If you have ever wondered about the power of the summer camp experience and the lasting memories that it brings, Camp Navigator urges you to read on.
A camp exists for many purposes. By promoting youth development through research, a summer camp helps to enrich the lives of campers in many ways. Camps help kids build skills necessary to assume roles as successful adults.
Besides forging lifelong friendships, camps expose your kids to a gamut of people, participate in new activities, give them opportunities to feel good about themselves, boost confidence, and lots more. But what is most important is that it pushes the young ones out of their comfort zone and teaches them critical coping skills by presenting them with new, easy-accomplished challenges each day. This, in turn, fosters persistence, grit, and learning new skills. Let’s explore this in depth.
Resourcefulness is the first key skills that a camp teaches. In a camp, everything from people to situation to activities are new for your kids. With parents not there, it’s upon the kids to figure out on their own on how to meet these social challenges, solve problems, pack their backpack or saddle their horse. In the process, they stretch and grow in meaningful ways.
A camp bolsters enthusiasm too. Camp acknowledges interests and talents that are not always rewarded or recognized in school. So instead of feeling limited, trapped or bored, they can freely express their hidden skills and get a pat on their back for it too. Isn’t that wonderful?
Camp boost self-esteem. With so many new and fun things to learn and new tasks to be accomplished, camp gives kids the opportunity to earn competence in something new, leading to confidence. It is competence and confidence that promote self-esteem in kids, not ribbons and trophies for incidentals or just showing up.
It also teaches them self-control. In a camp, kids have to abide by rules, whether they like it or not. They can’t wail or cry or throw a tantrum, for the fear of being labeled. This makes them strong.
In general, camp provides a great opportunity for kids to test themselves outside the home and see that they are capable, they can connect with other kids, they can solve problems and collaborate.
