Now that summer camps have dropped mask mandates, we have decided to sign up for a few. Our daughter will attend Orchestra Camp, while our son will take an app-building Computer Camp. These two camps happen the same week, and our son chose computers over violin. He is 14 1/2 and we decided to respect his wishes.
Silly moods allowed here
Then, they both will attend a summer youth camp in Georgia, through our church conference. It is called Cohutta Springs Summer Camp and it lasts a week. Our children have been there before and loved it. They have a lake and a pool, lots of arts and crafts, horses, paintball, BMX bikes, archery, ziplining, boating, and wilderness survival classes. The food is delicious, the counselors are selected carefully, and the worship services inspire the children to try to get to know God for themselves. Win-win-win.
Last but not least, our son asked to attend the TeenPact National Convention and we thought it might be a good experience for him. It happens at Lee University in Cleveland, which is about two hours from our house, still in Tennessee. Not too bad. It is good to live in Tennessee when it comes to TeenPact NatCon.
She is learning to roller blade.
With all this summer camp activity, we felt our teenagers needed cell phones. So, we have bitten the bullet and purchased them phones. There is an app on my phone which monitors their usage and blocks certain content. I know every minute they spend on their cell and which website they visit. We are spending this month learning boundaries and understanding the power of these devices.
Cell phones come in handy – they are useful tools. However, they can keep us from having fun together as a family and can certainly create addictive habits and opportunities for bullying and talking to strangers. We know the drill, so we are taking monitoring them seriously.
