Fostering the autonomy and confidence of boys and girls in a Summer Camp

The end of the school year is coming, and with it comes the need to find options to keep children active and busy during the long summer holidays. Summer camps, according to Sonia Martínez, psychologist and director of the Crece Bien Centers in Madrid, offer a valuable opportunity to promote children's autonomy and strengthen their confidence and self-esteem.

Benefits of Summer Camps

Summer camps allow boys and girls to step out of their comfort zone, make new friends and participate in exciting activities that they may not have had the opportunity to experience during the school year. In addition, attending a camp can be a great way to develop important skills, such as autonomy, confidence and self-confidence.

Tips for Overcoming Fears

It's natural for boys and girls to feel some anxiety or fear when faced with the camp experience. To help them prepare and feel safe, it's important for parents to provide them with support and anticipate possible situations that may arise during their stay. Some useful strategies include:

• Simulate camp situations so that boys and girls practice how to react.
• Create a safe space where children can express their concerns and fears.
• Convey calm and security during the farewell, showing confidence in the camp experience.
• Allow children to participate in the choice of camp and activities, encouraging their sense of responsibility and autonomy.

Normalizing the experience

It's important to remember that it's normal for some boys and girls to feel sad or anxious when separated from their parents during the first few days of camp. Parents must show empathy, peace of mind and trust in their sons and daughters ability to adapt to the new situation. At the same time, it's essential to understand and accept children's feelings, providing them with the support and security they need to overcome their fears.

Summer camps provide an invaluable opportunity for boys and girls to develop important social, emotional and life skills while having fun and exploring new experiences. With the right support and a positive attitude, they can face the challenges of camping and return home with unforgettable memories and a greater sense of self-confidence.

Source: Tacata Comunicación

It's “normal” for children to have some fears and fears about camping. They must make them feel understood and help them to seek solutions to their possible fears by anticipating possible situations that may occur.

The end of a new school year is coming to an end and, with it, the need for many families to seek alternatives to keep their children active and busy during the long summer holidays, three months in which many parents see each other and want them to combine work and child care.

In this context, summer camps are presented as an interesting alternative that, according to Sonia Martínez, psychologist and director of Crece Bien Centers from Madrid, pioneers in the teaching and development of Emotional, Social and Learning Skills, promotes children's autonomy while gaining confidence and self-esteem.

“Children deserve to have activities that make them break a little with the situation we have experienced. Camps are a good opportunity for children to get out of their comfort zone, to learn to make new friends and to develop new activities that are attractive to them and that, either due to lack of time or opportunities, they have not been able to do during the school period. Attending a camp can be a perfect activity to develop autonomy, confidence and self-confidence,” Martínez argues.

TIPS FOR OVERCOMING FEARS

For the director of the Crece Bien Centers, if parents decide that their child is sufficiently prepared to attend one of these summer activities, it is important that they help him “train” the camp, which will “help him to feel confident and prepared” for the experience and to find solutions to the different situations that will arise during it. “We can do this through questions such as: “What if there is a food in the camp that you don't like?” “What if some kids tell you to do a prank?” Or by simulating situations such as: “You have to introduce yourself to other friends, how would you do it?” These types of simulations can help turn camping into a very enriching experience,” he explains.

In this regard, Martinez adds that it is “normal” for children to have some fears and fears about camping, since this usually involves leaving their comfort zone. In this sense, the psychologist recommends that families create a space in which children can express themselves and tell their concerns, make them feel understood, help them seek solutions to their possible fears by anticipating possible situations that may occur, and remind them of situations in which they have already been able to face their fears, such as the first day of school.

Even with all this prevention, it's not surprising that some children are left crying the first few days of camp as they say goodbye to their parents. In this regard, Sonia Martínez advises parents to normalize the situation, show empathy and transmit security. “The separation on those days must be as quick as possible, since extending the farewell will only increase the anguish. For this reason, it is essential to show calm and security, since children learn by observing and, if we are insecure, it is normal for them to feel distrustful. Finally and most importantly, let's understand them: it's normal for them to feel sad because they're facing an unknown situation and they're going to miss us,” he says.

It is normal for them to feel sad because they are facing an unknown situation and are going to miss us.

Finally, given the reluctance that some boys and girls may show when going to a camp, the expert in emotional education recalls the importance of knowing what it is for the child to choose and what not: “Going to a camp or not is not something the child has to decide yet. However, it is important to take into account their opinion and interest when choosing what type of camp to go to.”

In this regard, the psychologist recommends giving the child the opportunity to choose between two or three camps, or between the activities to be carried out, or even the possibility, if the parents can afford it, to leave sooner or later. “In this way, we will make them involved and responsible. If we are convinced that our child has to go to a camp, all we can do is accept that the child is afraid or that he feels angry, let him express what he feels and encourage him to overcome it”, he concludes.

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