Summer Villages Experience

Being Away from Home
Tips to help your villager adjust to being at the Villages
We have a lot of fun every summer, but for some villagers, spending time away from home is a major step. Here are some suggestions to help your villager adjust to the Village experience:
· Start early preparing your child for the idea of being away from home. Find out what expectations your child has, what he or she is looking forward to and what seems a little scary. Children do much better thinking about abstract issues briefly over a longer period of time.
· Stress the positive aspects of the upcoming session and coach him or her to share fears with you, counselors, the healthcare provider and/or dean. Remember, children learn about coping skills related to separation from home through experiences such as Concordia Language Villages. Many parents have found it counterproductive to promise to bring a child home from the Villages early if the child is dissatisfied with his/her first few days in the program.
· Practice away-from-home skills such as letter writing, talking with other caring adults, or hugging a teddy bear at night. Read books like the Summer Camp Handbook (Thurber and Malinowski, 2000). Turn off the night light at home and practice using a flashlight. Take a walk in a local park with a flashlight and listen to the sounds of the woods around you.
· Allow time for your child to adjust to the new situation. The first letter you receive (which may have been written on the very first afternoon) may sound a little hesitant about the Village experience. We find that most villagers are quickly consumed by the activities and opportunities of the Village and forget their first- or second-day worries.
· Send mail. Mail is delivered daily. It is very exciting for villagers to receive a letter, postcard or package from home!  Please make sure not to send food items because of serious allergy concerns of some of our villagers.

Adjusting to an Immersion Setting
Villagers will find elements in our program intense, fun, perplexing, rewarding and, most of all, unique. Villagers — credit and non-credit alike, especially those new to the program — will be experiencing what may be an entirely new style of teaching. Adjusting to a new situation usually takes a little time, and many of the villagers’ unquestioned assumptions about education may be challenged for the first time. In an immersion environment it is not always easy to recognize one’s own progress. As children, for example, we didn’t notice we were growing until the relatives, on their yearly visit, exclaimed, “My, how you have grown!” Likewise, an intense immersion program can hide the incredible amount of progress participants make until after they return home.

Dean’s Welcome Letter
Your villager will receive a welcome letter from the dean of his or her Village before the session begins. It will provide a glimpse of what Village life will be like, and introduce some of the fun and exciting activities the deans have planned for the coming summer.

Cabin Mate Requests
Villagers are housed in cabins with other kids their age (normally within one year) and of the same gender. Siblings of different ages or gender will not be housed together, but will have plenty of opportunities to spend time together during their session. If you did not make a cabin mate request on the Villager application but would like to do so, please contact the Moorhead office at 1-800-222-4750, ext. 806. Requests involving villagers from different families must be agreed upon by both families prior to submission. Requests are honored whenever possible.

Packing
A packing list is included in the Welcome Packet. The list includes two columns: “To Villages” and “From Villages.” These checklists will help your villager bring everything that was brought to the Village back home again!

Even younger villagers benefit from helping to pack their own bag. After all, once in the Village, villagers will have to be able to find their own clothes and mosquito repellent. Remember, your villager will live in close quarters with others. Please mark all of his or her belongings and leave all valuables at home. Villagers are encouraged to bring items with them that will enhance the immersion experience, such as CDs or books in the target language. Clothing with inappropriate or offensive language or designs cannot be worn in the program. Your villager can wear clothing with non-offensive English words.

Laundry
There are no laundry facilities on site for villagers, so they need to bring enough clothing for their session and a mesh or cloth (not plastic) laundry bag. Villagers must be able to carry their own bags, so it is important not to overload suitcases.

Villagers attending for four weeks or consecutive sessions have a “laundry break” at a laundromat in town at the end of two weeks. They must provide their own money and soap for laundry.

Bedding
All facilities have bunk beds and everyone provides their own pillows, sheets and blankets. Only villagers participating in outdoor wilderness programs may sleep in zipped-up sleeping bags. Due to fire code regulations, villagers cannot sleep in zipped-up sleeping bags inside and may use them only as a blanket.

While Georgia is usually very warm, Minnesota’s night temperatures can range from 40 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spending Money
The registration cost of each Village session covers food, lodging, instructional materials and supplies. However, villagers may want additional spending money. The amount of money needed should be based on the length of stay, villager’s interests and your budget.

Village Store: Your villager will have a daily opportunity to purchase items using the target language. There are a number of items available for purchase, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, cookbooks, books, music, cultural items, souvenirs, international candy and soft drinks from language-specific countries. We suggest you discuss with your child what he/she wishes to purchase to determine the amount of money to send. T-shirts are priced at $5 to $20, sweatshirts at $30 to $65.

International Day: Villagers attending International Day may want extra spending money to shop at the bazaar or to try festival foods.

Free Weekend: Credit villagers need money for laundry and may want spending money for incidentals.

Faxes: If you choose to send a fax to your villager, your child’s Village bank account will be charged a $1 fee per page.