Well, school’s finished. The nation’s young folk have nearly three months break from academia. What are they going to do with themselves? I notice from the local media generally the opportunities are huge. There are summer camp for just about everything, from every type of sport to arts and crafts, music, drama, the list seems endless.
School predominantly seems to be a time for learning the academic necessities but with the summer camp offerings the subjects are vast, all whilst the young people are having a great time. Young folk often find it difficult to link the words “learning” and “having a great time” in the same sentence so the summer camp phenomena is a great experience with the take-away being learning can be fun.
The benefits from many of these camps I’m sure can be numerous and include such issues as physical fitness, socializing, teamwork, sharing and gaining confidence. Learning what it means to win and learning what it means to lose. All of these things are important in life, especially on the approach towards adulthood. It can be argued that lessons of this nature are equally as important as reading, writing and math.
Following on from this argument is the question, “Do our schools really prepare our offspring for the full range of experiences, stresses and problems that they will face when presented with the big wide world?” I think not!! True, academic standards and achievements are growing constantly as the years go by. That is simply not enough.
Kids need to know what they will be faced with all too soon and the summer camp marvel seems to be one way to cope address this. The downside I guess is that not every family can afford the luxury of summer camp. This is where the parental effort needs to come in to play with communities and other parents who work.
It should not be beyond the bounds of organization to recreate a low cost summer camp option at home with some communication, cooperation and enthusiasm being shown by like minded parents and before we know it we have games of soccer and softball being played or putting together a play or musical with the young folk in the community all taking part. It’s not easy, it’s tough but I believe this sort of thing contributes more to the successful path to adulthood than anything. The alternative, I think is quite disastrous. Sitting at home all day, eating fast food, watching the TV and playing computer games is not the way we want to prepare the next generation for adulthood. It’s also where childhood obesity is bred and a sedentary lifestyle like this leads to poor health and a lack of fitness before a young person even reaches adulthood.
It’s a long summer in front of us. For those fortunate enough to take a trip to the ocean, enjoy! The break lasts for nearly three months, so use it wisely, use it to bring enjoyment to all the young people but also use it to bring some fitness, character forming and learning into their lives outside of the school environment. The opportunities, the facilities that are all around us are the best ITHOE; let’s make sure we use them to the fullest.
Both of my offspring are fully growed (I do have three amazing grandchildren, hi Soph, Hannah and Candy), so what does the long summer school vacation mean to me? Well I’ll tell you!! It means a great commute to and from the office with nothing like the usual traffic on the roads!!!!
Tags: Academia, Beach, Camps, Commute, Grandchildren, Vacation
Richard,
I fully endorse your support of the summer camp experience. I was fortunate enough to go to a camp in the NC mountains every summer since I was 10. I went for 8 weeks (they have since shortened the session to 6) so all told, I spent 21 months, counting 3 summers as a counselor, at Green Cove (a shameless plug for the best place on earth!). Therefore I count it as one of the places I grew up…and I probably did as much growing up there as anywhere. Camp was the saving grace for me when we moved from one culture, east coast city, to another, small mid-west town, when I was 13. It reminded me that although all the underpinnings of my life had changed, I was still the same, and still had my friends and family.
As I said, I was fortunate because my parents saw camp as an important enough experience that they used savings for my education to pay for it.
As you mentioned, there are many camps offered today, and not all kids can spend 8 weeks at sleep-away camp, but one of the best alternatives is something I witnessed in my own neighborhood. Some high-school aged young people who are involved in service projects like Eagle or Gold awards, will create summer programs for local younger children. This offers the best of both worlds: the young people learn leadership and responsibility and the younger children get to hang out with the older “cool kids” who they admire. The parents benefit with having their kids nearby in a safe, fun place.
There are many good things for kids to do that can supplement the video games and TV, but sometimes you have to be creative to find them!
Hi Granddad!
(AKA Facebook Police)
You are right, there are loads of summer camps out there. Even our Taekwon-do club runs one. They do all sorts of things from generally keeping fit to quad biking! I think sometimes its not the kids that don’t want to go but the parents not wanting to, or not being able to afford to, part with the money. Maybe more should be done to make them cheaper?
As for me, I’ll be staying with you for two weeks in the holidays. Using your facilities to the fullest!
(Probably some character forming too!)
Hannah, don’t forget the Facebook police are watching!