Why Winter Camp is Beneficial for Children

While winter can be cold and gloomy, it transforms the outdoors into an incredible place of ice, snow, and glittering stars. In the past, campers of different ages flocked the frosty and fluffy covered outdoors to enjoy varying physical activities. However, today winter comes with abandoned outdoors as children remain indoors and spend their time playing video games.

The modern-day parent second-guesses the idea of sending their kids outdoors during the first day of winter. What with the stormy, dark, icy, wet, and uncomfortable temperatures? They are afraid that kids will fall and get hurt on snow, with many opting to keep their children indoors until winter subsides. 

Did you know that sending your little ones outdoors during the winter season comes with numerous benefits? Besides engaging in fun activities, children will become wiser, happier, and healthier. Here are reasons why winter camp is beneficial for children. 

1. Offer Children Excellent Opportunities to be Active

Remaining indoors in winter means that children will hardly engage in any physical activities, which can be bad for their health. Icy and snowy grounds offer children great opportunities for different activities. 

For example, they can walk across deep snow, heave a sled up a hill, push vast snowballs on the ground, and skate. Ice and snow enable children to boost coordination build gross motor and strength skills to feel more confident and strong. 

During winter, sending your child to a holiday camp helps them maintain healthy bodies while acquiring essential leadership skills. Upon resumption of the school year, your child will learn and remember things more leisurely than those that don’t attend a camp program. Here are additional activities and sports that kids can explore in a winter break camp.

• Canoeing
• Skiing
• Winter hiking
• Snowshoeing
• Ice fishing
• Creating snow sculptures

2. Winter Provides Children with Fun Material to Aid Play

Winter changes the outdoors in various remarkable ways, providing children with different loose parts to facilitate play like slush, ice, snow, and snowflakes. Children can use sticks and pine cones in various creative ways, helping them to exercise their imagination and instilling excellent problem-solving skills.

3. Sunshine and Fresh Air in Winter Promotes Children’s Health

Contrary to what many people think, playing outdoors during freezing weather will not make your child sick. Instead, children that attend day camps in winter remain healthy across the season. 

Remember, germs and harmful contaminants often hide indoors, and sending children outdoors shields them from getting ill. By playing outside, children will get the much-needed vitamin D which is crucial for a healthy immune system and bones. Worth mentioning is that babies can also benefit from exposure to winter weather. 

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4. Winter Activities Reduces Screen Time

Today, children spend lots of time watching their favorite shows on television or tablets, especially during the cold winter season. Some studies suggest that children aged eight years and below spend more than two hours on screens daily. On the other hand, teenagers spend up to nine hours in front of screens daily.

Research conducted in the last few years shows that too much screen time can harm your child’s social skills, learning, academic enrichment, health, sleep, emotional well-being, and quality of life. Sending your children outdoors for a few hours every day during winter allows them to break from their screens. 

Being outside enables them to discover new activities and connect with new friends. How much time should children spend on the screen? Here is a guideline.

• Keep kids under two years away from the screen.
• Children aged four years should spend between 0-1 hours in front of the screen. The lesser, the better.
• Children between the ages of five to seventeen years should have two hours of screen time every day. Again, the less time they spend in front of their screens, the better.

5. Engaging in Winter Activities makes Children Happy

Playing outdoors during both winter and summer camps improves your child’s mental being. Being outside reduces stress while boosting their self-esteem. 

6. Promotes Lateral Thinking

Through collaborative activities and teamwork, your kids will improve their lateral thinking. Holiday camp during winter allows kids to adopt a constructive and creative approach. As a result, they can lead a fulfilling life relying on skills they learn during winter camp. 

7. Children Develop Lifelong Skills

As kids participate in winter camp activities, they will learn and adapt essential lifelong skills to help them cope with various challenges. Besides adopting excellent communication skills, they understand working in a team and solving problems alone. 

The camp experience helps young people gain decision-making skills to manage change. Quality camp activities in New York provide team-building sessions that teach togetherness and appreciation.

8. Enhances their Social and Creativity Knowledge

Winter camp activities like crafts and art, painting and drawing, handwriting, robotics, and solving puzzles are critical for child development. By engaging in these activities, children can develop their creativity. 

You should strive to ensure that your kid spends the least time on the screen as a parent. Organize their winter camp trip for the first time or enroll them in a winter class. Through exposure, children will establish real-world activities and develop their social skills. 

9. Develop Exposure to Diversity and Unity

Efficient training is crucial for developing your child’s social skills. Going on a winter camping trip allows children to learn teamwork and build unity through various activities like field trips, robotics, personality development, and crafting.

YMCA and same-age groups from different parts of the world will surround your kids to ensure they are gathered in a safe environment. Besides, the kids will enjoy being free and engaging in a wide range of activities during the camp. 

These winter camps, organized by youth organizations, usually provide a structured environment for kids to participate in various activities and gain valuable experiences. To do that, they may enlist the help of camp software like Arly’s youth camps management platform that can ensure a successful camp experience for the kids. 

These platforms can help camp organizers to focus on delivering enriching activities by streamlining processes. That way, they can offer secure and safe practices allowing children to discover their passion and acquire new skills.

10. They Learn Independence

Independence plays a core role in personal development. Many winter camps collaborate with trained and skilled trainers to ensure children master the art of making good decisions that will curve their personalities. Kids get a chance to develop themselves and adjust to challenges as they come. 

11. Create New Memories

Winter camps offer the best location for kids to make new friends and memories. Remember, everyone at the camp is unique. Children will mingle with other campers from various parts of the world. 

Watching kids grow and broaden their circles while on camp is fun. Some of the kids create bonds that often last a lifetime. Children cherish the memories they make while camping forever. 

Attending winter camp gives children an opportunity to engage with adults who can positively impact their lives. Camps choose their counselors and supervisors carefully to ensure kids are in excellent and safe hands. 

Finally

While the winter season can be gloomy, dark, and cold, sending your children outdoors is beneficial. If you are looking for one reason to let your kids attend winter camp, this article should help you make an informed decision. 

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