With such a large selection of summer camps for kids, it can drive you crazy trying to narrow down the choices.
We have soccer camp, science summer camp, summer day camps and overnight camps, music camps, and more. I almost felt like we were deciding on a college!
They all offered different benefits. I settled on the less popular farm summer camp based on my own childhood experiences visiting my grandparents’ farm as a kid.
Most summer camps work on individual skills…kind of a self-improvement camp that gives the kids something to do during the summer.
A farm summer camp does have the benefit of “self-improvement” but it comes in a roundabout way. I think it teaches kids to think of others and be less selfish as everyone works together on an active farm.
Not too many kids get to experience milking a cow these days, or know how to gather eggs, or grow and use vegetables they’ve picked to make dinner.
A farm summer camp does all that.
Campers experience varied aspects of farm life from feeding and caring for animals to harvesting and eating organic vegetables. The child-centered approach is a growing experience for everyone involved.
I have to admit, sending my daughter off to a farm summer camp was a little scary at first, because it isn’t exactly a sterile environment.
Plus all the animals offer untold risks, but when she came home with stories about hunting for frogs, collecting eggs, and building fairy houses, I knew I’d made the right choice. She learned a lot about gardening, farm animals, and even pond life.
The kids were broken into small groups that all came together at lunch time, and after they ate, enjoyed listening to a chapter of Charlotte’s Web.
I felt like farm summer camp introduced her to what it used to be like to be a kid before all the technology we have today.
Photo credits: cheeseslave, cheeseslave
