30 Questions to Ask Your Camper to Learn More about J Camp
Has this conversation happened in your house?
Parent: How was your day at camp?
Camper: Fine.
Parent: What did you do today?
Camper: <shrug>
After spending hours having fun, going swimming and playing with friends, you know that the day was more than “fine” and filled with activities and lessons learned. The tough part is getting your child to share any of the real details with you. This could be a result of your child’s age and development, but it is most likely that we don’t always ask the right questions.
To help you out, we’ve put together a list of mostly open-ended questions that should result in more thorough responses or, at least, a multi-word answer from your camper. From classic to unconventional, there’s something for everyone.
- What was the best part of your day?
- Rate your day on a scale from 1 to 5. Why did you choose this number?
- What was the funniest thing that happened today?
- What did someone do for you that was really nice?
- What games did you play today?
- When did you feel most proud today?
- What is something special your counselors did today?
- If you could do just one activity at camp for a whole day, which one would it be? Why?
- What is your group’s favorite activity to do together?
- If aliens invaded your camp today, what would they have seen happening?
- Who is the kindest person in your group?
- I’d love to learn some of the songs and cheers you do at camp. Please teach me one.
- What did you do at (insert activity name)? What did your counselors do when you were there?
- Who had the best looking lunch today? What was it?
- What activity didn’t you have today that you hope to have tomorrow?
- Tell me about something that made you laugh.
- Who did you enjoy talking to the most?
- It looks like you had a fun day. What did you do to get your shirt so dirty?
- How did you help someone today?
- If you could be the counselor tomorrow, what would you do?
- Who do you want to be better friends with in your group? Why?
- What did you do today that you think I would like to do too?
- What was the most challenging thing you accomplished?
- What happened today that you wish hadn’t happened?
- When were you happiest today?
- What did you do today to make sure that everyone felt included in the group?
- Tell me two cool things you did today.
- If someone in your group could be the counselor, who would you want it to be? Why?
- I heard there was a special entertainer at camp today. What did s/he do with campers?
- What are you looking forward to doing tomorrow?
Of course, if you still can’t get information from your camper and the photos and emails aren’t explaining enough, call your child’s unit head. Our J Camp unit heads are happy to fill in the blanks for you.