Day camps for summer have been around for generations, offering parents safe, fun, and educational options for their kids during the weeks that school is out.
These summer youth camps typically provided enriching experiences that included outdoor activities and specialized curriculums that were different from what children received while in school.
Parents sent their kids to daytime camps for the experience as opposed to just somewhere to send them during the day while they worked or took care of other things, like a glorified childcare facility.
Are Day Camps For Summer The Same Now?
More recently, the lines between day camps and childcare centers have become blurred, with fewer camps providing unique, enriching experiences and seeming more like overpriced childcare centers.
It suggests that many establishments that call themselves summer youth camps are truly not, at least not in the traditional sense of the name, but only places where kids can go to be supervised while engaging socially with other kids.
Some “camps” are just upscale babysitting services.
How Can You Distinguish Between Day Camp and Childcare Facilities?
How can parents know the difference between the two and find a good and worthwhile daytime camp for summer for their child?
Parents should look for either establishments with a theme such as science camps or performing arts camps or riding camps which all teach a specific sport or skill or for camps that offer an actual curriculum of activities, including outdoor activities.
What Constitutes A Daytime Summer Camp?
What makes a daytime summer camp factually a camp, as opposed to a daycare facility, is structure and a plan that includes much more than just supervised playtime.
Day camps encourage not just socialization, but also cooperation, learning, and physical fitness in the many activities that kids can participate in.
They frequently utilize the team approach to create fun but fair competitions to encourage participation and host creative and intellectual activities as well.
Summer Youth Camps Offer So Much More
While summer youth camps may technically provide child daycare services for busy parents in the sense that their kids will be supervised and cared for, they truly offer much more.
Kids attending day camps for summer learn, socialize, and become more physically fit while having enjoyable and memorable experiences that last far beyond their weeks at camp.
Whether they learn a new sport or game, bring home a medal for team activity participation, or get to use art supplies they have never tried before, kids come home from summer youth camps looking forward to the next day and being a part of the group and team.
Summer youth camps are much more than just babysitting centers – they are child growth and enrichment centers!