Homesickness is a common situation for us up here at High Trails. Take away mom making you breakfast in the morning, watching your favorite TV show after school, your dog – Mr. Sparky – licking your face, and your favorite blanket that you sleep with every night. A lot of the comforts of home can’t be packed into a duffel bag, but our staff is well equipped to tackle homesickness and help your student to feel comfortable in our home – the forest!

What is homesickness?

Homesickness is missing the normalcies of home and of your daily routine. Being away from home can be a tough situation, and for many who come to High Trails, it may be your first time sleeping outside of your own home. Homesickness may manifest itself as an ambiguous stomachache or headache (most common), crying, loss of appetite, or withdrawal from social situations.

What do we do for Homesickess at High Trails?

Our instructors and medic are available 24/7, and are trained in dealing with homesickness and helping your student to get over their fears of being in an unfamiliar environment. The chain of command when dealing with homesickness goes as follows:

• Instructors: our instructors are equipped to handle most all cases of homesickness. Treatments that we have found to work best are a little TLC, setting goals for the near future, and redirecting thoughts to current events.
• Teachers: we often refer to your school’s teachers for advice and tips for particular students. They spend a lot of time with your student, and know their idiosyncrasies better than we do
• Medic: if the homesickness is not able to be managed by instructors and teachers, or the student, after several attempts, is continuing to take the instructor’s attention from the group to one individual, the medic is contacted. At this point, the medic will make another attempt to “cure the illness” through the treatments listed above or any other tricks they may have up their sleeve.
• A Call Home: in extreme cases, parents may be called. The medic will speak with the parent without the student in the room to get some words of advice and discuss the situation. We are looking for words of encouragement that we can pass off to your student to let them know that they have your support during this tough time. We tend to shy away from having you speak with your student on the phone, as previous experience has shown us, more times than not, it makes the student want to leave right then and there!

We appreciate your support in helping us to help your student. As a very last resort, students may leave camp early if this is what the parent has decided is the best option. The student then, most times, will be responsible for completing and school assignments that have been assigned.

What can I do before my student goes to High Trails?

• Talk & Support: you can talk with your child about this being a huge step in growing up, and that it may be the only chance they get to be away for a week with their classmates and teachers. Share with them how excited and proud you are that they are going to have this experience. Let them know you look forward to hearing all about their adventures on Friday, when they come home!
• Watch: watch one of the many videos found on our website with your student, and get familiar with what to expect with them.
• Get Familiar with the Unfamiliar:  have your student spend the night at a friend’s house, or sleep in a different room of the house in their sleeping bag. Heck, you could even go all out with a campfire, s’mores, and a tent in the yard! You could also choose an unfamiliar meal from our menu and make it at home.
• Pack Something Comforting: for many, this may be a favorite stuffed animal, a blanket, a favorite book, a journal, a coloring book, the over-so-popular rubber band bracelets made with friends or family, or anything else that brings comfort to your student.
• Send Some Love! Write a letter to your student encouraging them to try new things and have fun! Do tell them you can’t wait to hear all about their week when they come home on the bus. Do not say things like “We miss you and can’t wait for you to come home!” – they will be that much more likely to want to go home right then. Encouraging and supportive love only, please!

Can Parents Be Homesick?

Yes, they can. It does happen sometimes that a loving and concerned parent transfers theirs worries and concerns onto their child, and then an excited student becomes a homesick student. As a parent, be sure to take an honest look at yourself and make sure you are supporting your child and not holding them back.

I can do this!

Yes you can! This is a theme at High Trails; we encourage your student to try new things and step outside of their comfort zone a bit. This may include staying away from home; we know it can be different, scary, and unfamiliar,  but knowing that you have stayed away from home for a week in the middle of the forest is something that cannot be taken away from you! You have that on your list of accomplishments forever. So come join us with an open mind – we can’t wait to share our home with you!

At High Trails Outdoor Science School, we literally force our instructors to write about elementary outdoor education, teaching outside, learning outside, our dirty classroom (the forest…gosh), environmental science, outdoor science, and all other tree hugging student and kid loving things that keep us engaged, passionate, driven, loving our job, digging our life, and spreading the word to anyone whose attention we can hold for long enough to actually make it through reading this entire sentence. Whew…. www.dirtyclassroom.com