Find the best camps with our Camp Guide!
No technology!
Being away at summer camp provides your children the opportunity to be one with nature. Being away at summer camp also gives kids the independence they need. With cell phones turned off, no service post nearby and, in most cases, limited access to the internet, your children can really experience life unplugged. Not to mention your data bills will probably slim down!
Camp builds social skills.
Most camps are divided by age groups. With a little planned grouping, your children with be able to bond and build everlasting friendships with other kids their own age. Camps have daily programing that gives children the opportunity to team build, make friends, learn new things and create wonderful memories.
Camp builds confidence.
Camp gives your child the opportunity to be an independent individual. Camp teaches youngsters they can do anything, and the experience builds a sense of solidarity that school simply does not. The pressure to get the best grade and succeed enough to get the highest paying job is not part of camp, so truly, the ability to succeed comes naturally. Kids don’t have to be successes at camp to be successful at camp.
It’s easier to be physical.
Most children in today’s society find more joy with their phone in their hands and in their isolated rooms with the Netflix and Wifi passcodes than they do outside on a beautiful spring day with a jump rope in hand. The harsh reality of that statement is that we parents allow it to happen. Sometimes it’s easier to avoid a tantrum if you just give them the tablet. Camp forces—I mean allows—your child to be active! Swimming, hiking, archery, canoeing, fishing—there are plenty of things to do. Real activities!
They can be creative.
Camp activities also can help your child think outside the box. Activities aside from the physical include things like arts and crafts, team building, trust exercises, critical thinking and even building things with the resources around you, like bird houses. Did I mention campfire stories and s’mores are always fun to make and share?
Camp cultivates growth.
One of the biggest takeaways from camp is the push for growth. Camp encourages kids to get out of their comfort zones. Camp also, believe it or not, cultivates growth mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It even benefits financially. As the parent, you invest in your kids’ experience at camp, and while they’re gone to camp, you may reap savings on school fees, activities and food. Food especially.
Campers learn self-reflection, self-esteem and self-respect.
Aside from the very many highs of what summer camp can bring, summer camp above all teaches children the importance of self-reflection. Camp gives kids new challenges to think about and conquer daily. Camp also teaches children how important self-esteem is. It helps them build confidence within themselves, shape how they treat themselves and how they want to be treated. Most importantly, it teaches them how to treat others.
Camp imparts lifelong skills.
At its longest, the duration of your child’s camp adventure is 90 days, 12 weeks, three months or one season. Let’s give this a little perspective. In one year there are 365 days, 52 weeks and four seasons. A regular school year pulls, at most, three of those seasons toward core in-class learning techniques. Three of those seasons your child is learning, or at least being taught, the same exact information as the child sitting in the next chair over. In this small amount of time devoted to summer camp, your kids can learn lifelong skills that really set them apart from the average. The reality of summer camp is that it can impart skills kids wouldn’t otherwise learn—and they’ll have fun actually experiencing it.
Find the best camps with our Camp Guide!
Jessica Samuel lives in Kansas City and is a freelance writer and photographer.