Saturday morning cartoons started at 7 sharp. You set the alarm. You poured cereal. So much of the week pointed right there.

McDonald’s (yes, the Golden Arches) used to have some personality. Brick one in Buffalo, brown mansard roof (those cool 4 sided ones) in Cleveland with the Hamburglar slide. Same Big Mac, sure, but building was kinda its own thing.

Friday night was TGIF on ABC, and the family could plant on the couch. The local pizza place had a booth in the back where the owner knew your dad. Toys R Us was a destination.

A lot of stuff in a kid’s life used to have shape like that.

There was texture to the world, and that is now going a bit flat. Similar lighting everywhere, standard self-serve screens. The basics are still there, and it’s gotten way more convenient, but some of the texture’s gone.

A lot of that is actually fine. Routine is important, and kids do better with it than without it. The same wake-up time, the same homework schedule, practice at the same day and time. We want that part.

What’s missing is the thing on the horizon. The Saturday morning that made you go to bed Friday vibrating. The county fair in August you waited for all summer. The peak that turned a predictable week into a story.

Camp still has both.

A week at camp

A week at K&E has a story shape. The routine carries Monday through Friday. Saturday is the peak. Sunday lands it. Then a new week starts.

Mondays start small. It’s normal activities, so kids play sports, choose some activities, and get into a rhythm. Unit Night in the bunk that evening with just your group.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are trip days. Buses leave camp for Polar Caves, Belle Island, Mt. Washington, if you’re a Senior, maybe cliff jumping with Adventure Dave if you’re old enough. Wednesday night is Cook Out night, which somehow every kid lists as their favorite meal of the week.

Thursday and Friday, back to normal activities during the day, and big camp gatherings in the evening for Kenwood or Evergreen.

And then Friday night and Saturday hits with whatever Violet and the team have built that week:

Gold Rush, Big Weekend, Visiting Day, Hollowpalooza, Color War Breakout.

The whole week was pointing here. The kids felt it coming. They go to bed Friday buzzing.

Sunday lands. Sometimes, with a second event (Game Show Day, Puzzlemania, Carnival). Sometimes a Lazy Sunday (back this year) and an Ice Cream Party.

Either way, the week resolved.

Monday morning, it starts again.

The summer does it too

The whole summer does the same thing on a bigger scale. Each weekend has its own peak. Gold Rush, then July 4th Fireworks, then Big Weekend, then Visiting Day (the one where you show up!), then Hollowpalooza, then Color War Breakout.

By August, your kid has spent seven weeks riding that wave. Each one with its own shape.

And the routines never go away. Reveille at 7:35 and milk and cookies at rest hour. Free play in the Hollow after dinner, midnight snack, at 8:30, before lights out. The same beats every day, all summer long. The shape stacks all the way down to “Everybody up! It’s going to be a beautiful day…”

We want weeks that land different than what happens elsewhere. Taking out the flatness.

My favorite part of the K&E week is Friday afternoon, the normal activities wrapping up, and the buzz for the weekend about to pop off. Weekend memories the kids will never forget.

They just don’t know all of it yet.

See you this summer!
Jack

P.S. - I made this video all about navigating homesickness at camp. I think you will love it. Plus I am posting shorts about camp almost every day

​

114 Eagle Pond Rd, Wilmot, NH 03287
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​