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Hailey Eisen, Our Kids Go to Camp 2012
Camp Life Skills :
1. How to Make More Friends 2. How to Overcome Challenges 3. How to Get Fit 4. How to Love the Earth 5. How to Lead
It's time to unwrap the "bubble-wrapped" generation. Saturated with 24-hour news highlighting crimes in their communities, many parents today are overprotective of their children, "bubble wrapping" them in order to keep them safe and sheltered. While Glover says statistically it's safer now than it was when he was a child, parents are not as willing to let their kids out of their sight. This is where camp proves to be extremely beneficial.
At camp, children are encouraged to go outside their comfort zone through activities such as high ropes courses, dramatic and musical performances, or wilderness camping.
By allowing children to take risks and face challenges, camp helps children build their independence, resiliency and self-esteem in a safe, supervised and supportive environment, the study found.
"Camp does a really good job of teaching kids it's okay to fail and helps them recognize their limitations and see these are things that are not fixed and can be improved upon,"
— Troy Glover, University of Waterloo
These invaluable life skills often translate into improvements at home and at school, says Mike Pearse, director of Camp Tawingo, a traditional overnight camp in Muskoka, Ont.
Pearse says that the camp experience can be divided into the hard skills – for example, learning how to paddle a canoe, tie a knot, identify an edible plant and play a team sport – and accompanying soft skills such as perseverance, creativity, responsibility and courage. "At camp, every child has an opportunity to succeed," he says.
This translates into increased self-confidence and, in many cases, an improved school experience. "I've had parents come to me and say, 'My child is doing so much better in math class this year because of the confidence boost he got from camp,'" Pearse says.
At camp, obstacles can be seen as challenges that kids can overcome. About four years ago, Samuel travelled from Montreal to Vancouver to join his cousins at Pedalheads camp in hopes of learning how to ride a bike. Then six years old, Samuel was born with only three fingers on one hand and didn’t have the confidence to ride a two-wheeler for the first time.
"On the third day of camp, his training wheels came off - he was extremely proud," says Jacqueline Fefer, Samuel's aunt who lives in Vancouver. "His father told me that for the rest of the summer, all he wanted to do was ride his bike."
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