Today, I dropped my kiddos off at a new summer camp. A camp where they don’t know anyone, except each other. Last summer, my son when to summer camp all summer at his school–which is amazing, but with two kids it would have cost us about $4000 for 8 weeks of camp….sorry, I choked a little just writing down that figure.

We need somewhere for them to go during the summer. I work. My husband works. Our kids (5 and 3) aren’t old enough to entertain themselves at home while letting daddy work (he works at home). While we love the summer camp at their school–and all of it’s comfort. We just can’t afford the price tag (or aren’t willing to afford the price tag). So we are mixing it up this summer. They get to do 4 weeks at their school’s summer camp, two weeks at a new summer camp (at the Y) and then 3 weeks at the sitters.

This is the first new camp week. The kids were excited, but Noah was a little skeptical. He wanted to know if any of his friends would be there. I said no. Maybe someone from your basketball team, but probably not anyone from your school. He was okay with that–for the most part. And Zoë, well she just likes to be around people and she hasn’t made a lot of friends yet. Whereas, Noah has spent two years with the same group of kids and has formed amazing bonds. I am think that this will be good for him, to know that he can make friends. To remember that he can make friends. I have noticed that he has become more self-conscious about making friends. I think part of this is because that he is in a school that is so much a family that he forgets what is was like 2 years ago when he started and didn’t know everyone.

So, I will make a concerted effort to put him in situations where he has to make new friends, so that he remembers that he can do it and how easy it is.

I hope it went good today. There were no tears or “mom, don’t go” when I dropped them off today in a sea of unfamiliar faces. Let’s hope that keeps it up.