Last night I was in Plainfield NJ speaking with a group of Foster Parents about the benefits of the Sleepaway Camp experience and how Camp Speers-Eljabar YMCA serves children and families.
We talked about some of the zany, "weird" and unique things that kids do while at Camp; wearing their clothes inside out & backwards, painting their faces, dressing as their favorite superhero, stomping in mud puddles in the middle of a rainstorm, skipping stones across the lake, telling jokes & laughing so hard that you can't get the punchline out, singing silly songs as loud as possible, ...
As the parents and I chatted, a couple remarked that the zaniness I was describing sounded like "kids being kids!" and "things we did as kids".
Camp is that oasis where kids can just be kids - where Play is the business at hand. In one of those rare out of the blue coincidents - this morning a colleague shared this link to this great article in the Surbuban Chicago News "Why playing matters for kids!" Great article. It's well worth the few minutes it takes to read.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/lifestyles/2150207,Elgin-storyteller-play-1_EL041110.article
As parents and child development professionals/advocates - we need to make sure Kids can be Kids and PLAY!
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