Summer Camp for Teens

03 Jun 2020

lesadmin

Summer is the best time for your children to attend camp. Various summer camp for teens programs offer a wide range of fun and exciting experiences for the youth. For example, by attending overnight camps your child will learn how to be independent.

An adventure camp, on the other hand, is a great way of creating unforgettable memories. A summer program comes with numerous benefits for your teenagers as we shall see below.

Specially Designed Activities for Teens

Compared to the younger campers, teenagers are mature intellectually, physically, and emotionally. Many times, teenagers prefer being in social engagements and camp activities with their peers.

Many camps in Switzerland offer various events and activities for children depending on their ages. Some of the specially designed activities for teens include water rafting, rock climbing, kayaking, canoeing, and team-building sports.

It’s important to understand that teenagers often experience unique challenges and taking care of them emotionally is critical. Studies show that teenage campers engage and understand activities better when they share their experiences with fellow teens. As a result, you may want to keep the young campers in a different summer camp to avoid these limitations.

A Productive Learning Environment

When older campers attend summer camp for teens they get a chance to enjoy social comfort and physical activity the entire day. Remember, teenagers can remain focused for longer periods compared to young campers. This allows counselors to aim their attention on outdoor activity engagement and skill development.

Being active is critical for a healthy lifestyle. Exposure to new challenges in performing arts camps triggers curiosity in teenagers which encourages them to discover new passions or hobbies.

Teen camps can enhance and covert this attention to mental and physical wellness in a social, fun, and exciting way. Whether your teenage child attends sleepaway camps for teens or a sports camp, they will learn new skills. This will help them cultivate positive social interaction practices within a specially designed environment that promotes their success.

Inclusivity

Inclusivity can be difficult if a summer program involves numerous campers of different age groups. This would deny teenagers a chance to be included in their preferred social groups. In summer camps for teens however, every camper gets a chance to participate in the stipulated activities.

At the Les Elfes summer camp, for instance, there are specially designed facilities for the teens. Onsite supervisors have created teen-focused activities to keep the children active throughout the camp experience. Staffs here are friendly and enthusiastic which helps create a fun and inclusive environment for the campers.

Learning to Appreciate Small Things

Being away on overnight camps means that campers will be unable to enjoy the comforts of being at home. This camp experience helps the teen appreciate the things they often take for granted.

These include mobile gadgets, television, serene bathrooms with warm running water, and a fridge full of food. Through this, the child will realize that life in their homes isn’t as bad as they may think.

Further, the experience is enough to help them understand that they only need a few things to be happy. These include caring parents, a warm bed, few trustworthy friends, and healthy meals.

Teenagers who often take their parents for granted will have a change of perception on spending some days in a teen summer camp. After the summer experience, you’ll notice that the teens will appreciate your gestures such as preparing their favorite meals.

Accountability, Responsibility, and Independence

A teen-oriented outdoor adventure can be an ideal place where teenagers learn how to do things independently. Here, they’ll be far from their parents or guardians. This means they’ll have to choose healthy meals, remember to brush their teeth and shower, and even wear sunscreen.

Getting used to summer camp teen programs can be difficult at first. However, the children will be in the company of their peers and this makes learning and coping easier. The young people will be tasked with new responsibilities that will help them grow.

Camp supervisors and directors will be ready to monitor and ensure that teens understand what needs to be done. Some teens are more dependent than others. Still, being under a camp program helps boost their self-reliance and independence.

What’s more, they will go back home with a different attitude towards doing daily tasks. Further, supervisors at the best summer camps ensure that every camper is responsible for their actions.

Enhances Teamwork

A great teen summer camp would be one that offers various day programs. Still, this camp should provide a wide range of activities for the campers. Such a summer experience provides a good environment for your teenager founded on shared values. These include curiosity, accountability, and acceptance.

Whether your teen will be attending an overnight or day camp, your child will learn how to collaborate with their peers. They will also enjoy developing different skills with teenagers from different countries, backgrounds, and cultures.

Campers at the Les Elfes summer camp work together to execute various tasks. These include: cleaning their cabins, teaching their peers new skills such as paddling a canoe and participating in community service plans.

Children in a teen summer camp should learn how to work together with their peers and adults. This way, they’ll become productive members of their teams.

Helps Teens Develop a Unique Interest

Teen summer camps provide an ample environment where high school students can engage in diverse activities outside the school setup. These include entrepreneurship and archery.

Has your teenager shown interest in engaging in different subjects out of sports or the school’s curriculum? If they have, various camps offer a vast range of subjects and activities.

These include visual arts, video games, and rafting. Summer camps for teens offer a great disturbance-free alternative environment and gives them time to discover new interests.

Making Friends

Bonding with new campers can be difficult even for children who’ve been to a YMCA overnight camp before. However, great academic programs make it easy for teens to interact and make new friends.

Teenagers have an easy time sharing small spaces with their peers. Living together in the summer camp cabins helps strengthen friendships. This helps campers learn fundamental life skills, and encourages them to appreciate people from different communities.

Once the summer camp is over, campers will have made friends from different backgrounds. Often, sleepaway camps give teenagers a chance to expand from their traditional group of friends and help them connect with others positively.

Allows them to Exercise

Technology today takes center stage in the upbringing of modern-day youth. Many parents take advantage of summer camp to ensure that children stay away from their gadgets. While on camp, many teenagers get a chance to engage in various physical and educational activities.

These include performing arts sessions and creative writing classes. Assuming your child is an athlete, for example, a sports camp would be ideal to keep them occupied. Parents whose teens are yet to establish their preferred sport can consider a day camp that helps campers engage in something new.

Provides Mental Stimulation

With the ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic, many schools are closed. This has denied children a chance to engage in physical activity.

Once the pandemic is controlled and teenagers can finally leave the house, parents should consider sending them to a summer camp. This will help them engage in both physical and mental activity. Does your child enjoy video games or visual arts?

Have you been searching for a way to keep them off their gadgets and into more mind stimulating courses or activities? If you do, a summer experience could be what your child needs to become innovative.

Finally

A camp experience gives your teen a chance to transition from school to extracurricular activities. It’s worth noting that different environments are critical for child development.

By attending camp, children will become self-confident and independent. Apart from acquiring new skills, they will also make new friends.

Book your teenager’s summer camp experience today and get a 10% discount.

7 Activities Your Child can try in a Summer Camp for Teens

13 May 2020

lesadmin

Summer camp trips are fun and exciting. If you’re planning a summer camp for teens, however, you understand it can be challenging. While teenagers are energetic, they can be choosy. This means pleasing them can be a difficult task.

You want to involve them in the planning process to ensure they don’t end up bored while on holiday. Allow them to voice their expectations, and plan in advance to make their summer camp for teens experience a memorable one. Here are some activities your child can try while on a summer camp trip.

1. The Down, Down, Down Game

The game that first originated from Australia has today been adopted in other summer camps across the world. It’s similar to Twister, a popular American game. To play this summer camp for teens game your child needs a tennis ball. Two players then stand some distance apart and toss the ball backward and forward at each other.

If one player misses the ball for the first time they’ll have to go down on one knee. When they miss the second time they go down on two knees. If they continue missing they’ll need to go down on one elbow then the other.

This trend continues until one player is tossing the ball while on their elbows and knees. The first player who misses the ball when down on all their elbows and knees becomes the loser.

In this case, another player will have to come on board to face off with the winner. This game is fun and interesting and teenagers will be excited to participate.

2. Bean Bag Tossing

This is a common summer camp activity for teens that takes up little space. Setting it up is easy and there are various ways of maintaining scores, and making the game more interesting. An ordinary bean bag throw game is a frame or wooden frame that rests at an angle on the ground.

The frame comes with five holes. One hole is located at the top, two are right below it, while three are at the bottom part of the frame. Teenagers can either give each hole a different score or toss at the different levels with contrasting colored bean bags. The bean bag tossing game is a fun and competitive activity that teens will love. It’s also ideal for restricted spaces.

3. Wet Shirt Relay

Summer is the perfect time of the year to engage in water-related games. The wet shirt relay game is an action-filled, fun, and thrilling summer camp for teens game. It’s a great outdoor activity for your kids to cool off on a hot day. Teenagers need around three buckets and three big tee shirts.

Divide the teens into teams and give each team a bucket and a tee shirt. With the buckets filled with water and placed some feet apart, immerse a tee shirt in each. Each team will then have a member race to the bucket.

Here, they’ll need to pick and wear the wet shirt on top of their bathing costume. After this, they’ll need to run to the next group member, remove the tee shirt and hand it over.

The team member who gets the t-shirt will immediately run to the bucket, immerse it, and wear it before racing back. The team that finishes first wins the race.

4. Water Balloon Volleyball

This is a throw-and-catch summer camp for teens game that campers play outside with water balloons. You’ll need to get the teenagers to fill up between 25 and 30 water balloons in preparation for the game.

Tie a rope or net between two trees where the hurling of the balloons will take place. Divide the teenagers into two teams. Each team should have a towel that acts like the balloon sling. Water balloon volleyball is played like ordinary volleyball.

However, the water balloon is thrown over the net with the help of a towel sling, and caught in the same way. When the balloon breaks on one side the opposite team gets a point. To prolong the game and make it more exciting you can replace the balloons every time they break.

5. Mad Libs

The mad libs game can be played indoors. It’s a verbal pattern word game where one player asks their peers for a series of words. The words are then used as alternatives for blanks in a narrative before they can read it aloud.

Teenagers attending a summer camp trip can practice mad libs as a pastime or party game. Apart from having fun, participants in this summer camp for teen game will find it educational.

Mad libs is available in different themes that teenagers will find interesting. Some of these focus on cartoons, flowers, and pets. There are different free mad lib word games available online. Teenagers will have a wide range of options to keep them busy during their summer camp vacation.

6. Twenty Questions

This is a spoken word game that teenagers can play in the evening by the campfire. This game first originated in the United States. It stimulates deductive creativity and reasoning. To play this game the camper who’s chosen to begin thinks of an item.

The rest of the teenagers then ask the participant questions one after the other to try and figure the item out. Some of the questions can be: is it a loaf of bread? Is it a domestic animal? Or is it a tree?

The participant can only give a yes or no answer. Any teen who’s certain they know the answer can just shout out the answer. However, if the answer turns out to be wrong then they’re suspended from the game.

The teenager who guesses the right answer becomes the winner. However, if no one gives the right guess then the participating teenager wins.

7. Shave the Balloon

Shave the balloon is an outdoor summer camp for teens activity that can be fun but messy. Here, three of four participants are chosen to challenge one another. They are then tasked with shaving a balloon that’s coated in shaving cream. This task may seem easy but a small scratch will make it burst, splashing shaving cream all over.

The first teenager who manages to shave the balloon successfully becomes the winner. Completing this task requires the use of sharp objects. The summer camp facility should have qualified personnel to ensure teenagers are safe while playing. A pair of leather gloves and safety razors will guarantee safety.

Finally

These activities will be fun and exciting for your teenagers. Further, but they’ll also leave them looking forward to the next summer camp for teens trip.

Summer Camp Activities

09 Apr 2019

carlotta

What would you do if you could come up with a list of summer camp activities, that would make any camp director swoon?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hearing more and more of the parents contacting our camp thinking and saying the same thing.

Oh no, not another summer like last year, where your child sat inside all day complaining that there was nothing to do, while you fought as hard as you could just to get them off of their iPad.

Nope, not this year. We are going to give you a list of summer camp activities so engaging that your child will be bounding out of bed every morning, eagerly awaiting to hear what is on for the day.

Well, that’s the hope at least…

Bike Riding (with the family):

I know this one sounds obvious, and maybe you’ve tried it before but how about trying to tie something more relaxing into the activity to give it more appeal. For example, instead of saying let’s go for a family bike ride, how about burying the biking aspect in with “How about we go on a family picnic where I make your favourite lunch dish, and we go for a swim in the cool lake?”. When asked how you’ll get there, then you slide in the, Well, by bikes of course.

It’s been known that children, and teens of this day don’t get nearly enough exercise during the summer. Because not every child has the option for summer sports activities during the summer months, you’ll have to get creative ways to get children off of the couch at home, and out into the glorious summer sunshine. What better way to do this than by good old fashioned bike power.

Rock climbing wall at the local gym

Many gyms these days have a climbing wall right inside the gym. How about taking your child to the local gym? You’ll first need call them to find out if they have a climbing wall, but I bet you’ll be surprised that they do. Then the outing could be down to the local gym, where they often give you a free pass to check out and try the climbing wall. This is a great activity, and you may surprise yourself by finding your child has a knack for climbing that they never knew about. This happened to my sons friend last summer, and now he’s hooked.

Many of the rock walls have a free session for children where the children can train with a trained coach or expert, and they’ll lend you the shoes, harness and the ropes are already there. Just make sure to bring your own socks!

Friendship bracelets

Friendship bracelets are really easy and fun to make. All you will need is some yarn, or coloured floss to weave together, some tape, and some fun doo dads to hang off the bracelets. I’ve seen children use beads, and other trinkets to make them more fun or personal. Even beads with letters, so they could put their friends name on the bracelet.

If you want to see a more detailed description of how to make these check out this site.

Homemade Ice Cream

Now what other thing reminds us more of summer than ice cream? And making your own ice cream, or even better, having your child or teen make ice cream is an age old summer activity that will be sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face. You would be surprised at how easy it is to make, and even with only a few common household ingredients that you likely already have on hand.

Ingredients

2 -3 cups (16oz/450ml ) heavy whipping cream, cold

14 ounces (1 Can/ 400ml) sweetened condensed milk (fat-free or regular), cold

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (optional)

For additional flavours, you can go as crazy as you want. Think mango puree, strawberries, salted caramel, kiwi, the list goes on and on, and who can forget about chocolate sauce.

Instructions

Place sweetened condensed milk in the fridge to keep cold.
Using a hand or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the cold cream on medium/high speed until soft peaks form.
Pour the cold condensed milk into the whipped cream.
Whisk until the mixture is thick and stiff peaks form. Then mix in your vanilla or other flavours that you like. How about some fresh blueberries that you might have picked from a nature hike that morning?

In case you didn’t know, this is what stiff peaks looks like. I was always confused by this term myself until I tried making ice cream and later a tiramisu. You’ll need to whip your ice cream mix until it reaches the consistency of the below.

Then, just stick in the freezer, wait a few hours and enjoy!

Ring Toss

A few years ago, we went on a family vacation to Jamaica with a few other families. There was a simple game that was a ring, tied to an old piece of fishing line that you had to stand a few meters away from and swing it onto a spike stuck in a tree. Believe it or not, this simple game provided hours of entertainment for children and adults alike. Nevermind that the adults turned the activity into more of a frat party drinking game, it was still fun. Be creative and tie in some tricks or prizes into the mix, and you’ll have an instant and nearly free activity that can entertain children for a few hours the rest of the summer.

Giant Bubbles

OK, this might be for the younger ones, but I’ve even seen the street performers standing at the stop lights trying to earn a few dollars with this one. It’s pretty fun to watch. The recipe is you’ll need is: 6 cups water, 1 cup corn syrup, and 2 cups regular strength dish soap. The corn syrup as you might have guessed is the key to allowing the bubbles to get really big.

Stir mixture into a shallow tub. Dip blower into solution, lift out, and blow. Or even run with the soapy mixture into the breeze and let a huge bubble fly. As you can see from this image, you can get some sticks and some string to make the area for the mixture to cling to. Then just add the breeze by running, and let those giant bubbles fly.

A makeshift puppet show

This activity is as easy as it sounds. Grab some old socks, paint some faces on them, and let your creativity run wild. You can even cut out some yarn and glue on a wig, or get as crazy as you want for the puppets themselves. Just do like you see in the movies and have your child hide behind a box or table that is turned on its side and reenact Shakespeare or be their silly selves. It may sound corny, but this one has brought our family and friend to tears as the children make up funny stories and enjoying bringing out the hidden thespian.

A family visit to a nearby historical site or museum

Oh, the horror, a museum and learning in the summer? But wait, it’s not as bad as it sounds. There are plenty of museums or historical sites that are a lot of fun to visit in the summer. Many museums these days have fun science experiments or educational how-tos to illustrate fun activities and lessons to children and teens.

Your own ropes labyrinth adventure park

You or your child / teen can make a labyrinth park.

What’s a labyrinth park you ask?

Well, it’s like a maze but labyrinths are designed so that you can’t take a wrong turn to get out. You walk through the labyrinth, and of course making it is the most fun part. The even better part is that this is likely a multi day project, and one that you can actually turn into a garden centerpiece if you want.

The first step is to draw out your design. To give you an idea, here is what a labyrinth could look like. Once you have a design you like, you’ll need to buy some rope and steel to construct the labyrinth. I told you this was a multi day project, but it doesn’t mean you need to construct in consecutive days, it could be done throughout the summer if you wanted. Once you have the rope and stakes, measure it out according to your diagram and hammer the stakes into the ground to attach the ropes. A more detailed explanation with all of the steps can be found on this excellent labyrinth making post.

Here’s what it could look like at the end of the creation.

Neighbourhood Football/Soccer match OR capture the flag

When we were growing up, we used to put together football/soccer matches all the time at the local school ground, or park that could accommodate the size needed. In fact, I’ve been doing this nearly my whole life. Even during beach vacations. We would just grab anything that could make a goal post (a shoe, a coconut, a stick stuck into the ground) whatever we could find. And voila, you have an instant impromptu football pitch. Now, start inviting the neighbours or your friends to come and play. You can make it more organised and create flyers, even game shirts for teams and with Moms bringing over a different snack for the children to have during the match.

The other really fun thing to do for all ages is capture the flag. With capture the flag you don’t even need a field, in fact, it’s better without a field. You can designate a loose area in the local forest or wooded section near your house. Organise into two teams, separate by age differences, boys, girls and create the boundary and general rules.

In case you don’t know the rules, they are quite simple. There is a flag that usually a person or persons stand near to guard. This is usually away from the front neutral area towards the front of the game area. Then there will be some offensive aspect of the team that will try and sneak into the other team’s area to try and capture the flag without being tagged. To get out or caught, you just need to be tagged by a member of the opposite team, while you are in “enemy territory”.

If a member of the opposite team tags you while trying to get the flag, you are put into “prison”. Usually a team of the defence then needs to guard the prisoners, because if a member of the offensive team tags a prisoner, all prisoners are released.

We have found both football/soccer matches and capture the flag to be equally as fun with adults and children of all ages playing together.

A nature treasure hunt

A lot of children and teens likely have done treasure hunts, but a natural treasure hunt is done with a natural twist. Examples of hints, or clues are below, but you can make it more natural by having the hunt be articles of nature. Examples could be pine cones, moss from trees, types of rocks, or different types of leaves.

Likely, your teen will be rolling their eyes at this one, but you can make it more fun by having a prize that you know they will enjoy.

A family hike

Being from the Swiss Alps, this is a hugely important family activity. It helps when you have some of the most stunning alpine and mountainous scenery in the world, but hikes are a great way to get outside and enjoy any type of environment. No matter where you live. There are many apps in the Apple app store or Google play store that will give you great information on where the best hiking areas are in your area. The app will tell you based on your physical fitness ability what is most appropriate, the length of the hike, what features you may want to visit (fishing, swim in a lake, reach a mountain peak).

Here’s picture of my sons and dog on a local hike near where we live. Not bad, eh?

Plus, tell you where to park to find the trailhead. You don’t need to live in Switzerland to enjoy a family hike, so go out and do some hiking or walking today.

Talent show

Talent shows are great fun for the family. They can be as elaborate as you want them to be, by inviting your friends to take part, and even other families to put on competitions. Children and teens love the opportunity to show off their hidden talents, be they in singing, telling stories, playing instruments or acting out a play that they wrote. Maybe you have a comedian in your family, and this will give them a chance to shine. Jim Carrey used to put on stand-up every day after school, you’ll never know what you may find out about your child’s talents until you let them show them off.

Make tapas

Tapas, in case you’re not familiar with them, are small, sometimes even bite sized snacks with origins from Spain. In the Basque country, the area around the border of Spain and France, tapas are a way of life, and nearly all local restaurants serve them from lunch through to dinner. The idea of having a number of small dishes with a wide variety of choices has become so popular, tapas restaurants are opening up around the globe. Chances are you have even had them yourself while never having visited Spain.

At our camp, we make tapas and the campers love the idea having many options to choose to eat.

Here are a list of some of our favourites. And the good news, is that most of them are quite easy to make.

Spanish omelette – This is an egg dish with potatoes, olive oil, and other spices. If you want the exact recipe to make this one, you can check out this comprehensive tapas recipes.

Calamari – Any way you cut it, people love calamari, or fried squid. It may be a bit difficult to get if you’re located in a land locked area but the idea is some type of chewy white meat, cooked in a light tempura or batter, then complement with some lemon zest. Careful to make enough of this one, because it’s very popular.

A mix of local cheeses and hams – No matter where you live, you likely have access to cheese, try and go to the local butcher or gourmet shop to get some good ones. Traditionally, the cheeses that are used for this are Manchego or Mahon but you can make it with some different types that you like. Stiltons, goat cheese, strong cheddar cheese. Then compliment with some good bread, and some ham’s (Iberian cured ham is great if you can find it). Add some walnuts and some grapes, and you’ll have a real tapas dish.

Olives – That’s right, just plain olives and I usually find the ones that still have the pits inside them have the best flavour. If you take the pit out, for some reason some of the strong salty flavour is lost. Usually, it’s best to have a mix of olives, black and green and with different sizes.

Patatas Bravas – This just potatoes baked with a bit of paprika and spice sprinkled on before you place in the oven. To make it traditionally the Basque way, use some aioli sauce, which is made from mostly garlic and olive oil. Who doesn’t love those?

To get your creative juices flowing, here’s a shot of a plate that might get you inspired.

Well, this is just a few ideas that we think might be enough to motivate your child or teen up off of the couch, off of their iPad and out into the bright beautiful summer sun. We hope that you’ll find some inspiration from these ideas.

In case you are wondering where these ideas came from, many of these ideas are ones that we encourage or use with our own campers. We are an international summer camp located in the heart of the Swiss Alps. With children and communities from around the world, we have been entertaining children for more than 30 years. So we know a thing or two about how to keep children busy. Our camp actually runs from December through August too. If you’d like to learn more about what we do, or more about the ideas we wrote about, just hit the button below to get more information. We’d love to chat with you about these ideas, or even to hear some of your own.

Now go out and enjoy some summer sun!