Camping: Close to nature

LAL FONSEKA

Productivity Consultant, Brandix Lanka Limited

Every year, when summer comes around, ‘summer camp’ programs are held all over the world. And it had not taken much time for Sri Lanka to catch on to this new trend. All summer camps used to be similar – bonding with nature and other kids, learning to socialize, acquiring outdoor skills, and the like. Today, however, there are many different kinds of camps that children can participate in during the summer.

But are summer camps really necessary? Why do we send our children to summer camps, can’t they have a perfectly good and fun summer at home? After all, the latter would save parents a considerable amount of money. Indeed, why do we regard summer camps as a must during this time of the year? It has always been a part of American culture. Is it the same with Sri Lankans people? However, it seems that the rest of the world are into summer camps as well, despite the fact that summer occurs at different times of the year.

In fact, there are quite a lot of summer camps held in different countries every year.

Summer camps help children build the right kind of friendships with the right kind of friends. Apart from the above, the following goals could easily be achieve by sending your children to a summer camp.

Camp goals

* Increase knowledge, respect and appreci ation for the natural environment.

* Develop skills in children that will allow them to build positive relationships with others, encouraging cooperation, non-violence and respect for all people.

* Develop character in children through teaching and demonstrating the values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.

* Give children progressive opportunities for fun and adventure which are both challenging and rewarding.

* Give young children opportunities to accept responsibility, develop leadership skills and give service to others.

* Encourage creativity and resourcefulness through activities that develop young people’s imagination and desire for adventure.

*Provide children with responsible adult role models who demonstrate values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.

Camping helps a child’s total development. It increases self-confidence and self-esteem.

It also gives a child a chance to make decisions and become independent in a safe, structured environment with caring adults to guide and supervise them.

Systematic separation from parents is an important developmental phase in a child’s development and gives your child confidence.

Making new friends is one of the benefits of camping.

In their research, the American Camp Association has listed the following positive youth development ben efits of the camp experience:

* Camping is a safe and nurturing environment for children.

A supervised, positive environment, with controlled boundaries, helps kids grow. It provides the physical and emotional safety nets in a learning atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement.

* A camp is a caring place. Children are given opportunities to experience belonging and accept responsibility in a true community.

* Camping is vital to child’s education. Discovery, exploration and active participation are the methods of learning at a camp. Children practice growing up by taking healthy risks and stepping beyond their comfort zones.

* Camping is for everyone. Camps can serve almost any interest, ability, budget, age and special need.

* Camping is fun. It is an environment built especially for kids, encouraging them to learn to invent themselves through enjoyable activities.

* Camp leaders are child development professionals and educators who can work with parents to make a better world for children.

* In most of the summer camps, well trained counsellors provide guidance as campers make these decisions.

All summer camps apart from the above, summer camping programs develop self-esteem and self-confidence by encouraging each participant to:

1. develop responsibility through group living tasks;

2. demonstrate respect for self, authority, and the rights and property of others;

3. form an interest in exploring and enjoying the natural environment;

4. express creativity through crafts, problem solving, performing religious rites, personal interactions.

Summer camps include such activities as arts and crafts, bird watching, campfires, camping out, and climbing trees, cooking out, dancing, exploring, group building, role play, singing, storytelling, swimming, basketball, soccer and volleyball.

In conclusion, summer camp is one of the few places where children can experience and satisfy their need for physical activity, creative expression and true participation in a safe environment.

While at camp children learn about living, working and playing together and making positive contributions to their community. They acquire first hand multi-sensory knowledge of the natural world.

Going to camp gives the child much more than a vacation. Living, playing and sharing adventures together at camp help the child develop into a healthy, physically fit and productive adult.

At camp, children gain self-confidence and self-esteem, and learn the social skills of positive interaction that stay with them for a lifetime.

The new skills they have mastered and the social and emotional growth they have experienced help them become more successful in school and in other activities.