Brought to you by First Coast YMCA
Youth development entails opportunities and resources that help kids grow into healthy adolescents and adults. At YMCA of Florida’s First Coast, youth development also represents adventure, cultural diversity, and exploration. If you’re looking for summer activities for your kids to experience all the above without traveling far, look no further!
This year, First Coast YMCA’s Summer Camp is taking explorers ages 5 to 12 around the world, visiting a different country each week through themed camps in their neighborhood. Destinations include South Africa, Australia, France, Greece, India, United States, Egypt, Thailand, Peru and Brazil. Immersing children in different cultural settings stimulates personal growth now and in the future.
Become More Independent
Summer camp can be more than merely fun play for your kids. Many vital characteristics are built from this specific platform. Social skills, independence, and confidence are all learned skills that summer camp helps children to develop.
Camps provide the right instruction, equipment and facilities for kids to improve their sports abilities, artistic talents, and adventure skills. The sheer variety of activities offered at camp makes it easy for kids to discover what they like to do. Additionally, being on their own and communicating with fellow campers helps children establish problem-solving skills that will motivate them to become independent individuals.
Foster Lifelong Friendships
Camp is also the place where kids make their lifelong friends. Free from the social expectations pressuring them at school, camp encourages kids to relax and make friends easily. The fun of summer camp draws everyone together— singing, laughing, talking, playing, doing almost everything together.
Absorbing diverse viewpoints and values through daily enrichment activities also encourages critical thinking and self-reflection that contribute to youth development in a profound manner.
Understand Culture Diversity
A trip to local museums or art galleries might be a regular routine in your household, but the positive impact of exposing young children to different cultures becomes even greater when combined with discussions and interactions with their peers.
When you take a child out of his or her daily environment, it opens new windows of understanding of the world. With the Y’s summer adventure camp, your kids will gradually learn to see the similarities within the differences, which is a definite shift in perspective.
At a young age, broadening the horizons of a child helps to educate them, adding complexity to their character. This type of education exceeds what your children traditionally gain from the classroom.
We are counting down the days to the biggest adventure yet at the YMCA Summer Day Camp. Building upon the popular day camp sites across the First Coast, the Y opened three new locations this year to better serve area residents. They are Duval Charter at School at Southside, River City Science Academy, and Riverside Park United Methodist Church. Visit First Coat YMCA website to register for your kid’s worldwide adventure and to find the best camp near you!
