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Studies conducted by the American Camp Association suggest that more than 11 million adults and children attend summer camps in the US alone. Today, camping is becoming popular with many parents sending their children on international summer camps in Switzerland. Still, some parents are yet to understand the fuss behind them. Here are top 10 reasons to send your children to summer camp in Switzerland.
1. Make friends from Various Parts of the world
Well organized summer camps expose your children to diverse people from various parts of the world. Remember, many other children will be attending these events and chances are that the children will interact with one another while engaging in a wide range of activities. This creates a perfect opportunity for bonding with no parental supervision or even distractions.
This kind of friendship can’t be compared with the friendships they have with their colleagues in school. While campers will only know each other for a short time, that could mark the culmination of lifelong friendships which last forever. Developing and nurturing these friendships amid summer camps helps children develop new social skills.
Your children return home more confident, an earned skill which of course will be beneficial to them all their lives. International summer camps in Switzerland exposes your children to people they don’t often meet and helps them learn diversity and inclusion on a more organic and natural manner.
2. Explore Switzerland and Neighboring Regions
Unlike previous generations who loved the outdoors, children in Switzerland spend more time outdoors. The ultimate Switzerland summer camps help them reconnect with nature. You cannot ignore the importance of a summer camp which helps your child to experience and discover the world within the safe confines of a managed group setting.
Your children will go trekking across the forests or even hike at the Alps and finally swim in the breathtaking ponds and lakes of Switzerland. Your children will have fun watching the snow-capped mountains and get wowed by the exceptional fauna and flora in Switzerland. If you have taken your children on an adventurous trip then you understand how amazed they get by seemingly simple things such as hares, squirrels, and even frogs.
Now imagine how captivating an experience they’ll have by seeing chamois, foxes, the red deer, and marmots? It’s bound to be an experience like no other. There wouldn’t be anything more exciting than hearing your child excitedly narrate the kind of adventures they experienced during the International camps.
3. Maintain Physical Fitness
When children are in the midst of nature, they will have more opportunities to remain physically active. Switzerland has some of the most breathtaking natural settings and landscapes that will keep your children occupied. There are various fun and exciting activities that your children can participate in while in Switzerland such as skiing, kayaking, canoeing, and even canyoning.
Your children will have more fun going mountain climbing or even hiking with their newly acquired friends. There will be a lot to learn such as collecting firewood, learning how to light a fire, and building tents. These activities will rejuvenate your children’s energy and they will come back home renewed completely with lifetime memories.
4. Experience new challenges and Become more independent
As they go on summer camps, you won’t be there to supervise them or do things on their behalf. While they will be under the guidance of their supervisors, they’ll have to be more self-reliant and adopt a new approach towards life. They will have to learn how to clean their clothes, make their beds, get up by themselves, and maintain cleanliness.
Of course, they will have to abide by the laid down schedule, but this doesn’t take away the fact that they will need to take care of themselves. This will help children who are overly attached to their parents to develop a sense of growth and independence, which will help them in the future. Switzerland offers a wide range of events for children of all ages and exposure to new challenges will help the children adopt a new perspective towards life.
5. Consolidate what they learned in School
During the long summer holidays, children are likely to forget a big percentage of what they learn in school. However, studies suggest that summer learning activities can be beneficial to students and they are more likely to remember what they learned during the exciting summer camps.
Many of the summer camps in Switzerland are connected to summer school programs where educators are a part of. For instance, children may undergo a series of classroom related activities in the mornings when their minds are fresh. This provides them with an opportunity to participate in class activities delivered in fun and exciting methods.
Children will be exposed to various learning activities such as architecture, cooking, design, learning new languages, musical theatre, photography, and even understanding robotics. Combining learning and fun enhances motivation, memory, and cooperation with other students. What’s more, your children will be able to correlate between real-world applications and the knowledge they acquire in classrooms.
6. Disconnecting from technology
We are living in an advanced world where even children are techno-savvy. Many children today rely on technology both for school activities and entertainment. In fact, many of the children attending camp will either have an iPad, a tablet, a laptop, or even a smartphone. It’s no doubt that many children today spend most of the time on end playing video games or watching television during their free time.
Of course, technology is essential but spending some time without it won’t hurt. Convincing your children to stay away from the TV or video games at home can be an arduous task. When they go for summer camps, they will have minimal to no access to electronic gadgets and this will keep them entirely occupied in other activities hence switching off from the digital world to experience the goodness of the real world.
By experiencing a world away from their gadgets, your children get accustomed to the fact that there is more to life away from the TV and video games. This will encourage them to pursue more tangible hobbies rather than spending their entire time watching movies or playing games.
7. Enhancing confidence and self-esteem
Camps introduce your children to new activities and tasks that they are unfamiliar with. Camp goers are encouraged to execute tasks out of their comfort zone with each individual expected to participate in enthralling and adventurous activities such as talent performances. When children are within a supportive environment of their supervisors and peers, they understand that failure is not a crime.
Every success they achieve develops their self-esteem and confidence. They, also, develop a new form of resilience, independence, and self-esteem which is exemplified both during camp, in their interactions with their siblings at home, and in school. Eventually, your children become happier and more interested to accept new challenges and activities they would previously be afraid to undertake.
8. Developing Leadership Skills
Camps offer various opportunities for children to learn leadership skills. During summer camps, children are classified in social groups with each child tasked with completing specific tasks. They have to create time to complete their tasks in time for inspection regardless of how they do it. It’s for this reason that the campers depend on each other’s cooperation to complete activities.
This way, they are able to realize a variety of qualities and skills that make them excellent leaders. During summer camps in Switzerland, your children will have loads of opportunities to take initiative. For instance, they could be tasked with taking care of young campers and helping them complete difficult tasks such as; understanding a new language, making their beds, or even cleaning their room.
9. Enhancing their World Perspective
Summer camps in Switzerland give children the opportunity to meet and interact with other children from different social circles. They meet children who speak different languages and others from a different race and culture.
This changes the way they view the world and life in general. Such interactions make your children more open-minded and make them more interested in wanting to learn about other cultures and understand the world better.
10. Camp Promote Creativity
Today, the world is changing. Children are executing more activities that were a preserve of human beings in the past. More children are becoming more creative by the day and engaging in creativity related activities such as developing mobile games.
During Switzerland summer camps, your children will have loads of opportunities to exercise their creativity without fear of failing or even getting below average marks. When your children are camping during summer, their capabilities aren’t restricted. They can engage in as many creative activities as possible compared to what they can do at school.
Finally
As a parent, releasing your child to go for a summer camp in Switzerland can be an arduous task. However, it’s good to let them go for a week or two to allow them to engage in other activities away from the comfort of their electronic gadgets. Going on camps gives children a wide variety of opportunities to discover new activities, become more creative, and get out of their comfort zone to exercise their skills without fearing failure. Further, letting your children go for Switzerland summer camps enables them to appreciate their parents, their siblings, their home, and the things they often take for granted.
