If you ask those who embarked on a summer camp adventure in their youth to recall their memories, you’ll probably see a wistful smile spread across their face. Summer camp can be one of those life-defining moments where you grow up – learning how to build relationships, how to work with others and how to trust those around you.
Summer camp can teach children many foundations of life that they’ll later rely on in adulthood. It’s a time for them to achieve some independence, growing and maturing as they broaden their horizons and gain new, life-changing experiences. When your child attends a summer camp program they’ll develop decision-making skills, accept guidance and build meaningful relationships, which stand them in good stead for the rest of their life. Nurturing their confidence and independence, summer camp can benefit your child in a number of ways, including:
Learning the Importance of Teamwork
A lot of the activities your child will be involved in at summer camp will be team-based, which means all of the attention is taken away from “me, myself and I”. Instead, they’ve got to work together as a team to achieve something, with all of them investing in each other to achieve the end goal.
This will help them to learn how investing in relationships is good and that when they strengthen their relationships with people, they’ll all benefit. Each individual involved in these group tasks will feel empowered that they’ve contributed to a team, which is a fundamental learning curve for many aspects of life.
Learning How to Be Resilient
When you get knocked down, you’ve got to get back up again, and summer camp can help to teach them this mentality. Think of the rope courses they go on; an outdoor activity that they’ll work in a team on, and one that can be incredibly challenging.
Here they’ll learn that they have to be resilient because they’re going to fall, and they’re going to have to dust themselves down and get back up, time and time again. As they continue throughout the program, this will add to their confidence, especially when these seemingly impossible tasks start to be accomplished.
Learning How to Make Decisions
Even in the toughest moments of life, we have to make decisions, and this is something your child will discover at summer camp. As their confidence grows they’ll feel more able to make good decisions, learning who they can and can’t look to for guidance. With so many movies and TV shows, and sometimes some of their friends, offering bad advice, it’s important that they’re able to distinguish between the good and bad advice that’s offered to them throughout life.
Discovering New Things
To get through the various situations that are presented to them in summer camp, your child will have to learn how to make decisions and how to put themselves out there. Overcoming obstacles, climbing ropes, cooking food and living in a cabin are all accomplishments that your child can take and build on to create a sense of their own character, to be more determined and to focus on the bigger picture.
Any parent knows that when a child doesn’t push themselves outside of comfortable situations, they lack flexibility, courage and confidence. Initially, the camp will be an unfamiliar and potentially unpleasant situation for your child, but this gives them a chance to learn how to grow outside of their comfort zone.
This is a valuable life lesson as they see that when they’re put into situations that they’re perhaps not overly comfortable with, they can still make the most out of them. They’re learning how to be productive and how to stand on their own two feet, which is incredibly important in adulthood.
Growing Up
The entire process of summer camp cannot fail but to make your child grow up in a number of ways. And in today’s society where there are so many conveniences, this is very important, because life isn’t always a bed of roses. They’ll learn how to develop, improve their confidences and strengthen their values ready for times when they may be presented with adversity.
There are so many benefits for your child to absorb at camp but you can also recreate these at home throughout the year too. By gently pushing your child out of their comfort zone, allowing them to make their own decisions and overcome certain obstacles; they’ll be even more prepared for the adulthood that awaits them.
Magi Dizdari (BM,MM) is a versatile concert pianist and a successful business woman. In her music career, she has combined two important passions, performing and teaching. In 2003 she founded DEA Music and Art Schools and has since expanded this community-based idea into a successful business opportunity, from a small and local project to a global brand with three branches in US and one in London, UK. It is her innovative philosophy of making music, art and performing, central to the kids education that sets Magi apart from other community projects. Her passion for excellence, knowledge of the performing arts, and need of dreaming big has ensured the success of her business. Her students are award winners and have performed in all major concerts halls around the country, including Carnegie Hall. With her inexhaustible energy, she is a driving force for introducing creativity into the lives of young people and making a real change in the way communities explore the arts.
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