Summer is on its way, and camps around the country are beginning to enroll students for outdoor education and summer programs. Many parents are debating whether to send their children to camp this year. Sending a child to camp for the first time can be an intimidating prospect. To help you make an informed choice, here are five distinct benefits offered to campers by outdoor education and summer camps:
1. Camps offer a safe environment where students can exercise outdoors.
During their formative years, it is important for students to engage in regular exercise and learn healthy habits. This will set them up for success when they become adults.
Attending outdoor education or summer camps helps teach children the importance of staying healthy and active in a fun environment. Camp counselors provide support for their campers, making sure that they are safe while they enjoy the outdoors. With the rising danger of childhood obesity, camps offer an invaluable service, giving children a chance to exercise in the outdoors while still remaining safe.
2. Camps provide an opportunity to learn new skills and engage in new activities.
They are specially equipped for activities that students would otherwise never get to experience.
Camps provide campers with opportunities to learn new skills such as archery, canoeing, fishing, rock-climbing, orienteering, and horseback riding. Since camps are not reliant on government funding, they can afford to offer academic and sports programs to students of all ages and skill levels.
3. Camps allow students to practice valuable socialization skills.
Camps teach students how to engage in constructive conflict-resolution, which will prepare them for life in the professional world.
In addition to working through guided team-building activities, campers can also engage in free play at camp. Free, unrestricted play will help them learn creativity and problem-solving. It also allows children to act like children and enjoy the company of others their age. In a time where children are often forced to grow up too quickly, camp provides them with a safe space where they can befriend others and express themselves without judgment.
4. Campers gain a new appreciation for nature and its benefits.
Studies have shown that children who interact with nature are healthier, happier, and more aware of their surroundings.
They learn to pay attention to everything around them, appreciating nature’s beauty on a new level. This encourages both creativity and a better understanding of how the world works. Through outdoor education, students learn more about science, natural history, and most importantly, themselves.
5. Campers learn self-reliance.
According to Michael Ungar, Ph.D., “summer camps are places where children get the experiences they need to bolster their range of coping strategies”.
Campers are taught how to care for themselves and handle negative emotions like stress or homesickness. They learn positive conflict-resolution strategies. Camp counselors encourage campers to challenge themselves and act with confidence. In doing so, they help students become more independent and self-assured, and as a result, better equipped for life on their own.
Going to camp for the first time can be intimidating. However, the experience is well worth the cost. Camps offer students a chance to enjoy nature, exercise, and learn about themselves and others in an enjoyable, supportive environment. They teach children self-reliance and help equip them for a brighter future.
It’s great that you mentioned that attending summer camps can help teach the children to get more active in a fun environment and to know the importance of staying healthy. My colleague shared with me that is planning to send her son to a summer camp next year after finding out the benefits of attending it. He is hoping to find a reputable summer camp center that can organize this kind of program.
It is good to know that summer camps teach children the significance of being healthy. That’s probably why my son wants to join a kid’s summer camp. I should let him experience it while his young.