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Five
Reasons Your Child Needs Camp
There's no doubt that summer camp is fun.
Kids get to sing silly songs, play funny
games, swim in lakes, and tell spooky stories
around a campfire. This is the image of
camp that has been captured and memorialized
in films, books, and television programs
for the past fifty years. But there's much
more to camp than just a good time. In
addition to fun, parents should be aware
of these five reasons their child needs
camp.
- Camp forever changes your child… for
the better – American Camp
Association® (ACA) research has confirmed
that camps build skills necessary to
prepare campers to assume roles as
successful adults. Campers said that
camp helped them make new friends (96%),
get to know kids who are different
from them (93%), feel good about themselves
(92%), and try things they were afraid
to do at first (74%).
- Camp teaches your child to "move
it, move it" – Camp
provides children the opportunity to
try new things and participate in human
powered activities. According to surveys
by both the Kaiser Family Foundation
and the Center for Disease Control
and Prevention, an American child is
six times more likely to play a videogame
on any given day than to ride a bike.
An estimated 22 million of the world's
children under the age of five are
already considered obese. According
to research conducted by ACA, 63 percent
of children who learn new activities
at camp tend to continue engaging in
these activities after they return
home. This leads to continued physical
exercise that lasts a lifetime.
- Camp keeps all that hard work from
going to waste - Camps understand
the critical role they play in helping
young people learn and grow. Many offer
programs that help reduce summer learning
loss, bolster academic enrichment and
socialization, provide opportunities
for leadership development, and ensure
that campers achieve their full potential.
- Camp allows kids to take a deep
breath and
feel the nature – Camp is
a great way for your child to unplug
from the iPod® and plug into the
world around them. According to a study
by two Cornell University environmental
psychologists, being close to nature
can help boost a child's attention
span. Additionally, a study conducted
by the University of Essex in England
concluded that nature can help people
recover from pre-existing stresses
or problems, has an immunizing effect
that can protect from future stresses,
and helps people to concentrate and
think more clearly. In some instances,
camp may be the only time a child is
in contact with the natural world.
- Camp is fun – It's
true; kids do sing silly songs and play
funny games at camp. Children are allowed
to play in a safe and nurturing environment,
and are allowed to just be kids.
Play is a powerful form of learning that
contributes mightily to the child's healthy
physical, emotional, social, and intellectual
development. According to an American
Academy of Pediatrics report, creative
free play protects a child's emotional
development and reduces a child's risk
of stress, anxiety, and depression.
To find the perfect camp for your child,
visit the Find A Camp feature on ACA's
parent Web site at www.CampParents.org.
Contact Public Relations at 765.349.3317
or pr@ACAcamps.org to
interview an ACA
spokesperson for more information about
the essential camp experience. For customizable public
service announcements or article
reprints, visit our Media Center at http://www.ACAcamps.org/media.
About ACA
The American Camp Association® (ACA) works to preserve, promote, and enhance
the camp experience for children and adults. ACA-Accredited® camp programs
ensure that children are provided with a diversity of educational and developmentally
challenging learning opportunities. There are over 2,400 ACA-accredited camps
that meet up to 300 health and safety standards. For more information, visit www.ACAcamps.org.
ACA Annual Conference
ACA will host its National Conference of over 1,200 camp professionals in Orlando,
Florida, February 17-20, 2009. The conference will bring together some of the
nation's top child development experts to discuss The Power of the Experience.
Keynote speakers include Ned Hallowell, MD, psychiatrist and author of CrazyBusy:
Overbooked, Overstretched, and About to Snap and Linda Perlstein, veteran
writer for the Washington Post and author of two books, Not Much
Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers and Tested: One
American School Struggles to Make the Grade.
For the complete program lineup, visit www.ACAcamps.org/conference.
During the conference, members of the news media will have the opportunity
to interview keynote speakers and ACA spokespersons. For your convenience,
you can register
online for the conference. For additional information, interview
requests, and press credentials, please contact Dawn Swindle at dswindle@ACAcamps.org,
765-349-3317.
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