Camp Skills = Life Skills from Maine Camps

From crafts and clean up to problem solving, navigating social situations, and creating work opportunities, our MCE Manager and Camp Guide Andrea shares how skills learned at camp become useful skills for life!

So we all know that kids learn many useful lessons and skills at camp. In theory. But have you been lucky enough to witness those lessons and skills at work outside of camp? As a mom of two veteran campers, I can tell you that what’s learned at camp is, in fact, valuable once your camper gets off that bus or plane at the end of the summer.

Let’s take the obvious ones to start. If you’ve ever taken a vacation with your child(ren), chances are that you have witnessed the swimming, waterskiing, tennis, maybe even rock-climbing skills that he/she/they learned at camp. If they play sports during the year, you have likely seen their athletic abilities improved by a summer playing sports for hours each day. Perhaps your picky eater ate new foods in September that they never would have touched in June, or your budding chef is making new recipes from their summer cooking class. Maybe their dancing or art talents even improved. (Or maybe not and all you got was a misshapen, oddly-colored dish which now sits in a desk drawer holding paper clips that you will never use.)

But, did you ever think that clean-up time, rope burn, or arts and crafts would actually prove to be useful in “real” life?  I wasn’t so sure I’d ever witness my kids practice these skills. Then it was March 2020.  

The kids were home. All the time. We were all working and schooling from home. Every day. The house got messy. We all got cranky. So as a former camper myself, I thought, “what is the most democratic way for four people to live together?” The answer, which came to me almost immediately, was JOB WHEEL! Once my kids got over the fact that no, I was not joking, they made the wheel and everyone got to work and the house got clean. Perhaps it wasn’t quite as clean as I would have liked, but the garbage was taken out and the toilets and showers got clean(ish). The floors got swept and everyone shared dish duty. 

Next, I found a fire pit on Amazon, and upon its arrival, I assembled it. Then I looked at the firewood and was stumped. Enter two rope burn winners and we had a fire burning in no time! I provided the s’mores and all of a sudden, we weren’t as depressed about being stuck at home. We had a safe and socially distant activity we could invite friends over to share with us and the pandemic nights became more fun.

When an artistic outlet was needed, I learned that apparently, printing t-shirts was part of color war at camp, and BOOM! A new tie-dyeing business was suddenly operating out of my laundry room. Sales were soaring, and I had a daughter excited about something she was creating. (The business didn’t survive past the start of college a few months later and I have some plain white sweatshirts if anyone wants them, but hey, it was good while it lasted.)

But let’s get real: camp skills were useful, and sometimes entertaining, during the Covid lockdown. However, your kids don’t need a pandemic to put their skills to use. When and if they take a teen summer trip, live with a roommate in a small college dorm or post-college apartment, they will utilize the communal living skills they learned from living in a camp cabin. When they have a day (or minute or hour) when they just cannot reach you, they can recall the camp days when they had to problem-solve on their own. When they enter a social situation where they don’t know everyone, or even anyone, they may recall that first summer of camp where they started as a stranger to their bunkmates and left two months later with 10 new friends.

My kids may still not be the best cleaners, but one daughter received her master’s degree last week along with two of her best camp friends; and the other coincidentally starts her first internship next month with her own best camp friend. At times like these, I am reminded that camp is for life. And the fun, the sun, the lessons, the skills, the friends, and the memories all make for a very good life.

Maine Camp Experience Resources & Tools

You can share your own Maine camps memories & expressions of gratitude on our Memories of Camp section of our website.

Looking for the perfect Maine camp for your child?  Try out our helpful tool where you can select a camp by choosing: type of camp (girls, boys or coed) and session length (1-8 weeks).  It helps to narrow down a few camps to a manageable list that includes rates.  Then you can research these camps in more depth.  

Next, be sure to  to discuss these camps as well as for free, year-round advice and assistance on choosing a great Maine summer camp for your child.