FINDING PURPOSE
Cherie Gough
Unexpected benefits of summer camp One of a parent’s biggest joys and
responsibilities is supporting the natural interests of their children and encouraging growth. Summer is the perfect time to develop new skills, and now is the time to plan for summer camps, which offer a variety of engaging activities. Observe your child’s strengths and interests to help identify her values, then help choose camps that stretch her and watch her reap rewards beyond expectations.
How to Help Kids Identify their Values • Pay attention: Look for times when your child finds her “flow” and loses herself in a particularly enjoyable activity. • Speak up: When you identify your child’s strengths or interests, compliment her focus and ask questions to learn what she loves most about the activities. • Enlist a mentor: Kids don’t always
16 • SanDiegofamily.com • April 2022
respond best to parents. Ask a family friend who shares your child’s interests to talk with her and encourage her abilities. • Utilize resources: “Librarians are unsung community resources and an amazing entryway into the creative world,” says Alonso Nunez, Executive Director and lead instructor at Little Fish Comic Book Studio. He suggests not only asking librarians to help find books that enhance children’s interests, but also inquiring about workshops or events that can develop skills. • Allow tweens and teens to take the lead when deciding on meaningful camps. In her book, Fourteen Talks Before Age Fourteen, author Michelle Icard makes the case that parents of tweens can be most effective by acting as “assistant managers,” supporting children in the decisionmaking process by listening carefully and providing feedback, rather than making decisions for them.
Choose Camps that Stretch Kids Growth happens when people step beyond their comfort zones. Science proves this is especially true for ages 10 and up, when the brain is malleable and neurons and synapses proliferate. Laurence Steinberg, author of Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence, notes, “The increase in novelty seeking is a way of making sure that individuals venture out into the world at a time when the brain is primed to learn from new experiences.” So, what can parents do? • Encourage kids to attend camps that offer new activities to help them grow in unexpected ways. • Enlist a friend with shared interest to help ease jitters. “My participation in Girl Scouts horse camps, San Diego Zoo camps and Living Coast Discovery Center ‘keeper camp’ increased my eagerness to learn more,” says Sydney, a senior at Patrick Henry High School.
