Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow

I had a hard time putting this book down. It was so good on so many levels. My firstborn had suffered with severe homesickness a couple of times. This book reassured me that it's okay to be homesick and that you grow from it. It also gave lots of other insight I didn't know I needed but loved receiving about the benefits of sleep away camp.

I read this the week before my son left for his first sleepaway camp and it put me totally at ease. It also reinforced all of the reasons I knew camp was a great developmental experience as well as pointed out some other things I hadn't thought about. Overall, it was a great read and I will be recommending to any parent considering sending their child to sleepaway camp, and even more importantly, any parent who thinks they can't let their child go.

I never attended sleep away camp and was apprehensive about sending my child. A group of wonderfully supportive parents talked me away from the ledge and told me to read this book.I finished with 2 days to spare. I'm prepared, my kids will have a great time and come home more well rounded.

This book was very helpful for me to help my 8 year old son get prepared for a week away at summer camp. It also really helped me to prepare myself for "childsickness" Thank you for the book!

The book is good but made me more worried about sending my kid to camp. I realize throught the book that she will be homesick and as a first time parent Sending your kid away made me anxiously

A must read if you are sending your child to camp or work at a camp. Great author and very valuable information.

As a camp hostess I often speak to worried parents. This book offers just the words I need to comfort kidsick parents and give them the courage not to run and whisk their children back home when they get a homesick letter.

This is a wonderful book to help parents deal with sending their children off to summer camp for the first time. It is well written and it provides many anecdotes about camp life. Highly recommend!

Homesickness is actually a normal experience, and there are practical things we should and should NOT do to help. If you've ever wondered if it is more helpful to phone your homesick child, or NOT to do so, this book offers compassionate advice and psychologically sound reasons for it.I've been fortunate enough to hear Michael Thompson speak on a couple of occasions. "Homesick and Happy" is a thoroughly engaging, hopeful look at what happens when kids have the opportunity to practice being independent. This is an essential part of growing up.Having suffered from severe homesickness in my own childhood, this book gave me a lot of ideas about how it happened, what it meant, and what I might be able to do for a child now that the tables are turned and I am a teacher who takes students on trips.Children change while they are away from home--and this is as it should be. This book offers parents a new perspective on their role in the transitions their children need to make, necessarily away from them. His advice is practical and wise; and applies to everything from summer camp, to school trips, to seeing a 19-year-old through the first year of college. I am delighted to have discovered this book, and eager to recommend it to anyone who has an interest in helping children grow up healthy, happy, resilient, and confident.