Does your HS junior/senior have less “real life” experience due to Covid? How would you fix that?

Yes, definitely. I sent my D22 to a weeklong writing camp on a college campus and it was super helpful for her when it was time to choose a college. Send your kids together or with a friend if you think they’ll be too nervous to go on their own. Make it a camp on a college campus, though. Other camps won’t help as much.

Another thing that has helped my kids so much is having a job working retail. Interacting with the public finally taught my kids phone skills and the polite script we almost all use (please, thank you, you’re welcome, excuse me) — not that I hadn’t tried to drill that into them for years, but my oldest really started noticing when the customers at Starbucks were rude and didn’t say thanks and were just terrible in general.

If you can’t swing an overnight camp (they will start filling up in Jan btw) look for day camp opportunities. There was a free one at one of our local colleges that I sent D22 too when she was in middle school. That helped too but not as much as the week long camp the summer before senior year.

Has your S23 applied to colleges? Planning to go next year? Have him do whatever orientation program his college offers. Some colleges will have one in June before school starts in August.

If he’s taking a gap year he might be able to go to a summer camp with his brother.

If camp won’t work out try going to events at the colleges he has applied to. Go to a football or basketball camp to familiarize him with the campuses. Go to all the admitted student days.

If you live in an area where public transport is important (not must of the country) or if he will need to take a plane (not mist college students) then practice that with him too.

2 Likes