At Keystone Science School, there is the belief that every child deserves camp. Everything within their summer camp is carefully planned no matter if it is part of the day camp, overnight camp, or wilderness adventure program. A perfect example of the careful planning of each camp program is the opening campfire. On the first night of every overnight camp session there is a counselor facilitated campfire with the typical repeat-after-me songs, skits, and s’mores! As an outside observer, a parent might think that it’s just complete silliness and has no purpose. The reality is that the opening campfire is very structured and has many goals. Of all the structured goals the central theme of the camp fire and each camp session is to make new friends.
At KSS, one of the core values is to foster open and honest relationships. This includes friendship and teaching campers how to make new friends. This can’t be accomplished without children being willing to be open with each other. Making friends can sometimes be a challenge. It’s not always easy to start a conversation or just be yourself in a new setting. That’s where the campfire comes in as an amazing experience to kick off every summer camp experience.
Through that opening campfire, campers are encouraged to sing, laugh, and be silly. At the start of every campfire campers typically act reserved and often scan the audience to see if it’s acceptable to sing and laugh. Once first-time campers see that their counselors and CAPs (teen leaders) are joining in the fun, they see that’s it’s okay to sing-a-long and be a kid. By the middle of the campfire all summer campers are screaming at the top of their lungs and laughing together.
Laughing can be a unifying experience and it’s this beginning experience which allows campers to then be comfortable introducing themselves to each other and making conversation, which can last a week or a lifetime. Throughout the summer camp season, we challenge our campers emotionally and physically. It’s these introductory experiences, such as a campfire, which allows campers to take on that next challenge.
Discount
Keystone Science School has day, overnight and wilderness adventure camps. You can receive a $15 off on any day camp program with the coupon code MHM15 or $25 off on an overnight or wilderness adventure program using coupon code MHM25.
Author: Mile High Mamas
