Summer Camp Provides the Building Blocks for Life! Giving your child the opportunity to attend summer camp is one of the best things you can do for their future. Parents report, and research confirms, that children return from camp with more confidence and improved life skills. The benefits of the camp experience include the development of social skills (leadership, friendship, independence, communication and participation), self-respect and character building (responsibility, resilience and resourcefulness) and community living skills (caring, fairness, citizenship and trustworthiness). Research has shown that camp offers a place of experiential and contextual learning where children develop skills and gain knowledge that can help them in the classroom when the summer comes to an end. The fantastic part is that, in a camp setting, this process is fun! The goals of summer camp are to: •
Have fun!
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Improve athletic, artistic and intellectual skills
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Develop important life skills
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Make new friends and develop social skills
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Nurture independence and self-confidence
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Learn the value of teamwork and cooperation
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Experience living in a new environment
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Develop greater respect for nature
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Learn from a positive adult role model
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Improve communication skills
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Awaken children to their abilities, talents, strengths, weaknesses and potential.
Our counsellors are trained to take every opportunity to work on life skills with your child, even when they don’t know it! For example; a kayak lesson is a chance for your child to develop their self-confidence in the water, learn to work well with their peers, and if walking over the bow of their friends’ kayaks while they hold them together isn’t a lesson in teamwork and trust, then I don’t know what is! Even a cabin conflict is an opportunity – what better way to learn how to resolve conflicts and live together happily as a group than being guided by your counsellor to this final result.
The personal objective of our staff members is to work with children to help them gain the important skills that will carry them successfully through life, and we know that camp is a great place for this process to occur.