The school year is winding down and summer camp is on the horizon. Here are a few benefits to summer camps that will help you feel good about sending your children off to experience new adventures.

There are many different types of summer camps. Some camps specialize in literacy, karate, gym sports, dancing and cooking. Camps will help develop the child’s interests and promote growth in their ongoing talents. School-aged children are trying to find out what they like and who they are. Specialty camps offer the best option for children to explore new talents. This allows the children to build long-lasting leadership skills and promote self-confidence to pursue an interest or start a new one.

Camps also keeps children’s brain active. The two-month summer vacation could have some children plugged in to screens too much and not actively developing skills. Camps that focus on math, science and reading help to keep the child’s mind awake for when school starts back.

Summer camps can help build outside-of-school friendships. Your child may always have the same peers from kindergarten to grade 6 at school; however, attending a summer camp may foster new friendships from different towns or different schools. It gives them the chance to break free from school peer judgment and explore a new character who may be surrounded by others with the same interests. Summer camps can help children explore different people, families, and ethnicities.

Summer camps foster all the areas of child development on a daily basis. They promote gross motor skills through sports and movement. This is particularly done through outdoor play when the weather is at its best. Promoting ‘back to nature’ by offering all activities outside help foster a closer connection to a calmer and unplugged lifestyle.  Cognitive skills are developed by playing puzzles and games, such as chess or checkers.

Fine motor development is promoted by crafts, writing and sometimes even cooking. Speech and language are naturally done through ongoing conversations with peers and monitors. Social and emotional development is the area that is influenced most at summer camps. Children learning new talents and building new friendships can help boost their self-esteem and confidence. This enhances personal growth while also promoting teamwork. It gives them a bank of skills that can be applied to everyday living.

Above all, summer camps are adventurous and entertaining. Everyday there is something new to learn. The excitement of chatting with friends, building campfires or learning a dance routine has the children seeking quests.  Most of the time, the animators are young and full of energy. They bring a wave of creative twists to regular routines and play. Children are happy to have a change of environment where the program is based on social interaction rather than only academics.

Camps offer life-long skills, talents and relationships. It promotes healthy living and a closer connection with nature. It’s a place where kids can be kids and enjoy the activities offered without a care in the word. A place to be free.