More and more studies are indicating that spending time outdoors is vital to children’s intellectual, emotional, and physical development and health.  Spending time in nature allows children to develop a connection with their surrounding community and become early stewards of the environment.

Outdoor unstructured play is quickly becoming an activity that only older generations remember due to changing lifestyles and safety concerns.  This camp will give the opportunity for children to participate in hands-on outdoor activities in a safe and supervised environment.  Although the activities will be both structured and supervised, campers will have so much fun they won’t know they are learning.

Due to higher achievement expectations, children can not afford to stop studying and take a summer off for fear of falling behind, but still desperately need time to play.  This camp redefines learning by providing children with both education and play. Activities, challenges, and games in this camp are unique, interactive adventures – children won’t learn science by listening to lectures, but will learn through activity-oriented lessons, science experiments, and scientific observations out in the park.  Your child will be challenged, but will move, talk, think and play to learn.

Stewardship is about connection and understanding the practical and emotional benefits of sustainable living and protecting the environment.  Campers will connect with each other, with their teachers, with the Guadalupe River Park, and the environment as a whole.  This camp will also open participants’ eyes to the joy of playing outside, the rewarding act of caring for others, and the intriguing world of science.

When outdoors, children can see science playing out before their very eyes, develop powerful observational skills, and are exposed to the environmental sciences, an up-and-coming field worldwide.  Children won’t come out of the camp just caring for the environment, they will come out with tools, knowledge, and the understanding of how science functions in nature.

Children in today’s world are bombarded with negative images about human impact on the environment and plagued with constant negative outlooks on their generation’s future.  This camp will not scare them or leave them feeling hopeless about tomorrow’s environmental challenges, but will empower them with science-based knowledge, encourage the generation of creative solutions, and instill campers with a pride for their local environment.  In this camp, environmental issues are not problems, they are simply challenges.