Nature is Essential for Growing Healthy Kids at The Outpost Village! | Libertyville Area Moms

Photo credit: Lynn Renee Photography

Words by JCC Chicago

 

There’s a new camp in town! Well maybe not our town but JCC Camp Chi is excited to announce a new overnight camp opportunity for 6th- 8th graders to spend meaningful time in nature! The Outpost Village, a new two-week outdoor adventure specialty camp at Camp Chi in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, is set to provide campers with an out-of-this-world overnight camp experience with nature! Learn more about this exceptional program in the article below!


There’s something special that happens when we’re out in nature. Our senses come fully to life, and this is when we feel most alive. Our eyes catch strange angles of light bouncing off of leaves. Our noses pick up scents we can’t particularly identify, yet know we have experienced somewhere, sometime. Our ears distinguish the wind cresting above the treetops, as our skin welcomes the lightest brush of a breeze. Children spend so much time indoors, in front of screens, stranded away from the natural world these days. As a result, they are not gaining the wholistic life experience that nature could be providing them, and this goes beyond the simple sensory experience.

 

Photo credit: Max Rattner

Nature provides an uncharted world where a young mind can grow. Imagination can reign free and creativity, confidence, and new skills developed all contribute to a child’s social emotional growth. Through building new worlds in the middle of the woods, whether it’s constructing a stick fort or forging a new trail, children can exercise their creative minds uninhibited, allowing for exponential creative growth. Problem solving skills are also given room to blossom. How exactly does one cross that creek without getting wet? And how do we get this stick fort to stay upright? The natural world is full of puzzles, waiting for a young mind to invent new ways to solve them. The chance for observation and reflection can foster a healthy sense-of-self, solid self-worth, and a vivid worldview. These skills developed through experiences in nature can set kids up for success during the school year and help manage the many complexities life brings. There’s no healthier place for a growing mind than the natural world.

Next summer, there’s an opportunity for 6th- 8th graders to spend meaningful time in nature through The Outpost Village, a new two-week outdoor adventure specialty camp at Camp Chi in Lake Delton, Wisconsin.

 

Photo credit: Max Rattner

The Outpost Village takes a wholistic and individualized approach to outdoor education. Campers will gain a deeper understanding of how they relate to the natural world, and how it in-turn relates to their everyday lives. There are 600 beautiful acres to explore, custom yurts to sleep in, and wilderness survival skill activities to participate in from fire building to outdoor cooking to creating natural art and so much more. Campers will become part of a special community of like-minded people who, through The Outpost Village, will develop an even stronger connection to the great outdoors.

 

Photo credit: Max Rattner

 

For more information on The Outpost Village please visit campchi.org/outpostvillage. Questions? Contact Jordan Goldberg, Camp Chi’s Outdoor Adventure Coordinator at [email protected].

 

 

This article was sponsored by JCC Chicago. Thank you!

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