5 Reasons to Watch a Summer Camp Video
So you've decided you want your child to go to summer camp? Before getting camp information you should have a goal in mind. Make a list of things you feel you want your kid to gain from a summer camp experience. Make sure it's not just about activities. What about a camp's physical attributes, like cabins or tents? Is it a small, personal camp or a large camp with loads of campers? Once you have this information, you can create a check list to help compare camps and narrow down your search for the |
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So you've decided you want your child to go to summer camp? Before getting camp information you should have a goal in mind. Make a list of things you feel you want your kid to gain from a summer camp experience. Make sure it's not just about activities. What about a camp's physical attributes, like cabins or tents? Is it a small, personal camp or a large camp with loads of campers? Once you have this information, you can create a check list to help compare camps and narrow down your search for the Best Summer Camps.
Narrow your search to four or five possibilities, and then call or e-mail each camp to ask for information. Perhaps more important than printed materials, camps will send you a promotional video. Remember, these DVDs are tools to help you find the right summer camp. But they are also tools for camps to SELL a place in their camp to you and your child. So keep that in mind when you view them.
Now it is time get to get your child involved. Sit down as a family and watch the videos. Let your child take the lead talking about what he or she saw, and tell you more about what he or she is looking for. You may need to do a little encouraging to get your new camper talking. Doing this persisitently will help you see what is important in a camp to your child. Prior to going to camp, please explain to your child that the videos are advertisements and that the reality may not always match what you see on the screen. It is good to stop for brief reality check now and then!
The DVD can tell you much more than what you see on the surface if you pay close attention for clues about the camp's philosophy and strengths. Also look for the following indicators:
-Does the video answer your questions about the camp? While there should be additional questions that you will want to ask the director, the video should give you a comprehensive overview.
-What does the video emphasize? Pay attention to what activities and facilities get the most time in the video.
-How old is the video? If there is no date, then estimate the age based on the campers' clothing and the background music. No matter how recent the video appears to be, you should ask the camp director what has changed or been added to the video program since its filming.
-What philosophies does the video suggest? Does the video seem to complement the philosophies expressed in the camp's printed materials?
-What level of sports are shown, in terms of skill and sophistication? If you're looking for a specialty sports camp, does the level of play look too advanced or too basic?
-What philosophical qualities does the video stress? Does the video seem to be consistent with and complement the philosophies expressed in the camp's printed materials?
-What is your and your child's general impression after watching? Sometimes a gut instinct may tell you the most.
DVDs are a great way to get a feel about each individual childrens summer camp, but it should not be the only factor in the important decision about a camp. Be sure to talk to the camp directors and talk to campers' parents.
If this is your first time looking for a summer camp please go to Summer Camp Advice a FREE online reference that helps parents figure out what Summer Camp is about
About the author: Lonnie lorenz has been the owner of Swift Nature Camp since 1996. She has created a is a Minnesota Outdoors Summer Camp for boys and girls ages 6-15. Our focus is to blend traditional summer camp activities with that of aAnimal Camp and Science Summer Camp
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Children’s camp can provide a child with opportunities for never ending daily fun the way few other places can. Pure, nonstop fun would be reason enough for anyone to want to be at a sleep away camp, but resident camp offers even more to a child’s unfolding life, and the best camps offer a wealth of benefits..
Summer camps are healthy! Exercise is a part of any child’s life of play, and camp is a natural provider of constant, safe, imaginative physical play. This brings opportunities for every camper’s intellect and imagination to get plenty of exercise at the same time.
Kids at coed camps learn how to relate with members of the other gender as friends and equals. Skills of social interaction are creative and independent but stay in keeping with each child’s family teachings. Guided by adult friends and capable role models, counselors, campers get a valuable chance to apply what they have been taught at home in a larger social world.
Campers grow to find and be themselves, in a natural setting that gently challenges a child to newer and higher standards for their own behavior. The kids camp daily context is activities that encourage perseverance, listening skills, teamwork, and the ability to recognize similarities and appreciate differences in each individual. If it’s a nature camp or an animals camp, kids get even more opportunities to relate with the creatures of the natural worlds around us. Self discovery can become a habit that lasts a lifetime.
Jeff and Lonnie Lorenz, directors of Wisconsin’s Swift Nature Camp for almost fifteen years, believe summer camp is a unique opportunity for dimensional childcare at the best value. The camp experience will add to ordinary child care the making of memories, the opportunity to come to a new place and try new things, the chance to gain skills and independence, and the time to make new and lifelong friends.
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Maybe this is a New Camp Song...Let’s all practice!
We all know how much fun kids have fishing at summer camp. Well, Just because the snow is flying is no reason to think the fish are not biting.
Northern pike and panfish have been providing good action; walleye have been hard to entice. Vehicles are venturing out now that lakes are frozen over, but ice thickness varies. Check with a local guide or bait shop before venturing out. Photo courtesy of Skip Sommerfeldt
The 5th Annual Big Elk and Musser Lake Association Ice Fishing Contest is being held Sat., January 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Phillips. There will be prizes for adult and youth (under 12) categories, food and raffles; drawings at 4 p.m. 715-339-3166 / 4277
The Phillips Winter Fest Ice Fishing Contest is being held Sun., January 29, from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Lake Duroy. There will be prizes, food and raffles. 1-888-408-4800
Summer Camp Should Be Mandatory for a Child:
It Changes Lives
Call it an emotional report card.
It was one of those moments that give you a reality check on how your kid really feels about you deep down.........
I was busy running my mouth, so the little girl spotted me first and set upon me like a blur. As she screamed “Daddy!” while racing the fifty yards or so toward me, I noticed that she had a large black boot on her left foot and a sandal on her right.
She nearly bowled me over as she leaped into my arms and exclaimed “Daddy!” several times and hugged me tight.
She told me she missed me “so much,” and then shifted her weight, which was my signal to put her down.
Once on the ground, she stepped back, looked me up and down, and then spoke to a friend who had come running up behind her: “My dad has a hole in his t-shirt. Daddy, why are you wearing that shirt?” she asked, redirecting her gaze toward me.
I could only shake my head. That’s when I knew my loving moment was over. Now Faith was back to being a pre-teen.
My designer t-shirt, with the strategically placed designer hole in it, was fair game. Now, after being separated for a week, I had to stand there and listen while my gear was publicly critiqued by a sixth-grader wearing a rubber boot and a sandal.
It wasn’t until we got the girl to the car with all of her luggage — including the broken sandal that had been replaced by the boot — that I started to understand how a week away from the parents, how a week at a well-run summer camp, can change your kid’s perspective, if not their life.
Only after she did a rapid checklist of everything she had done during the week — the swimming, the hiking, the canoeing, the fishing, the archery, the zip-lining, the horseback riding, and the learning of more campground songs, cheers, and prayers than any kid she should learn in six days — did she finally get to the heart of her camping experience.
“Daddy, I know what I want to do now when I grow up,” she said about thirty minutes into our drive home.
“I want to work with mentally disabled people.”
The short statement that seemingly came out of left field momentarily stunned me.
The girl has told folks for years that she plans to become a singer, a writer, and possibly an attorney when she grew up.
But as we drove, I recalled that she had enthusiastically spoken to a mentally-challenged young man as we left the campground. She had called him by his name. They had exchanged high-fives with each other and smiled broadly as they departed.
“Why do you want to work with the disabled?” I asked.
“Because they seem so happy. It’s like they don’t know that they are disabled,” she responded.
“They’re always smiling. I like them.”
Camp Christopher accommodates children and young adults from all over the region. The diminished mental capacities of a few of the campers doesn’t subtract from the camp's potential to transform lives — it only adds to it in ways many might not imagine.
My little singer, writer, future lawyer now has an appreciation for others with whom she had never had much exposure with before. Her capacity for compassion has been expanded. We have the Catholic-run camp to thank for that. It clearly lived up to its motto: “Come grow with us.”
Only perhaps next year they might also teach her how to sew. I know just the shirt I’ll be sending with her.
Phillip Morris is a Metro Columnist for The Plain Dealer. He also blogs, discussing general interest topics with a focus, on Cleveland.com at www.cleveland.com/morris/.
Summer Camp also provides kids with opportunities to learn what they’re interested in, which is how kids typically learn best. For many of the campers at choose activities that they are interested in. Some pick a camp that specializes in a particular field of learning, Circus camp to soccer camp. Regardless of the experience opportunities are providing unique experiential learning experiences that often kids don’t necessarily get at school or home,
Lonnie Lorenz, director of Swift Nature Camp realizes, “At camp, kids get their hands dirty while they’re learning and those skills transfer to real life, as they learn to make decisions, get along with their cabin group and take care of themselves, I believe Swift Nature Camp provides some of the most valuable education that children can benefit from. The lessons are so much more than learning to build a safe campfire or shooting a bow, they are lessons that teach us how to look at life.
Camp provides the opportunity for children to step out and try new things, to go beyond self-imposed and parental limits. Some times these are huge other times they might be a smaller step. Yet they are all steps forward. When a child is Cautious about trying new things,stepping out is good for a child’s growth and development. After all we will all be challenged to try new things in our life. When a child tries something new and succeeds, it makes it easier to repeat that behavior and thus developed the courage to try new things, overcome obstacles and gain confidence. All this is done in the in the supportive atmosphere of camp. These Camp built skills, like flexibility, curiosity, cognitive thinking and resiliency, transfer immediately to school situations and later in life.
When you’re at camp, you’re trying new things with other people who are often doing it for the first time as well, this creates a bond of support and thus learning happens naturally through a safe atmosphere of managed risks, without the distraction and pressure of grades. The benefit is that children don’t even realize they’re learning and that the best type of leaning when it is internalized.
Picking the right camp program can help a child develop leadership skills, responsibility and a sense of independence, These are important building blocks for future academic and personal success and that is why camp is a place for learning.
Learn more: How to Pick a Camp
When a child goes off to camp for the first time, your courageous camper grows but so does everyone else in the family. At Swift Nature Camp we widen their horizons, help them make new and lasting friends, and discover new skills. Camp is so much more than just daycare. and you wouldn’t be considering camp if you didn’t think it would add to your child’s growth and development. Although camp can help your child learn to be a better swimmer, acquire a better canoe stoke, or learn pottery, the real benefit of camp will be when your child returns home and you see the increase in self-reliance and self-confidence. This is what camp is all about! It is so much more than fun and activities. What a gift!
Even though you know all the social and emotional benefits that a quality camp experience can give your child, don’t be surprised that you have mixed feelings about giving up your child for a few weeks. Most parents do! After all, nothing takes more trust than giving your child over to the care of other adults. Finding this trust, letting your child see that trust and letting your child go off on his or her own adventure with your blessing takes courage! It is also why we believe you too will grow from the experience of camp! It is only a stepping stone to your child leaving for college.
In addition, there are camp directories, that help minimize the time You spend searching the Internet. These many camp directories have paid camp listings. These directories can help in the selection process. They organize summer camps by regions or particular specialization. After spending a little effort on each of these sites, you’ll have a good idea about which summer camp will be best for your camper. Please remember that this is only the beginning and its’ best to always call the camp director and make sure you feel comfortable with all areas of that summer camp.
Please be sure to check out Swift Nature Camp as an option for your child.
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In addition, there are camp directories, that help minimize the time You spend searching the Internet. These many camp directories have paid camp listings. These directories can help in the selection process. They organize summer camps by regions or particular specialization. After spending a little effort on each of these sites, you’ll have a good idea about which summer camp will be best for your camper. Please remember that this is only the beginning and its’ best to always call the camp director and make sure you feel comfortable with all areas of that summer camp.
Please be sure to check out Swift Nature Camp as an option for your child.
ICE CREAM
Who does not love Ice Cream with all the trimmings? If you have been to Swift Nature Camp...you know this site all to well. It is that special time when instead of going into town and getting Ice Cream at the best ice cream store in the world the Village Scoop we get to have Ice Cream at camp. What a joy it is We have camp counselors hand it out and put on all the good stuff. You know sprinkles, chocolate sauce and even a cherrie. Of course the real deal is you have to earn Ice Cream at Swift Nature Camp, it is not all that hard to do...JUST KEEP YOUR CABIN CLEAN FOR INSPECTION!