Summer Camps: 10 Reasons Why A Camp Is Essential:

Yes, now is the time for making a decision about which camp will best suit your child this year, and as you can see from the options available in this special supplement, these choices are many and varied. Does your child lean towards sports, the outdoors, something more cerebral or artistic, or a combination of them all? Well, there are a myriad of camps available, and a myriad of good reasons to pack your son or daughter off to one or more of them. Here, we will take a look at how attendance at a summer camp can educate your child, and enrich their lives, often with long lasting benefits.1) Social Skills: Children learn how to interact with strangers as they discover the quality of the human spirit. They learn how to respect and to appreciate other people, and develop a greater ability to communicate with their peers, and participate in group activities.2) Care For The Environment: A summer camp spent in the mountains, woods or at a lake, can expose your child to nature in a very pure way, and help them to understand that respect for the environment is everybody’s responsibility. Coming into contact with wildlife and other animals will be of great value in allowing a child to witness at first hand the beauty of nature’s creatures.3) Self-esteem: Learning to look after themselves, and take care of the younger members of the camp, will teach the child responsibility. They will feel good about themselves, and learn the value of consideration of others. An invaluable life-lesson.4) Team work: Camps are very good at developing a sense of teamwork for kids. They learn that everybody has a role, and every role deserves respect. They learn that no matter what another child’s social, cultural, or religious background, they all have their part to play and that the whole is greater than the sum of these parts.5) Morals and Ethics: A camp can allow a child to expand upon moral and ethical awareness. They learn to restrain judgment, become more tolerant, and respect others for who they are.6) Health and Fitness: Sport and outside adventure camps will transform even the most hardened couch potato into someone who relishes in physical activity. This can be a life changing experience, and promotes a joyful desire to maintain better physical shape, and feel much better about taking care of themselves.7) New activities: Many camps offer activities that can be difficult to experience within the confines of city life. Canoeing, swimming, hiking, archery and horseback riding, the list goes on. Your child may discover a hidden talent that will become a rewarding part of their lives in the years to come.8) Stimulating the mind: There are specialized camps that offer development in computer skills, technology, photography, science, drama, and the arts, to name but a few. The mind is like a muscle and these camps provide a strenuous workout.9) Respect for authority: Camp counselors are skilled in encouraging children to have respect for adults and authority. Many parents see an immediate change in their child’s reactions to them upon return. This has been described by some as THE real reward for camp attendance.10) Enthusiasm for life: Camps are fun! Having fun whilst learning about new things, themselves and the world, will enrich your child’s life, and this enthusiasm can last a whole lifetime, giving them a greater ability to deal with stress, and the future challenges that they will face.