| Issue #50, March 23, 2007 |
Camp is More Than Just Fun and Games
Most parents view the traditional summer break from school as an extended vacation for their children without the pressures or benefits that organized education provides during the rest of the year. For many parents, the challenge of finding engaging recreational activities for their children to participate in during the summer becomes a full-time job in and of itself. In the end, programs that keep their children active and busy, while imparting specific recreational skills, meet parent expectations for an appropriate and beneficial way for their children to spend the summer.
While the balance of the school year is devoted to academic learning, the summer provides an opportunity for children to improve their recreational skills like swimming, basketball, tennis, golf, dance, theatre and painting. Nonetheless, the summer vacation can and should be a lot more than just a time of fun and recreational skill enhancement. Summer vacation should also provide children with opportunities to hone their social skills and to develop new ways to communicate with each other that will help them in any profession they choose later in life.
While academics are important for a child’s success, proficiency in the various social skills is of equal, if not greater import. In today’s high-tech world, children’s opportunities to interact with each other face-to-face are being replaced by digital communication, yet good interpersonal skills remain the single most important quality an adult needs to have in order to succeed in both business and social endeavors. Children need an organized place where the tools of making and keeping friends are taught and skills children already have are cultivated more than ever before. They need an environment filled with people whose only goal is to improve children’s self-esteem, self-confidence and resilience to any adversity that the twists and turns of life may have in store for them.
That’s where a traditional summer day or sleep-away camp comes in. At camp, counselors teach children the skills of making and keeping friends in the relaxed arena of a basketball court, swimming pool, fine arts shop or dance studio. At camp, children learn to engage in positive, good-natured competition, while understanding the negative consequences of the cutthroat, competitive play so in vogue in some professional athletics. Camp teaches children how to win with grace and lose with class. In life, they must confront both – at camp, they can experience these situations without the dire consequences of mishandling them in the adult world.
At camp, children are taught to understand the importance of good character and positive values. They learn sportsmanship, tolerance, appreciation, respect, friendship, integrity, sensitivity and helpfulness (at Hampton Country Day Camp, these are known as STARFISH values). Camp teaches children that they are an important part of the lives of everyone around them and that their decisions affect others beside themselves.
Camp provides a supervised, structured and protective environment designed to enhance children’s self-esteem, self-confidence and their resilience (their ability to bounce back and continue moving forward even in the face of adversity). While parents have limited capacity to enhance self-esteem and confidence because of the depth of their protective relationship with their children, the mentors and coaches found in a positive camp environment – along with peers and teammates – have an unmatched ability to make a child feel great about his or her achievements and build children’s self-confidence and self-esteem.
When considering options for your child for the summer, raise your expectations and demands to include not only days filled with fun and activities that your child will enjoy, but also experiences he or she will learn and benefit from for all the years ahead. That’s what a great summer camp experience should provide.
To learn more about what a great summer camp experience can do for your child, visit www.hamptoncountrydaycamp.com, email fun@hamptoncountrydaycamp.com or call 516-953-5171. During the summer season, please call 631-537-1770.
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