Around this time every year, summer brings to mind warm weather, BBQ’s and swimming. For most parents of young kids, it can be a stressful time as they try to find the solution to an age old question “what can we do to keep the kids busy and having fun at the same time?”
Fear not, as the answer for many parents provides numerous benefits for the kids - “summer camps”. In fact, with the fast paced life style of dual working parents, camp participation has grown at an incredible pace. Rightly so, as the life skills and benefits cultivated in early years help the overall growth and development throughout all relationship of school, work and personal life.
According to Thomas Glover (director of the University of Waterloo’s Healthy Communities Research Network) and his recently published nationwide study on the effects of camp on kids titled The Canadian Summer Camp Research Project, the positive effects were dramatic. Glover observes how summer camps, “foster emotional intelligence (or EQ), self-confidence, independence, healthy active lifestyle, environmental awareness, leadership and other skills that prove beneficial long into adulthood”.
Here are the five biggest reasons to put your child in a camp this summer.
Builds Friendships and Social Skills
If you were to ask most alumni of any camp what their most cherished summer memory was, they typically would refer to the numerous relationships they developed. All camps incorporate teamwork, co-operation, sharing skills and important social skills. One of the Canadian Summer Camp Research Project’s most significant findings was in the area of emotional intelligence, often referred to as EQ (emotional quotient). EQ involves recognizing, understanding and managing emotions, allowing children to learn how to work, play, relate, get along, empathize and connect with others.
Nurtures Resilience and Confidence
According to Michael Unger, Ph.D and professor of social work at Dalhousie University and scientific director of the Resilience Research Centre, “The best camps do not provide cookie-cutter solutions to what kids need. Instead, great camps understand that the factors that make children resilient are cumulative.”
In other words, resilience is best developed through the daily interactions of camp life - from fun and silly camp chants and songs, to working together as a team to accomplish a task - the base for the building blocks of confidence is formed.
Cultivates a Healthy Active Lifestyle
Campers are always involved in some form of activity, with many incorporating a physical component, be it rope walking or sport activity. For many kids, learning a sport activity such as tennis, can lead to a lifelong fulfillment as it is one of the most portable, physically rewarding, time friendly, and socially engaging sports in the world.
Develops Social Intelligence
Leading author, psychologist, and science journalist Daniel Goleman identifies social intelligence as two components:
Social awareness is the ability to monitor our inner world — our thoughts and feelings. Social awareness refers to qualities including empathy, attunement to others and social cognition.
Social facility, on the other hand, refers to how we use our internal social awareness to interact with individuals and groups successfully, such as self-presentation, influence and concern for others.
Camp is a key opportunity for kids to develop both sides of their social intelligence by offering them a way to practice becoming adept at socializing, providing them access to new people and new environments.
The more children can practice their social intelligence, the more smoothly they can incorporate these skills into the rest of their life.
Builds Leadership Skills
Camps offer many character-building exercises on a daily basis. While the child may not see their camp activities as necessarily promoting leadership ability, children learn to work with others and assert leadership roles, promoting assertiveness and self-confidence. When placed within groups for various activities, campers can each be given a specific role to play providing valuable feedback to help children learn and become aware how their role affects others.
Bottom line, there is a plethora of imperial statistical data that shows the most important result - Kids love summer camps for all the experiences listed above and parents love these camps as they see their children developing the many skills for adulthood. Make sure you're signing up the little ones for camps this summer!
P.S. Are you looking for a way to organize your summer family activities? Check out our printable summer calendar!