The Top 10 Reasons to Send Your Child to Camp

A summer camp experience provides a lot of benefits for children and youth.  Wondering why it’s important for you to send your child to camp this summer?  Consider this list of top ten reasons:

1. At camp, your child is physically active.  They spend their days running, climbing, jumping, and playing.  At home or at school, they may not have as much freedom or opportunity to move, explore, and engage in the way that the can while they are at camp.
2. At camp, your child will learn Bible curriculum and grow their faith through creative teaching, games, activities, and crafts.  Camp Bear Creek does our best to make the Bible studies your child learns an integral part of every day.  They will be able to explore new ways to worship, experience God in a natural setting, and learn among peers and a staff who cares about their spiritual well-being.
3. At camp, your child will gain self-confidence and self-esteem through an experience away from home, living on their own.  Through the daily activities and discussions, they will become aware of their own self-worth.  As they engage with their peers in their camp, they will be able to realize their own uniqueness and their own strengths within their group.
4. At camp, your child will try things they may have never tried before.  The camp setting offers activities and programs such as canoeing, archery, the challenge course, kayaking, and creek stomping.  As your child tries these things for perhaps the first time, they will learn to face their fears and anxieties and gain a sense of resiliency.  They may not always be successful on their first go, but they are surrounded by a supportive, caring environment where there is always a chance to get back up and try again.
5. At camp, your child will become more independent.  Being away from home will allow your child to make their own decisions on a daily basis and to experience life in a different setting than what they are used to.  In the safety of the camp environment, they are free to manage their own choices and learn to care for themselves.
6. At camp, your child will learn to appreciate the natural environment.  The limited access to technology, cell phones, and the internet naturally draws their focus to their immediate surroundings—the outdoors and the natural setting they are in.  Living, playing, and participating at camp each day will give them a greater appreciation for the world of creation.
7. At camp, your child will learn new social skills and make new friends.  Here at Camp Bear Creek, your child attends camp with a group of their peers whom they spend each day with, along with their counselors.  In this small group, campers are encouraged to be themselves in a comfortable, family setting, eliminating some of the peer pressure that occurs in larger groups and allowing them to develop rich, personal relationships with each other and with God.
8. At camp, your child will create lasting memories.  Long after the summer season has ended, they will still remember cooking foil dinners on the campfire or hitting the bull’s eye in archery.  Camp is something they can look back on, remember, and share with others.
9. At camp, your child will develop many life skills such as responsibility, collaboration, leadership, and problem solving.  Through the wide variety of camp activities, they will also explore new interests and learn new skills that they may have never known they possessed otherwise.  It’s a great place for them to grow in potential and character.
10. At camp, your child will have fun.  There is a reason why campers return year after year to Camp Bear Creek.  They have fun!  Not only do they get to try all kinds of activities and games, but they get to participate in the camp community as they worship around the campfire, hike to Horsethief Cave, and listen to the story of Peter on the Christ Walk.  Camp offers a community of people gathered together to learn about God, grow in faith, enjoy nature, and live, learn, and play together.  It’s a community they’ll want to come back to every summer.