Camp Twitch & Shout - Family Camp 2012

We just got back home after our whole family went out to Camp Twitch and Shout’s “Family Camp” for the weekend. I wish I could say this was a “home run” for Connor, but as almost everyone who faces some kind of diversity or illness knows, there just aren’t any “silver bullets” out there. I could say that this short adventure was NOT Connor’s idea and that this put him in a very resistant mood, but I’m going to focus on the positive.

Even before I met the folks organizing and running Camp Twitch and Shout I knew their hearts and efforts were in the right place. Getting kids afflicted with TS to meet each other and have a safe place to be for a traditional summer camp is awesome. While the Family Camp has far fewer kids at it, this was Connor’s first ever time to be around other kids who have TS. I believe it was also good for him to see some adult figures who also have TS.

I bet many of the kids can appreciate their format of not making camp an extended counseling session. I’m sure TS comes up (how could it not), but I can tell from our brief encounter that this program is truly focused on making sure the kids can have a positive and successful experience at camp with the hopes of having successes and positive experiences later. Not to talk about Connor’s Friday night or Sunday morning (not so good…), but his full Saturday agenda which included swimming, kayaking, rock wall climbing, archery and movie night was a blast for him.

As for if we’ll send Connor to the 2013 summer-time Camp Twitch and Should, well… we’ll have to see. Despite having a good time on Saturday, he is still rather resistant to the whole idea. He can’t fathom why being around other people dealing with TS could be helpful. He can also be bull-headed when he wants to be (yes, that’s Connor more than TS!) and we are constantly straddling that line of letting Connor have much say in how he deals with TS and simply doing what we believe is best for him. On the latter, I believe Camp Twitch and Shout could be a positive experience for him.

If he does attend, I’ll be sure to blog about it (if I’m lucky, I’ll get him to blog about it) next summer. If anyone has has experiences from Camp Twitch and Shout themselves, I’d love hearing about them.