With the big school holidays approaching, many of us will be desperately thinking of ways to entertain the kids for six long, long weeks. But could you send your child away – without you – for the summer? OONAGH ROBINSON looks at the kids' holiday camps solution

WHEN my shy and timid daughter was just nine, I did something that many parents would find alarming.

I packed her bags, took her to Nottingham train station and sent her off to Devon with a gangly youth of 18 and a chatty 14-year-old girl – both of whom she'd only met for the first time a few minutes earlier.

And then I didn't hear from her for an entire week. This bizarre ritual was not a peculiarly horrible punishment – I was doing something that parents in many parts of the UK have done every year with virtually no qualms.

Sending my precious offspring away on her own to a residential holiday camp. A number of organisations are now established in this field, offering residential camps for kids as young as five or six. Camp Beaumont, Summercamps, The Outward Bound Trust and PGL are just a few of the familiar names offering to take your child off your hands for anything up to two weeks, with adventure holidays both in Britain and abroad.

She went with a charitable set-up called Active Training and Education (ATE), which has been running holidays under various company names since the 1960s. Kids don't camp in tents but sleep in a big house, a boarding school or even a castle.

For my daughter's first holiday in 2006, I paid £250 for seven nights at St John's School in Sidmouth, including travel, food, accommodation and various trips and activities.

ATE's founding director Chris Green says that the beauty of summer camps is they show children enjoyment beyond television or a Nintendo DS.

"Children have a 'blank slate' and get the opportunity to just be themselves without having to keep up appearances or act older than they really are," he said.

I admit I did fret a little bit while my precious firstborn was away from home for so long. But she came home bursting with enthusiasm. We immediately booked for the next year and are planning to send her again this summer.

The summer camps solution is certainly not for everyone.

Sherwood mum Louise Holland, who has two children, Ellie, nine and Sam, five, says she would be apprehensive.

She said: "I think I would worry about them going with adults I didn't know. I would rather save the money for school residentials."

Fiona Ryan, from Bramcote, who has three children Robert, 11, Rose, eight, and Patrick, two, says she is interested in the holiday camps idea.

She said: "I had hoped to send my son to a Youth Hostel Association camp. However, he's going on a school trip to Austria instead and I thought one week away was enough, what with the family holiday as well."

Meanwhile, photographer Paul Reddington, from Flintham, who has three sons, Jack, eight, Sam, five, and Harry, two, needs no convincing.

"When Jack was just six, we sent him away for ten days to something called the Young Person's Experience in Southampton," says Paul.

"He did climbing, canoeing, abseiling, kayaking, an Indian sweat lodge and put on a really moving play."

Of course, camping trips are par for the course for Scouts. Deputy Notts Scouts Commissioner Matt Rooney said: "Kids go away on our trips thinking they're going to learn new skills like kayaking. But what they actually learn about is how to work together, how to be tolerant, how to care for the environment and team building. These are life skills that will stay with them forever."

Useful websites: www.ate.org.uk; www.isaexperience.com; www.pgl.co.uk; www.theoutwardboundtrust.org.uk; www.campbeaumont.co.uk; www.summercamps.com