Spring is here and it is almost time to start considering where to take your children during the summer. Some families vacation the whole summer through while others are not so fortunate and have to work all summer long! These families may be considering daycare, sports and/or continuing education at a summer school program. In recent studies, Summer Camp is one of the better choices for children in between the school year. 

Michael Ungar Ph.D. spoke to 300 camp directors about how to make children more resilient to life stress. Summer camps, he discovered, are perfect places to help children optimize their psychosocial development.

After all, summer camps are places where children get the experiences they need to bolster their range of coping strategies. There are the simple challenges of learning how to build a fire, going on a hike, or conquering a high ropes course. There are the much more complex challenges of getting along with a new group of peers, learning how to ask for help from others, or taking manageable amount of risks without a parent following after you.

There are all types of camps out there of course and this study offered the benefits of a great camp; one that doesn’t treat children like customers but rather treats them as students whose caregivers, the counselors, know what the kids need to grow.

Michael Ungar Ph.D. looked at these experiences from the vantage point of his research on resilience, he knew that camps help our children develop great coping strategies when they provide seven things all children need:

1. New relationships, not just with peers, but with trusted adults other than their parents. Just think about how useful a skill like that is: being able to negotiate on your own with an adult for what you need.
2. A powerful identity that makes the child feel confident in front of others. Your child may not be the best on the ropes course, the fastest swimmer, or the next teen idol when he sings, but chances are that a good camp counselor is going to help your child find something to be proud of that he can do well.
3. Camps help children feel in control of their lives, and those experiences of self-efficacy can travel home as easily as a special art project or the pine cone they carry in their backpack. Children who experience themselves as competent will be better problem-solvers in new situations long after their laundry is cleaned and the smell of the campfire forgotten.
4. Camps make sure that all children are treated fairly. The wonderful thing about camps is that every child starts without the baggage they carry from school. They may be a geek or the child with dyslexia. At camp they will both find opportunities to just be kids who are valued for who they are. No camps tolerate bullying (and if they do, you should withdraw your child immediately).
5. At camp kids get what they need to develop physically. Ideally, fresh air, exercise, a balance between routine and unstructured time, and all the good food their bodies need. Not that s’mores (marshmallows, chocolate and graham cracker treats) don’t have a place at the campfire, but a good camp is also about helping children find healthy lifestyles.
6. Perhaps best of all, camps offer kids a chance to feel like they belong. All those goofy chants and team songs, the sense of common purpose and attachment to the identity that camps promote go a long way to offering children a sense of being rooted.
7. And finally, camps can offer children a better sense of their culture. It might be skit night, or a special camp program that reflects the values of the community that sponsors the camp, or maybe it’s just a chance for children to understand themselves a bit more as they learn about others. Camps give kids both cultural roots and the chance to understand others who have cultures very different than their own.

So research definitely suggests that these 7 steps and due diligence on the parent’s part in research will ensure a wholesome environment where kids can thrive during the summer months!

RMA offers a great program for the youth and will be working with some of the best summer camps locally to help facilitate a bright future for kids today! Stay Tuned….