Summer break from school offers families with children a great opportunity to plan for summer vacations together, visit extended family, have some less hectic scheduling, and relax. Right? Of course along with the opportunities it gives your family, it can also bring some challenges. Some of the challenges include:
- Finding ways to keep the kids active during the day.
- Keeping the screen-time to a reasonable amount of time
- Helping kids fight boredom and possible depression
- Keeping them safe while parents are at work
- Kids miss their friends and feel isolated
The good news is the South Tampa area offers parents many choices for summer camps and programs to solve some of the challenges that summer break from school brings. And summer camps can also provide many benefits to the children.
Summer camp give kids the opportunity to meet new friends. In the classroom, kids bond with a group of friends who they see day after day. This is a great thing for kids but kids also become comfortable in their “tribe” and may stop reaching out to (or have little opportunity to meet) new friends. Camp is new for everyone and while your child may see a couple of friends they know, they will be exposed to many they don’t know yet. And because camp is a short period of time, they have to engage quickly to get the most out of their time.
Kids can get sluggish in the summer. Parents complain of their children napping, watching too much television and spending too much time on their devices. While many summer camps offer periods of time in the day when kids can do their own thing, screen time will be limited when their day is filled with organized activities. Studies suggest that kids spend over 7 hours of their day engaged with technology, I would think adults do too. Technology enriches our lives in many ways and not many of us would want to give it up, but our children need time to engage with real people in the friends they meet and real super heroes in the mentors and leaders they have at camp.
In addition to reducing the screen time, summer camps get kids off the couch and busy doing physical activities that burn calories and create positive energy. We know that the South Tampa kids that come to our Martial Arts Advantage camps are burning a lot of energy just based on how much food they consume during lunch and snack breaks! And we love to see them in both organized exercise like our martial arts lesson they receive every day, but also doing fun games and activities that make them laugh and have fun.
Summer camp can be a great way for kids to build self-esteem and become more confident. Many camp activities are group-based activities where kids learn to work as a team and occasionally take on the leadership role with their group. These activities encourage kids to break out of their comfort zone and do something they might not have done in another setting. When they do, these activities do wonders for a child’s self-esteem and confidence level. They will be finding new role models and often role models who share a common interest. Kids feel included and a part of something special when that happens. Camp activities provide lots of opportunities for positive reinforcement of learned skills, behaviors, and attitudes. A positive attitude is what martial arts training is all about and here at Martial Arts Advantage, the first thing our campers learn is the mantra of “YES. I CAN!”
Martial Arts Advantage Summer Camps are offered for all 10 weeks of the Hillsborough County Schools summer break. We have a different theme every week so kids that come to more than one camp will get a little different experience each time. And our camps are conducted in our South Tampa location in a clean, air-conditioned, and spacious facility with trained martial arts instructors and camp staff to supervise the kids throughout the day. Camps run from 9AM to 3PM with complimentary early drop off at 8:30AM and complimentary extended hours until 6PM. If you are looking for a summer camp experience for your kiddos this summer, now is a great time to register – our EARLY BIRD pricing is open now so you can save $30 on each camp you register for. Just enter the Code – EARLYBIRD30 when you check out for each camp. Early Bird pricing will end on March 15th.
You can find all our camps on our website at https://martialartsadvantage.com/camps/ . If you have any questions about camp or any of our programs, please contact us at 813-832-8800 or email us at South@martialartsadvantage.com.