de Jong Dream House: Concordia Language Villages, part 7: Final Thoughts

This is the final post in our series about our recent trip to Concordia Language Villages' Lesnoe Ozero Russian family camp! So far, we've discussed what CLV is and what makes it different from other language camps, how to prepare and pack for a week (or more) at camp, toured the gorgeous Lesnoe Ozero Russian camp setting, walked through a day at camp, drooled over all the delicious food, and reviewed how and what we learned during our week.

In this last post, we'll offer up our final thoughts on our experience.

What did you like best about Concordia Language Villages?
Overall, we were very, very impressed with our experience at CLV. I first wanted to come to CLV 25+ years ago. That's a lot of time to build anticipation. I was not let down. My husband originally agreed to come because he knew it meant a lot to me. He not only had a great time, but he has already enthusiastically recommended the camp to his fellow expat colleagues. Our son started camp excited to learn Russian but hesitant about the outdoor setting. His previous camp experiences were held indoors to support his more inside interests. He had a blast exploring the great outdoors.

As far as our favorite aspects, in no particular order.

1. We loved meeting the other families attending camp with us. It was wonderful to build new friendships with other globally-minded parents. I enjoyed hearing how other families are raising bilingual children and teaching them to see themselves as citizens of the world.

2. Related to that, it was so cool to see our son watch other children his age who were fluent in (or learning) another language. He vacillates between being proud of being bilingual and trying to hide it, so it's important to us that D realizes that speaking two (or more) languages is perfectly normal and that lots of kids do it.

3. Going to camp with our son gave us a unique opportunity to see how he interacts with his peers and other adults when he wasn't necessarily aware of our presence. As the week went on, he became much more comfortable with his friends and counselors and would want to be with them even though we were around. We saw his kindness, his silliness, his willingness to try new things, and his need to work on certain social skills!

4. The camp setting is simply gorgeous. My husband loved being able to enjoy the outdoors with his family. (I'm more of a glamper at this stage of life!). Canoeing was a big highlight. There were plenty of things to do, even if we ran out of time or energy to do them. And exploring the outdoors was fun for my son, who saw a turtle laying eggs, caterpillars convening on a tree, geese, loons, fish, and even a few mosquitoes.

5. Specifically, I was happy to be back in Northern Minnesota. The camp brought up lots of happy memories of summers with my grandparents, who lived only twenty minutes away for most of their lives. Even though my grandparents have passed away, I felt like I was able to connect the generations by sharing the beauty of the North Woods with my family.

6. The food was incredible! The kitchen staff really did an amazing creating home-cooked culturally appropriate food. We are adding several new recipes to our meal rotation at home because we were introduced to them at camp. I also greatly appreciated how well the entire staff (in the kitchen and out) were aware of our son's food allergies and made sure he was able to enjoy almost everything served).

7. The staff was friendly, flexible, and fluent in the target language. Our son was overwhelmed for the first day or so, but the counselors met him where we was, and gave him individual attention to help him feel comfortable and make sure he understood what was going on. We are so grateful for that. Niels and I really loved our language lessons and learned much more than we anticipated. Special shout outs to Lara (the dean), Masha (the assistant dean), Shura (who was D's angel and kept parents in the loop), Yulia and Sambu (our family counselors), Margosha (who taught Niels and I), Ekaterina (who shares D's love of the космос/cosmos), and Dima (who took most of the photos I didn't take in this series of posts), and Tamara and entire kitchen staff who keep our bellies full and happy.

8. Being able to see our son grow more independent and confident. We talked to many parents who said that going to family camp was a way to ease into the idea of overnight camping. Our kids had a safe opportunity to explore a new setting and way of learning without feeling too far from mom and dad. We saw our son learn to play checkers, pay for treats and souvenirs at the store by himself, choose his own cultural activities, and make new friends. We say him do hard things. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't. But he was willing to try, and we are very proud of him for that. By the end of the week, he was running around like he had lived at camp his whole life. As parents, we were able to see how camp was set up and how the one-week campers were cared for by the counselors. At six, our son is too young for a sleepaway camp, but attending Family camp with him helped us feel better about the prospect in the future.

9. We loved the variety of ways we could learn about the culture: arts, sports, songs, food, media, informal discussions...there really was something for everyone, from the youngest campers to the oldest, from those like us who were totally new to Russian culture to Russian immigrants who came to camp to learn more about or share their heritage. Related to that, we loved that camp was not just a language camp, but also a culture camp, and that the two ideas were fully integrated, because that's how the real world works when you travel some place where a different language is spoken.

10. And finally, our son realized he could survive without screen time! We are a techie family, that's for sure. We don't have a problem with our son using our iPad, phones, or computer because these devices have opened up a whole world of knowledge that we wouldn't be able to teach him. (The kids knows way more about science than I did after high school!). That said, we told him that he would not have any tech time the entire time we were at camp. He didn't ask for it and he didn't complain about it the entire week. We was having too much fun during the day and too exhausted at night! Of course, ten minutes after leaving the camp grounds, he asked to play his favorite rocket-building app!

I will say, though, that I'm grateful for the social media presence onsite. As a parent, I loved seeing photos of camp and updates on the day on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as the Lesnoe Ozero blog.

Was there anything you didn't like?
Our complaint list is pretty short. The futon in our cabin seems to be broken (it can't be re-positioned into a couch) and one of the fans wasn't working. But not a big deal. There were a few hiccups in communication before we got to camp, regarding our son's almond milk (the camp provided soy, which he loved), and during camp, when we had some confusion about where our son should be. In both circumstances, the issues were very quickly resolved. The rules about boating were rather strict, and the kayaks weren't available due to the registration tags not yet arriving. That was disappointing, but the boys did get one nice canoe ride, and honestly, we weren't at a loss for things to do. Finally, the camps are a bit out of the way (17 hours by car for us). There isn't anything to be done about it, and we wouldn't want the location to change because it's really perfect. But it is a hike so transportation costs do increase quite a bit.

Do you think you get enough value for your money?
Absolutely! When we considered the comparable cost of our cabin, all-you-can-eat meals, available activities, setting,...and the language learning, CLV is a better deal than a week vacation at someplace like Disney or Great Wolf Lodge or a cottage near the ocean. There's certainly not anything wrong with a trip like that, but we feel that the experience we got at Concordia is a more unique experience that will pay dividends for the rest of our child's life.

Would you come back to CLV?
We would love to come back to Concordia Language Villages. Our priority as a family to spend time every other year in the Netherlands to see Niels' family. It's unlikely that we would be able to afford both a a trip to Europe and a trip to CLV in the same year. But, we have limited time before our son would want to go to camp on his own, so we are already discussing when we can go back. We aren't yet sure if we would go for more Russian or would want to try a new language. We wish we could do them all!

How can I work at CLV?
One of the cool things about working at Concordia Language Villages is that counselors don't have to commit to an entire summer like other camps require. This means that the counselors who come tend to be older and more educated, which helps with the learning aspect of the camp. Also, the camp prefers to hire native speakers, although heritage and other speakers who have lived in countries that speak the target language are also welcome to apply. You can learn more about the positions and requirements on the CLV website.

How can I found out more about the languages offered at CLV?
Here's a handy link to the main page for each language:
Arabic
Chinese
Danish
English
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish

The language I'm interested in studying isn't offered at CLV. How do new languages get added?

Sigh, perhaps this is our only real disappointment with Concordia Language Villages. They don't offer Dutch, our heritage language! We spoke with Lara, the dean of Lesnoe Ozero, and she told us that many of the more recent camps were started because of groups that worked with sponsors to start a camp for their language group. We have already been in communication with the Dutch embassy to discuss the possibility of a Dutch camp. Fingers crossed.

And finally, what did your son think of camp?
Let's ask him!