August 2026
The school-supply lists are hitting your inbox and there’s Halloween gear popping up in stores. These first harbingers of fall make a striking juxtaposition against the slow, scorching days of August, but the end of summer is in sight. For most families, peak camp season will be a wrap within weeks.
Before you pack away the sandals and bug spray, there are a few steps you can take to make life easier for your future self. All it takes is a few minutes to set yourself up for success.
1. Wrangle Your Records
Make sure to keep a record of all the camps your kids attended this summer. This can be surprisingly hard to remember once your focus turns to school lunches and spirit weeks, and it sure is a pain to puzzle out a past schedule by digging through an assortment of months-old email confirmations.
Keeping a record now will help you plan for next year’s camps. Even more importantly, it can help you save money by taking advantage of dependent care benefits during tax season. (See our blog for a primer on this topic.)
Here’s the basic info to note for each camp:
- Name of child/children who attended
- Dates of camp
- Amount you paid
- Name, address, and EIN of the camp operator
The EIN (Employer Identification Number) is a key identifier for reporting childcare expenses to the IRS. It’s a lot easier to get ahold of this number now than in April when you’re scrambling to complete your taxes. Some camps will list their EIN on their website or at the bottom of their emails; if you don’t see it, ask the camp.
2. Listen and Learn
Have a family discussion about how the summer went. What were the highs, the lows, the logistical struggles? Which camps were a slam-dunk, and which were a whiff? Take your time and dig deeper to understand what’s driving these opinions.
Ask follow-up questions and allow space for reflection, respecting everyone’s unique perspective whether as a camper, planner, carpooler, lunch-packer, bill-payer, or myriad other roles. It’s important to include the whole family in this conversation, because camp experiences and logistics affect everyone. Once all the feelings are shared, you can start imagining how next year can be even better.
Here are some questions to start the conversation:
- What were your favorite camps this year, and why?
- Was anything surprising or not as you expected? Name one positive surprise and one negative surprise.
- What was most stressful? Are there ways those aspects could be avoided or handled better in the future?
- If you could change one thing for next year, what would it be?
Find more prompts in our camp debrief guide.
3. Share your Stories
The coming months will be packed with school gatherings, birthday parties, sports games, and fall outings. These are great opportunities to strike up a conversation about camp. Take advantage!
The quest for great camps is practically a universal right of passage for Triangle parents, and something everyone has an opinion on. Use the small-talk on the sidelines at soccer practice to get the inside scoop on camp experiences, and share yours with other parents. This is not only a fantastic way to bond with new acquaintances; it will also help you reflect on what you want in a camp and find gems you might have otherwise passed over.
If your kids are good friends with each other, these post-summer conversations can also lay the groundwork for forming a camp cohort to plan with for next year. KidsBooked has features that make it easy to plan camps together with friends.
Bonus tip: Take a sec to savor the moment.
The tipping point into fall can feel like approaching the top of a roller-coaster as the barrage of school activities, sports seasons, and holidays loom ever larger on your calendar. But for a few more weeks, the daylight will linger, the crickets will chirp, and everything will sweat, from the backs of your knees to your glass of iced tea. It’s still summer, after all. Enjoy it!