Do you want your teenager to develop self-reliance, amenableness, and social skills?
If you attended camp (what some of us remember as “Veldskool”) as a child, you might recall it as one of the best experiences of your life. We hope! This is where you made new friends, gained leadership experience, and had great times.
During camp, children are removed from their everyday lives, grouped together in a temporary community filled with bonding moments that create in a short period of time, wonderful connections. Coupled with that campers enjoy activities in a settings that brings them much closer to nature than usual. It never ceases to amaze us, just how much being so much closer to nature speaks to our campers, as we believe that spending time in creation makes it much easier to connect with the Creator.
One of the advantages of an overnight camp is the personal development campers experience. Your child will get an opportunity to discover who they are while on a camp, often times discovering something new about themselves, a friend and often times God. This allows for a stronger sense of self and a deeper understanding of their life goals and especially their purpose.
The fact that camp teaches important life skills like resilience, for example, adds to the value your child will gain from camping. Children should face challenges to learn and grow. At Moolmanshoek we encourage children to try and we celebrate participation through a process we call experiential learning. We encourage children who struggle at first, and sometimes even fail at their first attempt, but with motivation and encouragement is it heart warming to see how these children achieve small victories in their accomplishments that will bear fruit somewhere in their future. Your child will learn resilience and perseverance through this type of intervention. They discover that achieving a goals requires effort and motivation, but also taste the satisfaction that comes after completing something challenging or difficult. This experience becomes extremely beneficial after school when children enter the adult world that in itself has many challenges.
We believe in being very active and encourage campers to take up exercise when they back home. At a Moolmanshoek camp days are full and model something of an active and healthy life style that we hope campers will engage in when back at home.
Hiking is a very popular activity at Moolmanshoek. Many times we use our horses to create a special moment and days are filled with many games and fun activities. During most camps we also will put children through our ropes course or have them do an abseil. Both of these activities will give campers the opportunity to venture outside of their comfort zones.
At Moolmanshoek we camp without screens and encourage children to leave their phones at home. If they do bring them along we take them in on arrival for safe keeping. One of the biggest reason for this is that today’s children are loosing their ability to interact and socialise away from screens. Often times the conversations and pleasant times they experience without any technology present, are the highlight of camp. Your child will discover the joy of actual connections that take place during free time face to face conversations.
Something we have noticed is that children today seem to have a lot of anxieties and issues in their daily lives. These concerns may include peer pressure, domestic strife, academic pressure, and others. We really believe that we can help equip them with some very practical help and tools to cope with this when back at home. Since camp is away from the everyday, it is almost like giving them some space away from these concerns enabling them again to enjoy the innocence of their youth.
Teenage years are a time when peer pressure seems greatest. Children are also searching for role models to imitate during this phase of their lives. Meeting good role models who can influence your child’s life is one of the advantages of camp. Your child will be given opportunities to participate in activities that challenge them with an element of adventure, thanks to the camp personnel. Our camp staff have a responsibility to demonstrate good values and norms to our campers, and hopefully create an image of what an adult should look like. All our camps are value based and we believe that Camps are wonderful platforms to make these values tangible for kids. It is our hope that our visiting campers will adopt some of the values we cherish and make it their own too. Above all, we try and help children to see that living in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, is the most important foundation to build into your life.
Teenagers are always seeking for new experiences and exciting journeys. Attending one of our camps will expose them to endless adventures! Teenagers who have never attended an overnight camp before will discover what they were missing out on. Camp exposes them to novel experiences and pursuits they won’t discover elsewhere. We work hard at moving campers out of their comfort zones in a safe and friendly environment.
The teenage years are an optimal time to develop emotional intelligence (EQ). A very helpful tool to have, for later in life, especially when leading people and working in teams. We believe camp provides an excellent opportunity to grow ones EQ. Many of our activities are built around teamwork and team initiatives, all suited to grow and teach EQ.
Children and teenagers rarely interact with nature nowadays. According to a research, 62% of children watch screens for more than 4 hours daily. Studies also reveal that 29% of children, most of them in their teenage years, spend more than eight hours a day in front of devices. People who were raised in cities sometimes have no idea how to get about in the outdoors. Coming to camp will give your child an outdoor adventure that will help them develop a connection with nature. Even if they may be somewhat reluctant before coming, we believe that they will return home with wonderful memories and lives that have been touched in a special way through our learning experiences. They will definitely miss camp once home.
Moolmanshoek LDC – creating life-enriching camp experiences. Come experience the joy of outdoor adventure camping with us
