Benefits of Summer Camp
Let's Go To Summer Camp
Summer arrives quickly! Decisions of those parts of life that will most benefit a child is always foremost in the hearts and minds of parents. Summer Camp is usually the choice of children and their parents, but what really are the benefits?
1. Growth With New Adventures
A child grows through new ventures. Being in a four wall classroom all year, while productive, also begs for something new, different, exciting! To conclude a school year and discover journeys to Day Camp or Overnight Camps, is like icing on that newly baked cake!
Ventures may include a seemingly bigger world, where the sky is new and the clouds had never been noticed. The out of doors becomes a paradise of trees, canopies of greenery, fields of delight for planting gardens, trails for hiking, creeks for wading and gem mining, animal farms, gathering eggs from the hen house, picking okra from the garden, and taking it home for family suppers, recreational areas that beckon the challenges of outdoor summer enjoyment, all outside of winter walls to meet summer outdoors at its best benefits!
2. Growth With New Relationships
A child grows through making new friends and renewing old friends. Summer Camp has the highest benefits of discovering new friends, in both their age levels and with persons older, like counselors and other staff members.
There is an increase of communication skills, of taking initiative in conversations, asking questions, expressing interest. New friends enable children to feel needed, and to feel a part of all that is going on in the world of new ventures! This social aspect is one of the great opportunities for the young child.
3. Growth In Skills
A child learns new skills such as archery, fishing, crafting, leather crafting, horseback riding, nature knowledge. As he embraces all that is offered, the benefits of the varied activities bring about renewed self esteem and mutual interest in others enjoying the same skills. By spending time in every activity, a child learns of interests he may not have chosen, had a sign up been permitted, rather than a skill filled schedule, with just enough time to enjoy the new and move on to another opportunity of very different skills.
4. Growth In Maturity
A child grows older right before the eyes of staff and parents. He takes more responsibility as more decision making opportunities are available. He speaks up without waiting to know what his friends may decide. He becomes his own person. He benefits from the privilege of being himself and being recognized for who he is, as an important child of God.
5. Growth In Self Esteem
As the child is respected by peers and staff, he begins to appreciate himself as well. When challenged and meeting those challenges, he realizes that he is in-deed capable of more than he realized. Opportunities to take home created crafts, gems discovered after hard searches in the creek, and food from the garden or leather craft items, enables the campers to feel very special sharing and showing accomplishments at home. Growth in self-esteem also has become obvious through Bible stories, discussions, and discovery of God’s love for everyone.
6. Growth In Trust
Reaching beyond home and familiar places, the child begins to trust others. At first he may trust because he has to trust. He is unfamiliar with the new and must find someone on whom he can depend. As he explores all phases of camping days, his happiness becomes complete. Those around him have earned his trust through their treatment and love, their daily teaching and sharing, their genuine concern and tender care of the needs of the campers.
7. Growth In Spiritual Development
In the wonder and majesty of God’s created world, children grow close to God. In the quietness of life out of doors, children feel God’s presence. This is especially evident in camps with Christian nurture or with campers who have come from Christian homes. These are the often immeasurable benefits!
Returning home from summer camp can be a time for parents to be thankful that they have chosen, with their child: a place to see in their camper the benefits of summer choices!
“Now I see the secret of the best person
It is to grow in the open air
and to eat and sleep
with the earth. ’’