Tips for Raising Winners Through Youth Camp Experience

You want your children to win, not lose. You want them to experience the sweet feeling that comes with knowing they are the best. They are better than all of their competitors and peers, but more importantly, they are constantly bettering themselves. You want them to be nice to others and have a great social life, but you also want them to be winners who do what it takes to succeed in life.

This is understandable, but you may be wondering what you can do to enforce this teaching in your children. Some children are able to keep themselves driven and focused much better than other children, but they all deserve to be pushed to the best of their abilities. If you are interested in putting your children in youth camp or summer camp and want them to get the most out of life and become winners, there are five things you must do:

1. Give them freedom to explore.

You have to cut the leash and allow your children to explore the world on their own. There are a lot of unsafe things happening in the world, so this is understandably a scary concept. Yet, it doesn't have to be! Youth camp is a very safe place where children can learn to solve problems on their own and explore life without being attached to you as their parent. They are able to see what they can actually accomplish when on their own. You have the summer camp staff there to ensure that your child is safe, and your child gets the sense of independence that they need to grow up as a winner.

2. Trust the leaders employed by your summer camp.

If you cannot trust the people in charge of your children while at a youth camp, then you have not chosen the right youth camp! Put some faith in these hard workers, and see what they can do with your little ones. Winning children need a lot of role models and positive influences in their world, and a camp is one great place to find those role models and positive influences.

3. Praise the changes you see in your child while they are attending camp.

From the small changes to the huge changes, you have to let your child know that you acknowledge how they are progressing. The most influential way to encourage winning behaviors is to reinforce them through positive attention. The approval of a parent is so powerful for children!

4. Remain consistent with attendance at your camp.

Children will only get as much out of a summer camp as they put into it. If they are constantly missing time at the camp because your schedule conflicts or you just don't want to take them, then their progress is going to be negatively affected. After all, winners must show up to be winners!

5. Support healthy bonding and competition between siblings or other children.

Healthy competition can be a very rewarding motivator for children to do better. You do not want to pit children against one another, but you might encourage them to see one another as motivation to do better and better.

Not every child will enjoy every summer camp or youth camp. Your goal as a parent should be to find the right environment where your children can be encouraged to come out winners in life.