SECRET AGENT COUSIN CAMP | CAMP CECE

Plans for Secret Agent Cousin Camp (our second annual Camp CeCe) began months ahead of time.

Our first Camp Cece was a preschool bug camp.

At Secret Agent Cousin Camp, five of our six grandchildren were potty-trained and eligible to attend.  Our youngest camper was four, three campers were five, and the oldest was seven.

Secret Agent Cousin Camp appealed to all ages. Now, years later, our grandchildren still talk excitedly about the things they learned and experienced there.

 

Secret Agent Cousin Camp

About a week before Camp CeCe, I hand-delivered an envelope to each grandchild.  Inside the envelopes I had placed recruitment letters inviting them to participate in Secret Agent Cousin Camp.

 

Included in each envelope was a secret code. The campers had to break the codes to retrieve their passwords. Then they had to memorize their password, since they’d need it to gain admission to Camp CeCe.

 

 

Over the next few days, we stifled giggles as my grandchildren rehearsed their passwords. Every single one of them worried they’d forget it and were convinced they wouldn’t be allowed at Camp CeCe without it (I tend to over-dramatize my antics!).

 

Security Scan and Background Check

 

By the time the kids arrived at Secret Agent Cousin Camp, my husband, mom, and I were dressed in our Secret Agent gear. (My mom joined us again as a camp counselor.)

As our campers entered, they proudly and confidently whispered their rehearsed secret password.

Then we told them they had had to undergo Secret Agent Training.

After exchanging our campers’ clothes for Secret Agent garb, we scanned their hands and gave them code names.

 

 

First came the interview. My mom conducted a thorough Secret Agent background check. With a straight face and a furrowed brow, she asked questions like “Have you ever cut in line?” and “Have you ever lost a library book?”

 

 

Next, we weighed, measured, and fingerprinted each camper and then issued “passports” and Secret Agent kits.

 

Daily training

 

For the next three days our Secret-Agents-in-Training  completed an obstacle course twice a day.

They took the training seriously and were very competitive.

In the meantime, they underwent lessons about undercover investigations. They studied geography (because undercover operations might take you around the globe). And they developed their sensory skills by identifying objects in a bag while blindfolded and smelling cotton balls dipped in vanilla, perfume, etc.

Another Secret Agent training session involved target practice with Nerf guns. This was one of their favorite activities. Campers had to duck behind shields, roll across the floor, and crawl under obstacles as we timed them while they aimed at paper targets.

Covert Operations

 

By far the most popular events at Secret Agent Cousin Camp were the undercover operations.

First I divided the campers into two teams. Then I presented a scenario complete with a mystery to solve, countries to travel to (with passports to stamp), and clues.

 

While the teams huddled to solve clues and plan strategies, my husband disguised himself as the mystery person who had to be apprehended, arrested, handcuffed, and taken to jail.

Finally, the Secret Agent trainees were required to appear before a stern judge (me) and present their evidence for a conviction. (Envision Judge Judy here and you’ve got the gist of it.)

 

A perfect theme

 

 

Without exception, our campers were all-in. We had selected the perfect age window for Secret Agent Cousin Camp. Not only did it unleash their imaginations,  but no one (except the adults!) considered the activities cheesy.

 

 

On the last day of Camp Cece we awarded our trainees with badges that identified them as certified Secret Agents.

For weeks after Camp CeCe, my grandchildren played at home with their Secret Agent kits and re-enacted some of our detective scenarios.

As always, we concluded Camp CeCe with the purchase of a round of new tennis shoes for the first day of school.

 

 

 

 

 

Since our Secret Agent Camp, we’ve hosted Cousin Camp at Jellystone Park, Cousin Camp on the Mississippi Coast, and Family Style Cousin Camp!