Camp Must-Haves and Leader Tips

After two decades of taking kids to camp, Amber shares some must-haves to add to your packing list and things that will make your week of camp easier. 

Resources Mentioned in the Episode

• Manderley Christian Camp - https://www.manderley.camp/
• Hair Tinsel - https://amzn.to/4trlmqJ
• Pop Up Stool - https://amzn.to/42wmJte
• Spot It - https://amzn.to/3R4yAMQ
• Puke Bags - https://amzn.to/42A0mTM

*This list may contain affiliate links. If you decide to purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra expense to you. I only share things I actually use, love, and endorse!

Transcript

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Amber Pike (00:01.294)
Welcome back to the Kidmin huddle. One of my favorite things about summer is summer camp. So are you a summer camp church? I have logged, I don't know, I'm probably on year like 19 or 20 taking kids to summer camp. I love it. Why? Because something about camp, those five days, you this is like five day sleep away camp.

Those five days where kids are just completely immersed in Jesus, you see light bulbs go off. You see kids opening up. You see relationships being formed between kid to kid and kid to leaders. There is just something about summer camp. So as a lover of summer camp, as a Kidman Camp veteran, I'm gonna share with you some tips.

some of my must haves, just things that might help make camp go a little smoother for you. First of all, take notes while you're at camp, right? All of my things that I learned, I learned a lot the hard way. So kind of tip off the bat, make sure all of your stuff in your backpack is in a waterproof bag. Ask me how I know this, because one year at camp, it monsoon rained and kids' Bibles were getting wet.

in their backpacks as they travel around because unless it's lightning, camp still happens, right? They can't just shut it down. Camp still has to happen even if there's some rain. In summer, sometimes you get rainstorms. So the year I took both of my kids to camp with me when they were babies. They're both August birthdays with my son. Camp was in July. So he was a couple months old with my daughter. Camp was in June. She was a month younger.

with my daughter when she was a baby. That year was a very rainy year and we did Centricid Camp. did 15 years of Centricid Camp and they have this big thing called OMC. That's like the big, crazy, fun, organized mass chaos. I love it. You walk away covered in shaving cream. So my job as camp leader was to take pictures until my phone overheated in its waterproof bag. And then I just, I sprayed kids with shaving cream. It's awesome. It had a Jesus point. Love the game.

Amber Pike (02:18.888)
I, of course, as a mom with a month and a half year old baby, am not going to miss out on OMC. So I strap Riley into my baby carrier and I cover her with a trash bag because it is monsoon raining. And I cover the outside of her with a trash bag. And while the kids were cleaning up, I left them with the other leaders and go take care of my baby. And her diaper is so waterlogged from the rain. She was shivering. It's fine.

She was fine, obviously. But waterproof everything and encourage your family's waterproof things too. Even just as simple as their Bible in their backpack, stick it in a Ziploc bag. You know, a lot of these kids are carrying their special baptism Bibles. Maybe the, your Christian Now Bible, the gift that they got, and then it gets covered in water in their bag, or they didn't put the lid of their water bottle on well, and they filled it up with Gatorade or, you know, Coke at lunch. And now that's all in their backpack.

put their Bible in a Ziploc, it just alleviates some meltdowns and some wet stuff. And so for you, waterproof everything. have bags, everything that matters goes in a waterproof bag in my backpack, even if there's not rain in the forecast. And so I am so prepared for rain at camp because I know what's what. It can pop up. I have a rain jacket that covers my backpack. My backpack is waterproof. The things are in waterproof containers in my backpack. also, because I'm a glasses wearer,

We'll have a waterproof hat to kind of keep it off of my glasses a little bit, because I don't like water stained glasses, but waterproof, waterproof. A couple of things that just have made things smoother for me as a leader and as a mom who's taken her kids to camp. You don't always know the room situation, right? You don't necessarily know what the room looks like. I recommend a flat charging block. Sometimes the only outlet is behind the mattress.

And an extension cord doesn't quite cut it. So I've got a flat charging block that hangs down with my cord so I can charge my phone and have a fan. I always take a fan to One, it's usually very hot and they don't have the air where it can crank down a lot. And then sometimes you need that nice gentle noise to drown out the children. I take a bath mat. I have my own bathroom that I share with my kids, but you don't want to walk on camp floor. You just don't.

Amber Pike (04:42.926)
A clothes hanging rack that can hang up somewhere for swimsuits or towels to get those musty smells out. I have seen church leaders bring stationary laundry line things. I don't even know what you would call them, but a pop-up clothes dryer. And they would put them on their porch, on their cabin, if you're in a cabin, and hang all the bathing suits and stuff. Kids don't think about these things.

So sometimes you need to do things like that. The number of older kids who are actually scared of the dark or don't want to be in an unfamiliar place using the bathroom in the middle of the night when it's dark. So I pack nightlights for the kids. I have a bag of nightlights. And do you know, I don't think I've ever had a year where kids are like, no, I don't need nightlights. You might have one or two kids who are too cool for school and they're like, we don't need it.

They totally come and ask me for a nightlight later. I have a bag of nightlights. I would pack extra soap, extra toilet paper. You never know when those things are gonna run out. Okay, so those are just kind of some general things. Here are some of my fun must haves for camp. That might not sound fun, because as I look at my list, the first one's not fun, but it's necessity. Number one, puke bags. Pack them, buy them.

Being sick is no fun. My little gal got sick the last day of camp. So thankfully it was the go home day. She woke up, she wasn't feeling good. I'm like, well, it's okay. We're heading home in just a few hours. She is struggling to make it through the worship session. She is.

struggling hardcore and I'm like we gots to get on the road because this is not going to end well and my poor little gal I had to pull over six times on the six hour trip home for her to throw up on the side of the highway. She ended up having strep really really really really bad like an ER visit bad because she started breaking out in hives it was it was a lot but I didn't have puke bags I was so thankful I had Walmart bags. Puke bags would have been so much better so now I keep one in my backpack you better believe my camp stash is gonna have some puke bags.

Amber Pike (07:02.582)
I hope you never have to use them, but you need some for camp. Number two is something for me, hydration packets. I have noticed for me, I get dehydrated pretty easily despite the fact that I'm always drinking water. Summer camp, you're outside, you're sweating. You likely don't have the same access to beverages that you would normally have if you're working at your house, at your church.

Sometimes water trips are few and far between unless you want to drink from the sink. Pack some hydration packs. They have those salt and electrolytes that your body sweats out. This makes a big difference energy-wise for me. It also, I think, aids in good immunity if you're staying well, really good hydrated. For kids, you don't want to give them necessarily a hydration packet, but maybe some Gatorade, stuff like that. I have seen kids

get heat exhaustion when they're playing like flag football in their recreation track out in the sun with no water. Keep an eye on that. We want to make sure that kids and adults are staying hydrated. I would have the rule. You can drink all the soda that you want at lunchtime. I don't care, but you need to drink water too. Water, hydration, yes, yes, yes. Number three, also for you, comfy shoes. There's lots of walking. You're running and keeping up with the kids. And if like me,

You are not getting any younger. You need to pack really good shoes. You don't want to have blisters. This needs to be articulated to kids as well. You have probably had the same thing I've had where all week a kid is going around in the like, what was the $5 old Navy flip flops or like the $2 Walmart ones. And they've rubbed blisters in between their toes. And then the walk to like the cafeteria takes an hour. And you're like, come on, come on.

They need to have tennis shoes. They need to wear socks with their tennis shoes.

Amber Pike (09:04.565)
And this is a bonus tip on my list. Make sure that parents go over what's in their kids' suitcases with them. had a boy one year who wore the same outfit. We're on like day three. He's in the same outfit, same socks. He's starting to sink. And I'm like, dude, you gotta change. He's like, I can't. Mom didn't pack me any clothes. I don't have any socks. Guess what? You open up a suitcase, for sure, like color coded all of that.

They need to know what's in their bags because realistically they didn't pack them. Change your clothes every day, please. All right. Number four, one of my camp must haves. I actually have two first aid kits that go with me to camp. One is a miniature one that goes on my backpack. It's a little clip. It goes on one of my keychain dab things on my backpack because someone's going to skin a knee. Someone's going to need a bandaid. I go through so many knee band-aids during camp. I don't know why.

but we do like so many of the big knee ones. I don't want to have to trek all the way back to my cabin every time I need a bandaid. However, I have a second and much bigger first aid kit in my cabin. Now, what do I keep in my first aid kit for camp? This is not my personal one, you know, where I've got like my migraine medicine or Tums in case I get a tummy, you know, all that. That's my personal stuff. This is the stuff that I would use on kids. I don't give medication to kids.

In a camp situation, I'm going to have it. So I'm going to have some kids Tylenol and some kids Benadryl, but I'm not absolutely not giving this to a kid without calling and having mom and dad on the phone, parental permission. This is what I'm giving them. This is the dosage. Do you consent? So really my first aid kit is a whole lot of band-aids, knee band-aids, small band-aids. I am going to have a break apart first aid kit. Kid

bonks their elbows, stubs their toe. You know that an ice pack makes things better, but you don't always have access to ice. Those break apart ones are a little pricey. They are going to save you so many headaches. I also am going to have feminine hygiene products. You're dealing with fifth, sixth grade girls. They might start their periods. And if you get the teen tampons, if a kid gets a really bad nosebleed, that's where that goes.

Amber Pike (11:25.24)
So yeah, that's my first case hit. also, I've learned the hard way to take a thermometer in case a kid does get feverish. We learned this during the COVID years of camp where you need to isolate, probably send them home, call parents, have those things just in case, but lots of band-aids, lots of break open patches. Next thing that I'm gonna have, this is a fun one, hair tensile. If you have followed me before, you know that I love this. You likely have seen me, if you watch some of my videos, I'll usually have like a purple.

glittery hair, it is so much fun to have hair tinsel. It is also so much fun to take hair tinsel to camp with you and then spend a little time doing it with your girls. It's a great leader bonding thing.

Amber Pike (12:10.69)
I would recommend, because I'm weird about germs, not everyone has the same hair standards or cleanliness standards that you have. So this might be your special camp kit. You might tell the kids they need to bring you their hairbrush for you to do their hair, to brush their hair first. We don't want to spread any bugs or germs, but hair tinsel is really fun. It's super simple. There's a little eye hook.

and a bead and then you clamp it and the tinsel, it's super cute. I'll drop a link in here. It's like 15 bucks on Amazon. So much fun. If you don't want to do the hair tinsel, if hair germs, it you out, think about bringing beads to do bracelet making. This is another great thing when you inevitably have a kid, often a girl who was a little overwhelmed with all at camp and they just need to step back and take a break. Bracelet making is really chill activity.

And it is a great bonding time too. I had this one girl one year who just would get very overwhelmed with the sheer volume of kids at camp. And it was loud and she was expected to participate in the things and kind of push through feeling overwhelmed. And it was really hard. And I found during recreation was especially hard for her and it would kind of set off the rest of the day a little rough. So she would stay back.

from recreation with one of our team leaders and they would hang out and make bracelets. And this made all the difference for her. I got all the bracelets that year like Miss Amber and all that. Bracelet making, it's a great calm down, it's a great bonding, especially when a girl doesn't want to participate in the thing. Now Bible study, worship, those aren't optional. But the free time, the hangouts, we need to do what's right for the kids to help them. We don't want to send a kid home.

right? Because they're sad. They love it. They're just a little overwhelmed. So they just needed to be in a little quieter space, less wildness. Next item. This is a me thing. I found two years ago, a pop-up folding stool. And this has made such a difference for me. There's not a lot of camp furniture in your rooms, right? You might get a chair or a bunk bed.

Amber Pike (14:29.358)
But what if you need to go out on the porch and the kids have the other chairs or there are no chairs on your porch because they realize the kids will break them. I don't know what your camp looks like, but this is a little pop-up stool and it like twists and folds and it has a little hook to where it can hang on my backpack if I need to carry it. It's really nice to get ready in the morning with if I need to sit down for anything. It also becomes a little bedside table so I don't have to put my phone like on the floor.

I'm a water beside my bed. I don't have to sit my water on the floor. It becomes a little table. I love it. And it takes up, I mean, it's like this, this thick, it doesn't take up space at all. So a little folding stool, perfect investment for me. Another fun thing for camp is confetti streamers. I use these all the time. You've heard me talk about them, but they're just super fun. Confetti streamers kick off camp, do it really big and fun.

as you're like leaving, as you're in there, clean up any mess you make, but confetti streamers are fun. A megaphone, always useful if your kids need to hear you over things. If you have a lot of people and they need to hear you, megaphone's useful fun. I only use a megaphone at camp when I'm leading the games in recreation. For my personal church kids, I never took a megaphone, but your camp situation might look a little different. You don't wanna lose your voice.

So if you're leading games, if you're having to talk over a ton of kids every day for five days, you might need a megaphone. Another fun thing is birthday stuff. If you are having a birthday at camp, you want it to be special. So I go all out for birthdays at camp. They get a badge, a hat, a song, a party. had this one kid every year for like five years. His birthday was during camp and I made it big and

Okay, so I would mess with him because that's one of my love languages is messing with you. And the first year that his birthday was during camp, I had him so nervous what I was gonna do. I kept just tossing out random stuff like shaving cream, glitter, confetti, feathers, air horns, know, whatever. And all the girls were in on it too, except they didn't know what I really had planned. And so I've got another leader down at the cafeteria and she's setting up a surprise party for him with cupcakes.

Amber Pike (16:52.142)
during lunch time and or this might be during dinner, dinner lunch. And I pull him aside. said to everybody else, I'm like, I need to talk to you. He's like, am I in trouble? I'm like, let's just let them get to lunch and I need to talk to you. So I start telling him how disappointed I was with him and his behavior. And he's like, but I didn't do anything. And like, I'm getting reports. I'm just messing with him, right? I'm just kind of, I'm really stalling to give them enough time to get down to the cafeteria, citing nothing.

bad that he did because he didn't do anything. And then I grinned at him like, do think this was me messing with you for your birthday? And he's like, Miss Amber. And then he goes and we have a birthday party and it's super fun. So every year I have to top that, including the year that COVID canceled camp. And I'm like, but I can't not mess with him on his birthday. So I get with his parents. I go to his house. His dad is like, so I'm hiding with my children's squirt guns, like the big ones.

I'm hiding in his yard. His sister's got me hidden. His dad's like, hey, I got them overstock. I need you to help me to push it out. And the kid's like, okay. So he comes and he walked, his dad is walking him right by. So he would not see me, but go by me. And then I jumped and I squirt him with a squirt gun and he like jumps in the air like 10 feet and screams. And then I had candy for him in my car and it was the best. Birthdays at camp. So fun. Make it special. Note when your kids have birthdays so that you can make it special.

So those are some of my my packing must-haves other things that I keep in my bag a sharpie Ziploc bags to put their take homes if your camp gives free t-shirts Take home like the after camp devotion books you want those to get to the kids Realistically, they're gonna be in the bottom of the church van. So I don't give them to the kids I have a Ziploc with their name on it. It goes in there and that way I know who left thirsts

I would have a tote bag to carry these things around because I learned I'm going to get handed a ton of stuff at the closing on Friday. So I need a tote bag to carry all of this because I've already packed everything else up. I would keep a little dust pan and broom because they're going to make a mess. They're going to walk around eating chips and it's going to be in my floor and my feet are going to touch that and I'm not cool with that. So I would have a little dust pan. would have my backpack would have card games and spot it. I love spot it. There's going to be some downtime.

Amber Pike (19:14.742)
Right? Your kids are just done with dinner or they were ravenous and they're done early, but it's not time to go into worship yet. You've got 15, 20 minutes. You could just sit and look at each other like bumps on a log, or you could use that downtime for relationship building. So I would pull out Spot It, or we would play Spoons or Uno. Here's one of my favorite things about this, because I said, as I mentioned in the beginning, camp is a great time for relationship building. You have kids that might not be there every Sunday.

who are signed up for summer camp because it's something to do. So I would see that loner kid and I would engage them in our free time like, hey, you want to play Spot It with me? I'm good at Spot It.

And then the other kids would be like, I want to play. like, can I play? I'm like, yeah, next round. So we'd finish. And then the next round, we'd let in a person or two. And by the next round, I stepped out. And then I saw these friendships forming because then they don't need me to play. Now, I am down to play. I don't do like tag. I'll watch. But card game stuff, like, yeah, I love playing with you. But it's not just you forming relationships with me, which is amazing. Yes.

I have a whole laminated card I give to our camp staffers of just conversation starters. Let's talk, let's hang out, let's be silly. But I also want to see the kids forming relationships with other kids. My son was that loner at camp. He still marches to the beat of his own drums. And I saw it happen the first year or two of camp. No one else played with him. So I started.

And then the other kids did. so one year, I remember it was either his first or second year. I can't remember. He went one year a little early with me. And he was the only boy the girls would let hang out with him because the other boys were, of course, boys, right? So fart jokes and smelliness. But they liked Reed. And they're like, no, no boys allowed except for Reed. Reed has manners so he can be in there with us. And of course, he thought that was pretty cool that the girls were letting him hang out with them. Of course, you know, way before interested in girls.

Amber Pike (21:19.01)
But relationships got formed. I got to see kids who weren't friends with each other before walk away as best friends. That's a beautiful thing of camp. Something that you can kind of leave. So card games in your bag, conversation cards. Have some back pocket games for when something ends early or you have extra time. Poison dart frog. Okay. I don't know if you've heard of this one, but this is so fun. So here you go. Listen good, cause I don't have it written up anywhere. One person is the frog.

poison dart frogs, poisonous. If they stick out their tongue at you, you did. Everybody gets in a circle except for the guesser. So the guesser is in the middle of the circle. They are trying to guess who the poison dart frog is. So they close their eyes while you pick who the poison dart frog is. And the poison dart frog kills people by going, they just stick their tongue out. So they make eye contact and stick their tongue out. And then you have to dive very dramatically.

The person in the middle is trying to guess who's the poison dart frog. This is a low impact game because sometimes those kids are exhausted. It's like 90 degrees. It's humid in Kentucky and they're hot. They don't want to run. This is a no running game. I love poison dart frog. Super, super fun. I would also do the bear and lumberjack game. I learned this one in college. One bear, everybody's lumberjack, chop in the wood, bears asleep, bear roars, they play dead. The bear tries to make them laugh. If they laugh, they become a bear.

Wax Museum or Statues, another pretty low impact game. You've probably played that one and that's where the museum guard is doing the rounds. Everybody's a statue. They try not to get caught moving. Have some of those. Use that downtime. Camp is great, guys. I love it. If you're looking for a camp, I would love for you to come check out Manderly Christian Camp. That is our camp at Renew Nation, which is a bucket list for me after being a

Church leader taking kids to camp for like 15, 20 years of camp. I now get to go and be camp director. So I'm the one leading the games and doing the silliness and getting to love on all of these kids. I love it so much. Camp is amazing. Now I say that camp is amazing knowing that I've been sick about 17, 18 of the last 20 summers. I catch germs at camp so.

Amber Pike (23:41.922)
Take your vitamins before, take your vitamins during. You're going to be exposed to a lot of germs. And if you're just a stinky immunity person like me, you're gonna get sick. But it's worth it. Boys and girls are hearing the amazing life-changing message of Jesus. They are developing relationships with leaders from their church. And we know statistically that some of those relationships, it keeps a child in church. It shows that somebody other than mom or dad care about them. And that is eternally important.

You get to see kids fellowshipping and building relationships with other kids, other brothers and sisters in Christ. You see some kids make a decision to follow Christ for the first time. You see some kids called into ministry. You see some kids experiencing the voice of Jesus, the Holy Spirit for the first time. You see kids loving, reading God's word or praising God or doing Bible study for the first time, maybe memorizing their first verse or their 8,000th verse. Camp is amazing.

Learn all the things that make your week go better. For me, it's a little extra chocolate. It's making sure that I've got my band to stretch out my bad hip. Whatever makes it work for you. It's worth it. It's worth the camp food and the camp beds that aren't always the best though at Manderly. They're pretty amazing. We have great food. We have great beds. Love it. Camp is wonderful. It's eternally important. So make this

summer that you're taking kids to camp, the best ever. Do all the things, have all the fun, point them to Jesus that week. And remember, what you do matters.