Thursday, August 31, 2017

Encouraging Kids to Be Great Leaders

Kids who are excellent leaders grow up to be successful adults. While some kids are natural born leaders, others need a little help to bring out their confidence. It is also important to know that even kids who naturally take the lead may need a little guidance to learn how to do so effectively. The great news is that encouraging kids to be great leaders simply requires giving them a nurturing environment in which they feel confident practicing their skills. Try these tips to help your child’s natural talents for leadership emerge.
Give Them Responsibilities
True leaders take responsibility for their actions and are willing to jump in and lend a hand whenever it is needed. At home, give your kid jobs that require them to think like a leader. For instance, you could involve them in planning how to paint their room, and let them recruit a friend or two to help. Alternatively, you could let your kids set up a lemonade stand for the weekend to build their leadership and entrepreneurial skills. Then, make sure that your child also has responsibilities at school and summer camp such as keeping their cabin or classroom clean.
Develop Their Self-Confidence
It takes confidence to lead a group or speak up when it is necessary. For this reason, confidence and leadership skills often go hand in hand. Provide your child with new experiences that encourage them to step out of their comfort zone. Ideally, these experiences should have some degree of challenge such as taking waterskiing lessons at camp or performing in front of a crowd in a play. Getting your kid to stretch their comfort level gives them the chance to conquer fears that get in the way of leadership.
Give Them Opportunities to Move Up As Leaders
It is important for kids to be given the chance to build upon their skills as a leader. For instance, summer camp helps turn shy kids into leaders by offering them safe opportunities to develop their skills such as being team captain for a scrimmage. As their talents emerge, campers are then given even more challenging roles such as leading a hike or showing another camper how to perform a skill. Eventually, campers can become camp counselors, which is the optimum way to practice leadership.
Talk About Their Triumphs and Challenges
The road to becoming a true leader is paved with both triumphs and defeats. After your child plays team captain or comes home from camp full of stories about how they led a hiking expedition, ask them about what they learned. As your child shares the challenges that they encountered, you can help them find solutions such as working harder to develop strong communication skills. Then, make sure to give your child plenty of praise to reinforce the positive feelings that come from being successful at leadership.
It is exciting to watch as your child slowly develops their confidence as a leader, and being in positions of leadership allows your child to fully reach their potential. By making sure that your child is given plenty of opportunities to develop their leadership skills at home, school and summer camp, you can look forward to watching as their talents grow and they emerge as leaders among their peers.


Canadian Adventure Camp is a North Ontario coed sleepover summer camp for kids located on a beautiful private island in the wilderness lakes region of Temagami. Founded in 1975, it  provides acclaimed programs to children from around the world! Visit site: http://www.canadianadventurecamp.com/campers/summer-camp-program/

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Exploring New Friendships at Summer Camp

New campers often worry about whether they will fit in at camp. Yet, it often takes only a few minutes after arrival before kids are sharing stories and laughing as if they’ve known each other for years. While kids make friends other places, there is just something different about camp that fosters closer relationships that stand out from the rest. When you drop your child off at camp, you can enjoy knowing that they are reaping the benefits of being able to explore new friendships during their outdoor adventures.
Bond Through New Experiences
The best friendships are those where you can look at someone and know that they will be there for you no matter what happens. At camp, kids are challenged every day to stretch out of their comfort zone. Their tasks to tackle might be spending the night in the wilderness or learning a new jump on their wakeboard. Having their friends standing there shouting their support and celebrating their success shows kids what it truly means to be a good friend.
Expand Your Child’s Horizons
Kids come to summer camp from all over the world. Campers quickly find a common ground with their love for adventures and the outdoors. At camp, your shy youngster may suddenly decide to take a new camper under their wing and emerge as an outgoing leader that summer. Alternatively, your teenager may decide to give gymnastics a try after meeting a friend who gets them excited about doing somersaults or flying through-the-air.
Develop Critical Social Skills
Camp is also all about learning how to live, work and play with others as a group. Your child’s cabin friends will all learn how to work together to keep their cabin clean and respect each other’s personal space. As expected, there are a lot of kids at camp. Your son or daughter will also learn how to make introductions and include newcomers to their group. Leadership skills are also gained as kids participate in their activities. And there are always plenty of opportunities to develop a team mindset that transfers to a kid’s ability to make friends once they return to home and school.
Form Long Lasting Relationships
It is important for kids to learn how to maintain their social ties despite distance or a gap in being able to see their friends. Camp friendships become so tight that kids often continue their relationship through the school year by writing letters, sending care packages and keeping up with each other on social media. By the time camp season rolls around again, they have found that their friendship is stronger than ever. In fact, camp friends feel as though returning to camp is very much like going home to a second family.

Kids rely upon their friendships to help them learn more about the world around them. They learn skills in a way that is different from what you can teach as a parent. At camp, your child is exposed to a diverse population of friendly kids. They are all eager to invite new friends into their circle. Over time, your youngster will form amazing friendships that enhance their happiness and give them an opportunity to practice those important relationship building skills that they will use throughout life.

Canadian Adventure Camp is a North Ontario coed sleepover summer camp for kids located on a beautiful private island in the wilderness lakes region of Temagami. Founded in 1975, it  provides acclaimed programs to children from around the world! Visit site: http://www.canadianadventurecamp.com/campers/summer-camp-program/