So – summer is tipping toward us and you’re wondering to do with your kids for all the weeks they are off school. People keep mentioning summer camp to you, but why would I send my kids to camp? Ah – wrong question. Why wouldn’t you send you kids to summer camp? While I’m not a parent myself, I have absolutely been a camper, and then staff, and now, year- round program director. And these are three reasons you should send your kids to camp – you can call them the three C’s:
Community
Yes, sometimes the word is overused, but I really believe summer camp is a leader in shaping community for young people. Camps exist for
your children! And at camp, kids learn to rely on each other, ask each other for help, laugh with one another, eat with one another, ask big questions together. When people come together with a common goal of growth, relationship, and love – good things are bound to happen. Often, some of what happens involves deep friendship, the kind that keeps you coming back year after year, and in my case, friendships that have lasted past my camp years and into adulthood. Camp community gave me the best friends.
Curiosity and Creativity
Many summer camps involve some sort of teaching, which means some kind of learning. And when learning takes place, kids are encouraged to think,
to dig into their imagination, to play, explore and ask questions that expand their knowledge about the world and about themselves. Summer camps foster this space of curiosity, and we walk alongside your kids to say “Hey! Look over there! What is that? Let’s find out together.”
Courage
At camp, we ask your kids to try new things. So many of the things I experienced as a child, I first did at camp: canoe trip, zipline, sailboarding, making a fire. In some ways, this step is possible because of the previous two. After kids realize they are in a community that cares for them, they start to ask more questions, become more curious, and eventually, build up the confidence to say “Yes! I can try that new thing! I can get dirty in the mud; I can go down the zipline! I can carry the canoe over my head!” Woohoo!
I could go on about the other benefits of camp, because there are so many layers of personal growth that take place at summer camp. Community, curiosity and courage, however, overlap and feed into each other, and have truly made me the person I am today.
Nadya Langelotz (she/her) works as the Associate Program Director for Camps with Meaning, which has two locations: Camp Koinonia (near Boissevain, MB) and Camp Assiniboia (near Headingley, MB). Koinonia has canoe trip and overnight options, while Assiniboia has day camps (with bussing!), overnight, and farm camps. For more information, see www.campswithmeaning.org.
