The idea of sending your kids away to camp during their holidays can be a slightly daunting one. However, the summer camp industry is growing and there are endless benefits to children who attend.

Campers come in two forms, day campers and residential campers.

A day camp can be an excellent way to ease your child into camp life. They generally include activities and lunch during the day, but children then go back to stay with the family in the evening. Day camps can be a wonderful addition to a family holiday and this sort of experience can be great for beginning to build independence in your child while learning new skills and having fun.

In most residential camps, camps usually include a full daily program of activities which will follow the goal of the camp. The evenings then see a quieter program focusing on team building and lower energy challenges to give campers a chance to relax and get to know each other. These can be talent shows, treasure hunts, movie nights, barbeques and team building challenges such as egg drop or eco-stock market – you’ll have to join a camp to find out about those!

Residential camps are a great experience for a child. Being away from home while learning and taking part in new challenges can really build self-confidence and make children more at ease with stepping out of their comfort zone. Camp is also a great way to make new friends and build new social skills; meeting children from the many different backgrounds that come to camp helps to challenge preconceptions and provide new perspectives on the world. A friendship made while at camp can be a strong bond which lasts for life.

Every camp has a different goal, it could be for the children to learn a language, develop life skills in the mountain, focus on sports, or something completely different. The options are endless!

Aside from the many great experiences that are to be had, friends to be made and new skills to be learned, the greatest benefit of a summer camp is the indirect or transferable skills that your child can learn. While learning how to read maps or build fires is fun, and hopefully useful, it’s the confidence and ability to learn that can be truly valuable. For a child, trying something new, whether drama, outdoor survival, languages or a new sport, and realising that not only is it enjoyable but that with a bit of practice they can become rather good at it is a life-long lesson. Most camps try to use goals to structure the program and provide the greatest opportunity for development. This can be as simple as making it a goal to get to the top of the mountain during a hike. Realising that they can achieve the goals they set themselves, even when it looked too hard, is an amazing feeling as I’m sure we all know.

Article Courtesy of Altitude International Camps