The emotional growth of children is as important as their physical growth, health, and fitness (maybe a little bit as they start growing up). For physical growth, we can feed them with healthy food and snacks. However, what about emotional development? As working parents, we are unfortunately away from our children for the day and can’t provide them with complete holistic development. So what’s your solution? The life skills learned at summer camp are enough for our children’s emotional development. All you need to do is send them to one. So let’s get on this rollercoaster ride together.
6 Preparations Before Sending Your Children to Summer Camp
When your child goes to a summer camp for the first time, it will be the first time they will be away from you. So it’s natural for both of you to get a little anxious and nervous. That’s okay. However, you still need to overcome some of these pre-summer camp hurdles. So here’s how you prepare to send your children to summer holiday camps away from you.
1. Talk with Your Child
The first thing you need to do is talk with your child about any anxieties or nervousness they may have. Regardless of whether you think your kids’ fears are just a figment of their imagination or not, they are completely real in their minds. So your little ones need your full physical and emotional support to prepare for the upcoming adventure.
2. Know What’s Normal
Know that a little anxiety is normal, so if you spot it in your child, then you both can ignore it. It’s similar to when you are going to watch a movie. You are anxious because you don’t know whether it’s going to be good or bad. It’s more or less the same with children who are going to visit summer camps.
An expert tip here is don’t tell your kid that holiday camp will be good and all. Instead, let the child figure it out. This way, their nervousness will naturally subside, replaced by good curiosity.
3. Stay Positive
Another thing to remember is to stay calm and positive. This way, your child will also gain the confidence to be able to enjoy the camp without thinking about anything else. Also, refrain from telling them how you will enjoy the weekend without them.
4. Your Child’s Interests Matter
Let us give you an example. Suppose we enjoyed LEGO robotics camp during our childhood and one of the best summer camp activities for us was putting up the blocks together. So we send our children to the same.
That’s a big mistake as it can spoil all the fun for our children because they might not like LEGO at all. So it’s better to sit down with your child and discuss their interests before finalizing a holiday camp to send them to.
5. Allow Some Familiarity
Most of the anxiety in children comes from feelings of homesickness and being cut off from family during camps. Luckily, overcoming this fear is easy. All you have to do is send your child with something they love. For example:
- Their favourite soft toy
- Your photo
- Your phone numbers
6. Be Strong
The biggest mistake parents make is finding an easy way out by saying “It’s okay, you can go next year”. However, next year, it’s going to be the same. Every time you do something new, it’s the first time. So you need to be strong and give your kid the inner strength to be ready for anything.
5 Ways Life Skills Learned at Summer Camp Help Kids Grow Emotionally
As we mentioned before, life skills learned at summer camp help children grow emotionally. As parents, we know how summer camps helped us with complete holistic development. It’s now time to refresh our memories of it all.
1. Builds Confidence and Independence
Summer camps help children become more confident and independent. The sole reason it happens is because there is no intervention from adults. Only guidance. Otherwise, you know how it goes at home. For instance, as soon as your kid is about to put her hand in the fireplace, you will grab her hand away even before the tip of one of her fingers touch the fire. That way, what you are doing is taking away the child’s curiosity. On the other hand, at summer camps:
- Children will get the freedom to experiment with how they want to enjoy. Safety is there but with free will.
- This boosts children’s confidence more than it would have had at home.
- Children understand that they have more potential to do anything they want as they succeed at doing simple things themselves.
2. Helps Children Socialize
Your children also meet other kids from different schools and all walks of life at the summer camp. They learn to throw their differences away in the pond and become friends (a quality, which we as adults lack). Your children learn to:
- Make and keep new friendships
- Help each other the right way.
- Express themselves without sounding rude.
- Respect everyone
3. Develops Self-Esteem
At summer camps, children experience different types of activities, so we are sure that they are not getting bored anytime soon. On top of that, every time your children get success, let’s say, victory at a team soccer game, it will add to their self-esteem and never give up attitude.
4. Enhances Problem-Solving Skills
Problem-solving skills are crucial in the future as well. We all know that real life is never a smooth sailing ship. One day, all our children will grow up and face various challenges. So we must prepare them for it when they have no responsibilities. For instance, at a summer camp:
- Your kids will light their first campfire.
- They will be nervous before the activity.
- They might not be able to do it on the first try.
However, here’s the difference between home and summer camp. At the holiday camp, our children will try again and again till they succeed. Similarly, your children are prepared to solve any problem they may face in life.
5. Children Feel More Connected
Children participate in the shared experiences at summer camps. These include team sports and group activities such as dramas, cricket and soccer. Children learn to get along with everyone and never feel isolated. Even when they return home.
Top 5 Best Summer Camp Activities for Children
To get started, here are a few of the best summer camp activities your children will surely enjoy at their summer holiday camp.
- Cycling
- Rock Climbing
- Campfire
- Stargazing
- Group Singing
Conclusion
We now know as parents exactly how summer camps help our children grow and develop emotionally. We can say that every child must visit a summer camp at least once. So, are you looking for the best summer holiday camp for your child? At Kidsmart Academy, children are not only taken to various life-changing camps but their supervisors also take full responsibility for the complete holistic growth and development of kids through fun and learn with a pick-up and drop facility for working parents, so that they don’t have to worry about their little ones while they are away.
