The Importance of the Day Camp Experience in a Child’s Life

So your child wants to go to day camp this summer.

Their friends who have been going are counting the days and hours until camp starts again.  You know your child is going to have fun but you ask yourself, "Why do kids love it so much and what can they really get out of their experience?"  Believe it or not, camp can enhance your child's emotional, social and developmental growth. The camp experience can build self-esteem, increase social skills, decrease stress and give a child much needed unstructured play time.  In these days of heightened social and academic pressure on children, day camp is food for a child's soul and can have lasting positive effects on their lives.

Good self-esteem is the foundation for a healthy child. 

Imagine your children are at camp with their group ready to climb the rock wall. Their hearts are racing and their palms are sweaty.  With the support of their group, they decide to face their fears and climb to the top.  When they finally come down, they have enormous grins on their faces.  With this huge accomplishment they show themselves that they can take on a challenge and succeed at it.  This experience will give them the self-confidence to try something new in the future knowing that nothing scary or awful will happen.

Although as parents we try to teach our children certain social skills, sometimes it's better for them to learn on their own.

Once children move out of the toddler and preschool years, peers become increasingly important in their lives. Learning the social rules and norms help children navigate through this period. Games played at camp such as Capture the Flag, Hide and Seek and Ultimate Frisbee, just to name a few, provide a set of rules that govern how to behave in certain situations and teach children the social rules they need to know (Elkind, 148).  Leadership skills can be learned when campers organize new games, rally fellow campers to show camp spirit and model appropriate behaviors for other campers. Problem solving arises almost daily with opportunities to help solve disagreements between fellow campers, to work through conflicting ideas about a group project, or how to best use the talents of each camper in a group competition. Decision making skills are practiced at camp in a more entertaining way than in a school setting. Campers are making decisions about how to have the most fun, how to be the most creative or how to be the group with the most camp spirit. 

Being outdoors is essential to one's mental and physical well- being. It can help reduce stress in children as well as adults.

According to Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, "Nature is fuel for the soul." When children and adults feel depleted, a good way to get energized is to connect with nature (Bowman).  Being in nature is a way to realize that there is a bigger world outside oneself and one's own problems and struggles. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, 8 to 18 year olds are connecting to some form of electronic media for 8 to 12 hours a day (Rideout & Foehr & Roberts, 2). This statistic is alarming as children and adolescents are clearly not getting enough exercise and are not giving their brains a rest. The health benefits of spending active time outdoors are limitless and include decreased depression and anxiety, decreased levels of obesity and increased levels of serotonin, the "feel good" chemicals in the body.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that "play is essential to development as it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being of children and youth" (Ginsburg, 182). Children today do not have as much down time to just play as they did 25 years ago.  During the school year, there is a lot of pressure to do well academically and parents are enrolling children in more after-school activities.  The importance of free play for children in all stages of childhood cannot be minimized.  They need time to de-clutter their minds, to let off steam and to just be a kid.

Now you see how camp can impact your child's development on so many levels. Enhanced self-esteem, increased social skills, being outdoors and more play time can give your child the tools for a successful and healthy childhood. Hopefully your questions have been answered and your child's experience at camp can now be looked at in a whole new light.

References

Bowman, Lee. The Seattle Times. Scripps Howard News Service, 12 Aug. 2010. Web. 6 Mar. 2011.

Elkind, David. The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 2007. 148. Print.

Ginsburg, Kenneth. "The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds." Pediatrics 119.1 Jan. (2007): 182-91. Web. 4 Mar. 2011.

Rideout, Victoria J., Ulla G. Foehr, and Donald F. Roberts. "Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8 to 18 Year Olds." A Kaiser Family Foundation Study Jan. (2010): 2. Web. 4 Mar. 2011