Parent Blog: Tips and Tricks - New Camper Blog Series

Hi! My name is Allison, and I am the proud momma of two Greystone girls from Austin, Texas - Caroline (11) and Elizabeth (9)!

From the moment we pick up our girls from beautiful Camp Greystone, it’s a countdown to next summer and Opening Day! It is our girls’ HAPPY place – the smiles on their faces and the joy in their eyes radiates in every picture! It is the most joyful reunion on Closing Day, and the stories, excitement, all the giggles, and laughter of recounting their summer days at Greystone lasts for months!

Here are some tips and tricks of things we have found helpful to making our packing and our girls’ time at Greystone a success! Although – even without any of the below items - your girls will be so well taken care of and poured into at Greystone – these are just some tips and tricks that we have found helpful!

Packing Cubes

Packing cubes are hugely helpful to organize your girl’s clothes, and they are perfect for the drawer under their assigned bunks that they use to put their clothes in! We normally have a packing cube for tops, bottoms, undergarments/socks, costumes/accessories, and then pajamas. When they get their laundry back, they can easily sort their items back in the packing cube they belong to, keeping everything organized! Any packing cubes will do – Amazon has great sets that are very reasonably priced, even some with fun prints!

Duck Tape

Did you know Duck Tape comes in fun colors and prints now? We have found it helpful to tuck a roll of Duck Tape into the girls’ trunks for all different purposes…my youngest loved putting her letters she received up all around her bunk – she said she loved reading them during Rest Hour and being reminded of our love and our little inside jokes that made her happy!

Dock and Bay Towels

This was a new addition to our packing this past year and Dock and Bay towels (or any quick dry beach towel) were so nice because they dry the girls off so well, and then they dry so fast. It’s great so your camper doesn’t have to dry off with a wet towel!

Waldo

Waldo (Greystone’s photo sharing app) is the best thing ever! It uses facial recognition to identify your child, and it is so fun to get notifications of new pictures and see all the fun happening. It does such a good job recognizing your daughter’s face that sometimes you will even have to zoom in to see her in the background of pictures! The posted pictures are so fun, but it’s great as a parent to see their joy and contentment even in the small moments. It’s a must in my opinion and well worth the additional fee. If you have sisters at the same session, sister pictures are just the best!

Ink Cards

Our family has loved using Ink Cards (an app you can download) to send our daughters’ mail. It’s an app that you can send photo greeting cards using your photo library. They mail them directly to your recipient, and it’s the cutest way to personalize camp mail with pictures of your family, pets, etc!

Mail

I don’t know about y’all, but I want to encourage my girls to write us…A LOT! I send the girls with some address labels that are pre-addressed so they can just tear them off and put on the envelopes. I also include pre-addressed labels for grandparents, family members, and friends back home that I know would love to hear from them. A clipboard that closes that has storage is also great because you can store all the stamps, stationery, and labels in it. Easy peasy for Rest Hour!