Children love going to camp. Well at least that is what we are told, but how do we really know?
Perhaps the starkest affirmation of this statement is this statistic garnered from a recent national survey. 90 percent of parents, who attended camp as children, have sent their own children to camp. Strong confirmation indeed of the positive impact that camping has on people, not just children, but into their adult lives as well.
Camp provides good learning experiences; both the opportunity to learn new skills and how to be part of a non-family group. Camp helps develop social skills through a wide variety of activities offered in a different setting from the home environment. Campers may return home with a better sense of security in new abilities. They may have learned to:
- Lead a song, not just sing it
- Participate in a drama group, not just watch it
- Teach a game, not just play it
- Tell a story or joke, not just laugh at it
And in the process of all this learning, they may well get along better with friends and family.
Camp provides opportunity to learn outdoor skills, to keep active during the summer away from school, to accept responsibility, to be self-reliant and make decisions, and all while making new friends. Friends whom under normal circumstances that child would never meet, yet now are friends for life, to share memories and camp stories with and perhaps pass on to their children.
Why send a child to camp? For the camper to enjoy the fun of camp activities, to have different and adventurous things to do, to be accepted by others as an important part of a group and perhaps most importantly, to have the chance to find themselves and things they thought they never had in them…or did they?
