For the last seven years or so, our older kids have generally gone to the Maine Fiddle Camp in the summer. (It shut down during COVID, and I think Daniela missed it one year as well.) It’s a week of a whole ton of music, off by a lake in the middle of Maine. There’s a ton of music classes in various instruments, lots of playing, dancing, and then games and swimming and other camp activities. Daniela first went when she was 11, but this year it didn’t look like it was going to happen. She was too busy, and without her going, Michaela wasn’t really keen to go by herself, so I didn’t think much of it.
Saturday night, Daniela came to me saying, “I really feel like I should have gone to Fiddle Camp this year.” I didn’t even realize they had it this early. Usually it’s been a thing they went to in August. But apparently they do a week of it in June (this week). Typically the camp sells out well in advance, but Daniela really felt like she was supposed to go, so I told her to call them. She didn’t get in touch with them until Sunday (the day camp started). But not only did they have space for her, but they also needed a life guard, so she could attend at half price.
With Daniela set to go, suddenly Michaela was in the cards as well. The only problem was that her violin broke two weeks ago, and we hadn’t had a chance to get it fixed yet. After a flurry of phone calls, we found her one she could borrow, and saw that the camp still had some slots available. So Sunday, five hours after Daniela had talked to them, we were driving off to central Maine to take them to camp.
Michaela’s never done something like this before. A whole week away from home, mostly on her own? She was excited, but also apprehensive. We had a talk on the way over about the importance of being resilient. Of being able to have a good time, even when things don’t all go the way you want them to. Monday, we heard from her a couple of times. She’d had a lot of trouble sleeping. (It’s June in Maine. There are lots of mosquitoes out right now.) She was worried things were just going to be rough the whole week. We talked about some things she could try and then got off the phone, hoping for the best.
Yesterday, she didn’t call at all until we asked to talk to the girls last night. She’d had a blast of a day and was loving everything. (Did my talk about resilience help? No clue. Maybe a little?) But the bottom line is that it’s been going great for her since then. (Daniela’s having a great time as well, but that pretty much goes without saying when it comes to Daniela these days. She brings fun wherever she goes.)
I think experiences like this are really important for kids. Giving them the chance to be on their own for a while and to learn how to handle things when their parents aren’t right next to them. I’m super happy that they’re both having such a great time, even if Ferris is very depressed that he’s just stuck with me most of the days. (Denisa’s still teaching, so it’s just me and him until she gets home, and for a lot of the days, it’s just him at home by himself.) Camp will finish on Friday, and I’m looking forward to hearing all the stories about it. So while it was a very unexpected last minute expense, I think it was well worth the investment.