Some of the Best Reasons to Send Your Children to Camp

With a combined 25 years worth of summer camp experience, Cassie R., GSNC's Interactive Media Coordinator, and Summer Intern Paige decided to write about some of their favorite reasons why kids should experience a summer at camp. Whether day camp, sleep away camp or summer program, a theater camp, sports camp, craft camp or Girl Scout camp, all offer life lessons, new experiences and lasting memories. The options are endless...

Summer of 2013 is the perfect time to send your children for their first experience at  summer camp! Attending a summer camp provides a safe environment for your children either throughout the day or overnight. Aside from being a secure place for your child, it will be a fun experience that will provide years of amazing memories. 

Interaction without Technology. One reason you may want to consider summer camp for your child, regardless of age, is camp’s interactive nature. Activities like sports, team building, theater, and crafts take your child away from the technology based world in which they live, and focuses on engaging in worthwhile activities that will enrich their minds. They can participate in arts and crafts, sports, and simply getting to know one another.

Education in disguise. Along with being interactive for children, camp can be educational. Depending on the camp that your child attends and their age, the program may incorporate a school-like aspect. Specifically for younger children, learning can be applied simply and in fun ways like teaching math and physics through games. Therefore, children may not feel as though they are learning, but through activities such as coloring or group work they are opening their eyes to new possibilities. Last year at GSNC’s Summer Fun Day Camp, girls learned about reptiles, while holding and playing with them. 

Independence and Responsibility.  Children who go to camp learn how to care and be responsible for themselves and ask for help when it is needed. They learn to make their beds in the morning and keep their bunk/tent/troop house clean (camp counselors will provide guidance and keep the kids safe, but they don't usually make beds). "At camp, every morning after breakfast, the other girls in the cabin and I would each have a chore. Making our beds, sweeping the floor and folding our clothes all had to be done before the rest of the day’s activities could begin. It was a valuable lesson in how to care for myself" said Cassie.

 

Unbreakable Bonds of Friendship. Another great reason to send your kids to camp is the potential to develop lifelong friendships through a shared bond at a summer camp. "Even 10 years later, I still speak with friends I made at camp. We shared many experiences together from being away from our parents for the first time and sleeping in a cabin to horseback riding up a mountain and white water rafting down a river. These are the experiences that bonded us together into not just friends, but sisters" said Cassie.  Whether simply between campers, or between camper and counselor, camp is excellent for building interpersonal skills.