Camp is more than just a place to play: Camp Builds Skills for Life!
When it comes to Skills for Life, curiosity and exploration help us begin some of our greatest adventures. They are the first steps our mind takes toward great discoveries. Learning something new, overcoming a challenge, or making a lifelong friend are all possible because we are curious, and we want to explore.
What are Curiosity & Exploration?
Someone who is curious is eager to learn more, and wants to find out the answers. An explorer puts their curiosity into action and ventures into the unknown with enthusiasm. A child asking about a new plant or animal is curious. When she goes on a hike to find more new plants and animals on her own, she is exploring.
Why Are They Skills For Life?
Many of us start out in life with a strong sense of curiosity and exploration. The wide-eyed infants and children in our lives greet new interaction with a curious spirit, and a fearless sense of exploration. Whether it’s a baby finding his toes, or a child seeing her favorite animal at the zoo, life is full of brand new situations and exciting possibilities. Children are poised and eager to learn, and their environments and influences either nurture or diminish that enthusiasm.
Remember when you decided to move away from home? Go on a first date? Start a new career path? Something in you stirred and wanted to know more, to experience change and growth. There was an excitement about the unknown, an enthusiasm about what lay ahead. That sense of wonder that inspires us is our curiosity. It helps us take the first steps on a new path, and our sense of exploration keeps us going.
Our world has its greatest masterpieces, inventions, and discoveries because someone was curious and wanted to explore a new possibility. There was a moment Jane Austen thought “What if this character said exactly what she thought of everyone she met?” There was a time when Nikola Tesla said, “What if we could generate energy in a whole new way?”
Curiosity and exploration are life-changing at any age, and can lead to transformation in our workplace, community, and society.
How Does Camp Teach Curiosity & Exploration?
Camp is a place where kids are encouraged to be curious and explore their surrounding. Ar Camp we learn to be curious, and that we can be an explorer. Children can ask a lot of questions sometimes, and camp is a great place to ask them and learn about the answers, or explore a way to find them out.
- What’s the name of that plant?
- Which animal has those tracks?
- How do we start a campfire?
- Do you think there are fish in that creek?
- What will we find on the hiking trail?
- Would you like to play a new game?
Camp gives curiosity a voice, and a safe space to explore new possibilities.
Nature itself sparks the wonder that keeps us learning and asking questions. When we step outside after a stressful day, it seems to beckon us. The outdoors awaken our senses: we become alert to new details, our awareness of the sights, smells, and beauty around us is heightened. Camp staff and outdoor enthusiasts keep coming back because no two days in nature are the same. Every day the plant life grows and changes; the wildlife roam free. Just like the flora and fauna that surround us, our curiosity and sense of exploration keep growing when we’re outside.
Leadership Academy has innovative programs that encourage exploration and spark curiosity. Our camps are highly personalized and allow campers to choose their own adventure. If you’re ready to see where your child’s curiosity will take them, check out our youth and teen camps. If you want to awaken the explorer in you, we offer amazing staff opportunities, and a one-of-a-kind grown ups camp. To learn more, visit us online or call us at 615-856-4772. Let’s go exploring!
