Kidventure, a summer camp program, hosts several summer camps throughout Texas and provides kid-friendly activities and post-pandemic healing in a time where “kids need camp…more than ever,” Mike McDonell, president of Kidventure states.
McDonell believes that after spending 15 months looking at iPhone and tablet screens and having limited access to the outside and friends, kids are in desperate need of stimulating fun and care.
“For us, summer camp is not about camp, it’s about creating an opportunity for our kids. A lot of our kids are eager to get out and socialize.”
Children, especially young ones, exhibited high tendencies of clingy, fearful, disruptive, and irritable behaviors during the summer of 2020, according to a KFF survey.
McDonell notes that several of their kids at the Kidventure require extra behavioral assistance post-pandemic times.
“Think of all the kids who would have gone to kindergarten who would have had learned how to stand in line and follow different instructions; we’ve had to teach them social skills so that they know how to interact with other people.”
Summer camps promote self-awareness, responsible decision-making, and independence, according to a Harvard research story. They can also positively influence a child’s social-emotional learning. Kidventure uses a number of arts and craft activities, field trips, water outings, dance parties, ribbon ceremonies, and traditions to address these items.
They look for engaging, high-energy adults to work with the youth at their camps, employing several teachers and college students who are “Enthusiastic about being a part of kid’s lives,” McDonell states.
They have camps in several locations in the DFW area including Arlington, Frisco, Highland Lakes, Hollow, Kessler, Mansfield and Plano.
Kids ages 3-5 can attend their Discoverers Summer Day Camp and kids entering grades first through fifth can be registered for their Explorers Summer Day Camp. Kids in either group will have access to different creative outlets, physical activities, explorative opportunities, and times for reflection.
There is no deadline, according to McDonell. Kids can be registered all throughout summer.
For more information on Kidventure visit their website at: https://kidventure.com/.
