and conversation about the camp, about coping with homesickness, about keeping in touch through letter writing

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