As kids grow through primary school (kindergarten to pre-teens), you can expect to see a multitude of changes. From their interests, physical appearance, to their favourite activities and their ability to learn and thrive. They will start to become more involved in activities like sports and creative arts. As they progress through this age, kids will also start to really value friendships.
At Adventure camp, we design activities that not only provide adventure, but those that also help to promote kid's growth and development.
So what are the major developmental areas and what can my kids learn from Adventure Camp?
The four major developmental areas are: motor development (both gross and fine motor skills), cognitive development, emotional development and social development.
Our activities are designed to get kids outdoors, provide them with excitement and adventure and teach them skills that they can apply to other areas of their life.
Motor Development/ fine motor skills: for the most part, the learning of gross motor skills occurs in early development (things like walking and running). Their balance, agility and coordination improve as they grow, particularly between the ages of 7-12. Throughout the 3-days at camp, the groups are always active. We include activities like shelter and raft building (hand-eye coordination), Stand-up paddle boarding (balance and coordination), initiatives games like leaky pipe and toxic crossing, all of which test their gross and fine motor skills to complete.
Cognitive Development: Cognitive development refers to things such as thinking, memory, reasoning and planning. Each group at camp, are set up with activities to complete and problems to solve. Our initiatives games really target kids cognitive ability, while helping them to practice their reasoning skills and problem solving. Our code breaker challenge tests things like memory, team work and forward thinking.
Emotional Development: Young people are busy working out who they are and where they fit in, so emotional development plays a very central role in self-discovery. Kids want to know more about themselves and whilst at camp, they get the chance to try new things, make new friends and really learn more about what they are good at, what skills they can learn easily and how to be a part of a team. Each activity requires effective communication and working together as a group. Facilitating positive relationships is an important foundation for a child's wellbeing.
Social Development: When children are young, they don't instinctively know how to share,
collaborate, compromise or resolve conflicts. All of these skills need to be learned. This learning takes place from the early stages, all the way through to adult hood. Placing kids into groups allows them to bond and socialise over new and exciting experiences. They learn how different people communicate and the importance of both verbal and non-verbal communication. We get each group to come up with a team "War-Cry", they create, learn and showcase their teams war cry at the end of camp. It is super cool to see everyone get involved and how creative they can be.
At Adventure camp, we understand just how important physical activity is to build strength, coordination and confidence and our 3-day camps provide school aged kids the chance to do a variety of activities that suit their age, ability, personality and interests. We also understand just how important it is to socialise and challenge yourself. We love to see the kids really sink their teeth into the activities and you can really see their increased confidence when they make it through the camp as a team.
If you are after an exciting Adventure that your kids can really benefit from, why not choose Adventure Camp these school holidays!