5 Important Skills Kids Learn at Summer Camp (& Summerkids!)

 



Here are just a few of the many skills that kids learn at Summer kids. We believe all of these are important to their success both now and later in life!

  1. Teamwork & Cooperation

    There’s not a lot of solitude at camp. Campers are together the whole day. But that’s a good thing!

    Activities are more fun when they are accomplished together. This might be something as simple as coming together as a team for a game. Capture the Flag only works if a team operates cooperatively—one person can’t win the whole game alone. Or it might be helping another camper with a craft who is struggling to figure out how to start the lanyard or make the friendship bracelet stitch.


  2. Decision-Making

    Choice is baked into the DNA of our camp operation, and campers must learn to make decisions in order to navigate through the day. This means choosing what activities to do and what campers to meet, among other things.

    We find that campers make decisions using all kinds of rationale: they might choose to do “bows and arrows” (aka archery) because they’ve loved a certain character who is a skilled archer. They might choose to do a certain activity because their favorite Counselor is leading it. Or they might choose to try something they’ve never done before, just because their friends are trying it.

    All of those are valid, and valuable, reasons to make decisions. But from each of these, they will learn.

    If a camper is having problems making a decision, our staff will help with that. They might narrow the choices, or throw out suggestions—thus making it easier and simpler for a camper to make that first decision themselves. And they will continue to help that camper. The next time that camper has to make a choice, the process will be easier. By the third or fourth time, it will be second nature.


  3. Courage

    A new environment is the best possible place that a child can learn what they are capable of doing and becoming! We realize that it’s never easy to try something new. But stepping out of their comfort zone, and trying new things, is important to a helping a child grow. Summer kids encourages campers to try new things and rewards them for that effort.


  4. Resilience

    I wish I could say that every moment at camp will be perfect, that no camper will have a challenge or thing to overcome. But that could happen. What’s more important is how we as a camp community help a child overcome that moment if it does happen.

    We believe in giving campers the tools they need to overcome any issue. That might mean patiently talking them through how to do the next step of a craft, one that felt overwhelming but really just needed a bit more instruction. It could be venturing out on the 4 Period Hike, and pushing past being tired to reach the waterfall at the end of the trail. Or a Counselor who helps a camper who has scraped her knee get up, put a band-aid on it and return to the game. All of these are examples of resilience that are learned in the camp environment.


  5. Self-Determination

    In many ways, growing from a child to an adult is all about learning to chart your own course. And that’s one thing that Summer kids thrives on! Because they are picking their own activities—not being assigned to them based on gender, age or some other demographic—campers get to learn about themselves, about what interests them, what they are good at and what makes them happy. And as they move around our campsite (under Counselor supervision), they are learning how to navigate this place, this environment, in a way that will have a lasting impact on their own independence and maturation.

Do all of these things sound like what you want your camper’s summer to be all about? If so, press play on summer and sign up for one session or more!


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