Camp: Good Food + Fresh Air = Fun
January 1st, 2010 by Memphis Parent
Getting kids moving
Almost everyone is familiar with the Food Guide Pyramid, but not many people are as familiar with the Physical Activity Pyramid. According to the Council for Physical Education for Children, 60 minutes is the minimum amount of physical activity recommended for children each day. Ideally, children should engage in flexibility games and exercises as well as muscular fitness activities at least three times a week, have active aerobics, sports, and recreation be a part of each day’s activities, and gather many of the 60 minutes of moderate and vigorous activities from outside play, games, walking, and other physical exercise.
Camps offer an optimal environment to encourage varying levels of physical challenges, teach lifelong active recreational pursuits, and establish opportunities to learn active lifestyle behaviors.
Camps and their staffs make sure that camp programs offer opportunities for healthy and active living. If children begin to change some of their food and activity habits at camp, they might be able to transfer some of these behaviors when they return home.
Developing healthy kids
How do camps help? For starters, camps continue doing what they do best, which is focusing on the positive development of children.
• Camps can help children learn to like foods that are good for them by presenting good choices in a fun, safe environment.
• Camps can provide older children and young a dults as mentors for the children, to support positive, healthy behavior.
• Camps can teach children that physical exercise is fun and can be an activity of choice over television and video games.
• Camp environments can become the safest activity-oriented learning center outside the school system by working in tandem with education and nutrition.
Food and nutrition at camp
Many camps look for innovative and tasty ways to provide healthy choices and decision-making skills to their campers. The following list includes some “tried-and-true” techniques found at camps:
- Teach children to alter food preferences by giving them good choices
- Offer taste tests, expose children to new foods
- Encourage eating breakfast
- Offer new exercise/activity programs
- Reduce “fast food” and junk food for snacks and side dishes (chips, cookies, candy, etc.), provide healthy options at the snack bar or camp store
- Educate children about healthy eating and knowing when to stop eating
Physical activity at camp
Most camp programs are synonymous with activity from walking to field games, and the best camps challenge themselves every year by offering fresh activities to draw in new campers and excite returning campers.
What works
- Physical fitness fun with contests and games
- Active role models at camp
- Physical activity that doesn’t require lots of equipment
- Activity teams or “walking buddies” programs
- Positive feedback on the process of doing your best, emphasizing participation rather than winning or being the best
- A wide variety of new and traditional activities, sports, and games
- Focus on fun and gaining a healthier lifestyle
Social support
If young people see peers and adults they admire, like their counselors and other campers, engaged in enjoyable active pursuits, they will likely want to model a similar behavior. If your child’s favorite counselor routinely engages in games, swimming, hiking, and other enjoyable activities, it’s easy to imagine that your child will follow suit. In the company of new and old friends, these new adventures, as well as the shared, nutritious meals are simply more rewarding.
Camps can play a vital role in contributing to lifelong patterns of exercise and excellent nutrition. Camp is a great place to offer good food, great activities, a positive environment, safe and secure location, and most of all, fun.
Originally printed in CAMP Magazine, reprinted by permission of the American Camp Association © 2006 American Camping Association, Inc.