Keeping active and healthy all summer long

Kids can develop many less-than-healthy habits during the summer. From eating too much junk food to playing too many video games and not getting enough exercise, there are many ways things slide when school and normal activities are not in session.

Summer camps are about to begin, and they provide a great opportunity to teach kids healthy habits and provide physical, social, emotional and even spiritual benefits that can last a lifetime.

TIP: Check out KC Parent's Summer Camp Guide to find the best camp for your child!

Here are nine ways summer camp can boost your child’s sense of health and well-being:

• Place an emphasis on exercise.

With the variety of activities offered at camps, it’s hard for campers to stay still. Many camps are specifically focused on sports, while other camps offer a wide range of fun games and activities. Whatever the camp, a common theme is an ability to keep your child moving.

• Teach an appreciation for the great outdoors.

It’s safe to say most kids have had too much screen time during the pandemic. Camps are a wonderful opportunity to put the screens down, get outdoors and enjoy nature.

• Provide support for kids with chronic health issues.

Many children face serious health issues, and they benefit from time with other children who have the same condition. There are summer camps to help support kids with all kinds of conditions, and those who attend will benefit from the support and health education.

• Gain a sense independence with responsibility.

Summer camp is often the first experience kids have with being separated from their parents for an extended time. Brooke Hodnefield, an Olathe mom, says her boys have developed independence through their time at Youthfront Camp.

“The freedom is one thing they love—just getting to explore,” Hodnefield says. “There is safety and parameters and rules, but there is freedom to try new activities and push themselves to do activities they wouldn’t have done otherwise.”

Jen Shubin, an Olathe mom whose kids also have attended Youthfront Camp, says her kids instantly feel a bit older and more capable after camp.

• Meet new people.

The pandemic came with serious restrictions on the ability of children to meet new people, develop their social skills and become more outgoing, but summer camps can help change that.

“The ability to safely leave the home and interact with kids their own age in a way that’s safe and effective will benefit children,” says Steve Scraggs, senior vice president of youth development with YMCA of Greater Kansas City.

Shubin was also a cabin leader with Youthfront and says she has seen shy kids open up throughout the week of camp and leave with more confidence and the phone number of someone they didn’t know previously.

• Participate in disguised learning.

Learning regression often takes place over the summer, but camps can help prevent that.

Scraggs says most of the YMCA summer programs incorporate science, technology, engineering and math learning in fun ways the kids hardly even notice.

Summer programs with science experiments, a reading focus or another emphasized academic skill are great ways to boost learning over the summer.

• Teach kindness.

Camps also teach positive values and how to appreciate others.

“It’s equipped (my kids) to have more thoughtful conversations with the people they encounter with kindness and grace,” Hodnefield says.

The variety of kids that attend YMCA camps helps broaden campers’ perspectives, according to Scraggs, and know there is life beyond their own household and school.

• Equip kids with a new skill.

Whether it’s doing the zip line at a traditional camp or learning to garden in a themed day camp, the possibilities for the types of skills kids can learn through camp are almost endless.

Talk with your children about things they might be interested in learning then find a camp that focuses on that skill.

• Emphasize spiritual development.

Many summer camps have a spiritual element that helps kids develop their faith. In fact, many attendees of camps cite their experience as critical in their life-long spiritual formation.

Hodnefield says she loves that Youthfront Camp helps teach kids that faith is not boring and is not just something they find on Sunday at church but rather is something they can actively live out every day.

TIP: Check out KC Parent's Summer Camp Guide to find the best camp for your child!

As sweet summertime beckons, don’t let it become simply a season when good habits fall by the wayside. Instead, use summer camps to help instill important healthy practices into your child’s life.

Allison Gibeson is a Lee’s Summit writer and mom whose son loves attending soccer camp every summer.