From birding to sailing, there are a host of adventures waiting for kids at camp. While the summer months provide ample opportunities for children and teens to hone their talents or pick up a new skill, the lessons that they’ll learn through the camp experience can last for years to come.
“Our research shows that camp is a primary driver of some really significant outcomes in child development and it is because it’s such an immersive experience,” says Henry DeHart, interim president and CEO for the American Camp Association.
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“You put children in an immersive, safe and supportive environment and you’re building independence and you’re building social skills — how to make friends with people that have different backgrounds than you, how to appreciate different perspectives and different backgrounds — how to have grit,” he adds. “Sometimes, things don’t go the way that you want them to at camp and you don’t have your parent there to solve the problem, so you have to develop problem-solving and grit and resilience.”
In the aftermath of the pandemic, demand for summer camp hit what DeHart calls a “generational high.” Moreover, in the years that have passed since then, interest in both sleep-away and day camps has remained strong. According to the ACA’s numbers, about 26 million school-aged children — roughly half of all U.S. kids — head to some kind of camp during summer vacation.
“During the pandemic, parents had an opportunity to better understand what their children really needed because they weren’t getting it during the pandemic,” says DeHart. “One of the things that they recognized is that there were really important experiences that help develop critical skills that weren’t happening in an academic setting.”
And, while one might assume that sleep-away camp is the best way for kids to gain these skills, that’s not necessarily true. “Our research has shown that the outcomes that come from camp are not dependent on whether it’s day or overnight. Day camp has just as rich of benefits as overnight camp,” says DeHart.
He adds that while overnight camp provides a more immersive experience, the benefits for youth have more to do with the quality of the camp. “A three- or four-day program can be as impactful as a two- or three-week overnight camp experience if it’s a high quality experience,” he says.
Campers rehearse Nirvana’s “About a Girl,” at the School of Rock Camp in Tustin, California. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
“We view the summer camps as the time to do things that are more special that we wouldn’t necessarily do throughout the year,” says Angie Timbanard of Huntington Beach, California. Her two children, now ages 10 and 9, have been going to day camps since they were small. Both have participated in a School of Rock camp, where they learned to play musical instruments. Timbanard’s son has also done a coding camp and her daughter has tried camps for both horseback riding and sailing.
But, Timbanard points out, as they learn new skills, her kids are also learning how to be independent. “Generally speaking, other than the first day of school, they don’t have a lot of exposure to a brand new environment where you’re there alone and you don’t know what to expect,” she says. “You have to acclimate to what the day presents you, so I think it really helps them in practicing that skill.”
For Miko Vaughn, also of Huntington Beach, enrolling her two sons in Huntington Beach’s Junior Lifeguard program, where they’ll learn ocean safety skills, is a way to ensure that they’ll eventually be able to enjoy beach life on their own. “Junior lifeguards is one that I really believe in because we live so close to the ocean,” she says. “I do think they need it if I’m ever going to let them go to the beach by themselves.”
Participants in the Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguard program run along the beach just south of the Huntington Beach Pier on Wednesday, July 14, 2020, in Huntington Beach, California. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
And, generally speaking, Vaughn says that day camps help children learn in a playful way. “I think it stimulates them in a different way than school does, where they get to play more, which is important because kids are losing that since they’re so isolated on screens nowadays,” she says. “They get to play at school, but not that much, so I think that’s a huge benefit.”
The lessons of camp aren’t just for young children. DeHart points out that, since some camps do hire staffers as young as 16 or 17, older teens can gain critical life skills as well. “You have opportunities to learn leadership, to learn the responsibility of caring for other people or putting other people’s needs first. You’re forced to collaborate and have a sense of teamwork,” says DeHart. “A lot of the skills that employers tell us are hard to find in the applicants they see now are the exact type of skills that you learn when you work at camp.”
“We have kids who have gone through camp, we’ve known them since they were little and now they’re in college and they keep coming back and helping us with the younger kids in camp,” says Deborah Brin, camp coordinator for the Audubon Society’s Sea and Sage chapter.
With four week-long sessions held on a 360-acre nature area in Irvine, California, Sea and Sage provides opportunities for youth to engage with local nature as they learn about birds. “I think it creates a foundation for lifelong learning,” says Brin of the program.
Brin shares that one former camper is now a park ranger for the National Park Service. Others have gone on to work in fields related to biology or conservation. One Sea and Sage camp alum has just published her second academic paper. “We’ve known her since she was seven,” she says.
But, the skills children learn out in nature are applicable even if they don’t become a biologist. “Children are prepared to be creative, have a lot of excitement, be curious, have an open mind, be kind — that’s one of our big things — and begin to develop observation skills,” says Brin. “Even though we’re focusing on birds, it’s going to help with many aspects of life.”
