The Benefits of a Camp Experience

When I was a child, from a very early age, I remember being encouraged to go play outside with friends and neighbors and to make sure we got home before the street lamps went on. We spent countless hours playing hide and seek, tag, or going back and forth to the park across the street.

Our children do not have this same luxury.

​Parents of our generation are keeping a much closer eye on their children. It is unheard of to send kids to the park without supervision. Or, to allow them to take public transportation home from school under the age of 12, at the very earliest. Our children do not have the same freedoms to come and go as we did as children.

In combination with the increase in crime, the changes in the law as to what constitutes ‘neglect’, and perhaps a little paranoia on behalf of parents, our children are not able to experience the benefit of free play, the outdoors and being with nature, for most of the school year. Our children spend a lot of their free time indoors, supervised by caregivers and many hours on what we in our house refer to as ‘screens’.

Breaks in the routine such as Christmas, Passover, March Break and the summer holidays, are excellent opportunities for parents to maximize the amount of socialization of their kids while allowing them to experience the great outdoors. As a huge advocate of the ‘Camp Experience’, whether sleep over or day camp, the benefits are quite similar. Without being cooped up in classrooms, children can derive many advantages from a camp environment.

Some of the primary benefits of camp include:

1. The value of learning how to play through hands-on experience rather than in a classroom. There is something to be said about hands-on experience and unstructured play. Children learn a lot by ‘doing’. Although sitting in the classroom throughout the school year is essential, children can also learn by being immersed in new social situations, offered many options of play, and given the ability to make their own decisions. In a school environment, until the university level, there is often very little choice given to our children as to what courses they can take. In a camp atmosphere, our children can figure out what they like to do, and what they are good at, while simultaneously meeting other children who have similar interests.
2. Learning new social skills and increasing self-confidence. Being at camp provides our children with all sorts of exposure. Exposure to new people, new activities, and new risks. Our children have opportunities to try a vast array of sports and games, which they may never have attempted before. Camp is good for increasing self-esteem, as it forces our children to speak up for themselves. It helps them learn how to have their own voice and it exposes our children to new friendships, which are separate from school.
3. Learning how to combat what is known as ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’. Let’s face it. We live in a world where computer games, televisions, Xbox, DS and other screens have taken over the attention of our children. As already mentioned, our children do not spend the necessary time outside to really reap the benefits. Being at camp forces our children to be outside. It allows all of their 5 senses to be stimulated at the same time. It is good for them, physically, but also psychologically.
4. Camp helps encourage the deep development of leadership skills including team building, cooperation and more. At camp, in a ‘group’ or ‘cabin’ environment, children have no choice but to learn to work cooperatively. Games and sports require taking turns. Even waiting for a shower at overnight camp requires patience and an understanding that we cannot always get what we want, when we want it. It requires compromise and working together, without mom and dad there to do it for them.

Clearly, attending camp is more than just ‘something to do’ to pass the time while on break from school. Attending camp as a camper and staff member for almost my entire childhood right through to my mid twenties, shaped the person that I am today. My closest friends are those that I met while at camp, with whom I shared many experiences and created many memories. If I had it my way, I would still be attending camp. The benefits are countless. The memories even more so. Right now I have to settle living vicariously through my children and their experiences.