It's Camp Scholarship Time Again

Every year, our church has a program for juniors and teens that allows them to earn more than 75% of their registrations fees for Christian summer camp.  While the campers (and their parents) are encouraged to use the money during the week our kids go to camp as a group, exceptions have been made in the past for Christian sports camps and Christian music camps.

With a teen and a junior camper in our family it should go without saying that this program has been a blessing for us.  Last year, our daughter earned $165 toward her fees for the Wilds (in NC) and our son earned $155 toward his fees for CoBeAc (in MI).  What a blessing.

Let me tell you a little about how our program works.  Each year around this time, every junior or teen who is interested in camp gets a Camp Scholarship Book.  The book includes various activities that the camper can do to earn points.  For every 1000 points, the camper earns $1 toward camp.  The activities include church attendance, bible verse memorization, writing activities, bible reading, list memorization, and service activities.

Each year when my kids get their books, I sit down and look over the contents.  Then, I let each child know what the minimum expectation is for each category.  While the expectation is a little less for my son, who is three years younger, both kids are encouraged to complete enough to earn the maximum award.  Here is a sample of what my kids will be doing to earn (most of) their way to camp this year:

Church Attendance:  We start out the year with the expectation that our children will have perfect attendance for Sunday school, Sunday morning worship, Sunday evening worship, and Wednesday night activities.  As a family we are faithful in this regard, however, the times that our children have not had perfect attendance have been outside their control - illness, family obligation out of town, etc.

Bible Reading:  Each of our children will read the complete King James bible between now and June 6.  We sat down this weekend and made a reading schedule (with plenty of make-up days) to make this happen.  Because our children are homeschooled, we can incorporate this into their bible coursework for the second semester.

Memory work:  Each of our children will say the 28 preselected bible memory verses.  Our goal is always for the kids to say 2 a week, which is they always turn into a competition.  They will also recite a number of lists from the bible.

Writing Projects:  Each of our children will write 14 Life Applications, which are 1 to 2 paragraph papers which allow them to tell how to apply a different bible verse to their lives.  They will each write a number of chapter reports summarizing preselected chapters of from books of the Bible.  They will also each write a number of book reports from the approved book list.  As with Bible reading, we can incorporate these writing projects into our daily school work.

Service Projects:  I love, love, love this aspect of the camp scholarship program.  Each of our children will earn money for camp serving our family and others.  Activities include shoveling snow, doing laundry, planning a family devotional night, planning a family game night, cleaning projects, baking (for us and for others), enjoying a hobby and/or a game with a senior citizen, and so many more activities.  Also, my daughter will earn points for singing in the choir, serving regularly in another church ministry (most likely the nursery), cleaning around church, and preparing a package and correspondance for some of our missionaries.

Obviously, the financial aspect of the Camp Scholarship program is fantastic.  But more than that, I love that it rewards our children for developing habits that should last throughout their lives.  Even when it is not Camp Scholarship time, our children are growing in service, Bible reading, and personal devotionals.  I love watching them as they develop in their spiritual maturity!  Maybe I will even keep track of how they are progressing through their scholarship work right here on my blog!