We design our faculty conferences to be welcoming for children and families. Academic events are rarely, if ever, family-friendly, and we desire our conferences to be times for restoration for the entire family. Below are some comments and stories from parents who have attended previous faculty conferences.
Comments from Parents:
“Our son enjoys the time quite a bit. Child care was superb. Floating Bear a hit. Cabins great.”
“This is their favorite week of the year. Every year.”
“The children’s classes were, in my opinion, overstaffed — and this was wonderful! From the first day when we arrived in our rooms to find “age-appropriate” welcome snacks, I felt that the kids were safe and well cared for. We also experienced a community at Cedar Campus, with all the adults caring for all the kids. This is completely missing for us at home, and I did not realize how much I missed that until our week in Cedar Campus.”
“On day one: No TV?! Mom, how could you bring us to a place like this? By day seven: Do we really have to leave?! Can we please stay just one more day?! He is still asking to return.”
“The children made friends on the 1st day. They loved the pool, enjoyed the groups, and had great counselors.”
A faculty mom told a story of being a bit late one morning and needing to go back into the cabin room for her Bible before the plenary session. Upon being told that she needed to get her Bible, the son said that he thought that this was a faculty conference. Mom explained that it was, but that it was a faculty conference that used the Bible. She was pleased to see the light of understanding in her child’s eyes that there is a relationship between the work and the Word.
“Our children LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!! They adored their teachers and came home with memorized scripture and new worship songs. It is a true blessing and we thank the teachers for it. They are a huge reason we returned this year!”
“The kids had a lot of fun.”
“They LOVED it. Our two year old was asking for days when he could go back to class, and where his teacher was.”
Then there was the simple logic of the little girl who on the last day of the conference refused to change out of her pajamas because she did not want to go home.
Comments from Children:
Here are the childrens' responses to the question: What made the week good that you would recommend to other kids?
“going to gnome rock” (Bobby, 9)
“going sailing, sleeping in the cabins, going to my class – its activities and games”; “the Narnia trail is really pretty, had fun playing hide & seek and climbing the rocks, with the caves, tunnels that are perfect for it”; “lake [Huron] could be a lot warmer!” (Kara, 11)
“the beach best and my class second” (Matthew, 3)
“the Bible classes, kayaking (single and double), wrestling around with people” (Daniel, 12)
“swimming, playing with friends, making lots of new friends” (Taya, 8)
“playing with lots of kids” (Sarah, 5)
“hiking, outdoor adventure (Narnia was “way better” than I expected.”), and the beach” (Dan, 9)
More comments from children:
“Mommy, I want to live at Cedar Campus and go to the children’s program every day.”
“I’d like to come back and work on crew.”
“Can we come again next year?”
If you are thinking about attending one of this year's faculty conferences, check out their websites through the GFM Events & Announcements page.
Photo credits: Stephanie Kroll, Howard Van Cleave
