Summer camps encourage friendship, curiosity and exploration

With a little under two months left of school, many kids have begun their countdown to summer break, which brings vacations, pool days, lemonade stands — and summer camp.

Camps provide a retreat from the normalcy of everyday life where kids can make friends, sing around campfires and learn new skills outside the classroom.

“Summer camps, in general, as I experienced growing up, create memories that last a lifetime, ” David Joseph, the owner of School of Rock Chapel Hill, said.

School of Rock Chapel Hill offers a variety of camps that let kids become anything — from a music producer to Taylor Swift to The Beatles — as they explore different music styles and concepts.

Every kid has a part, whether they are a singer, drummer or guitarist, he said. By preparing for their end-of-camp performance, Joseph said that campers learn teamwork and confidence along with music.

Moreover, Joseph emphasized the value of friendships that originate from camp. 

“It's a great opportunity to meet people you would not otherwise meet and can create memories that last a lifetime," he said. "It's good to break out of the mold and break out of your normal routine because that is what helps a young person mature and grow their perspective about the world.”

After 10 months of school followed by homework sandwiched between a long list of extracurriculars, as Shelley Welch, the owner and director of Belle Vie Farm described, summer is a chance for kids to try new things and do more of what they love.

“Kids already get that enough during the school year — being told what to do," she said. "What they need during the summer is a lot of freedom, a lot of time to think their own thoughts and let their minds wander and imagine and create. And that's our goal here.”

The Belle Vie Farm in Chapel Hill offers summer camps that encourage kids to be independent and curious in nature, she said.

Kids play on the Swingtopia playground, make candles, climb trees and play with the animals and are encouraged to explore. The camp believes that “you can climb it if you can climb it”, Welch said. 

For students, camps are a great place to make friends and be curious. For parents, camps are a reliable option for childcare that are flexible with time and cost, and various camps in the area are providing budget-friendly camps.

The Chapel Hill YMCA provides weekly full-day camps for kids between 5 and 14 years old throughout the summer for under $300 a week, with themes ranging from the Olympics to the Wild West, according to their website.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools are offering full and part-day camps for between $80 and $170 a week at three elementary schools in the area, and the Town of Chapel Hill provides scholarships to eligible families to help offset their camp costs.

On campus, the Morehead Planetarium, a landmark of Chapel Hill and a training facility for astronauts, offers camps at its facility during the summer for rising kindergarteners to rising eighth graders that vary in times.

Students have the opportunity to explore science through hands-on and interactive experiences with access to planetarium shows and activities where they can make new inventions. Camps vary in topic and duration, offering neuroscience, marine science and chemistry, as well as half-day and full-day camps.

"My hope is that all of the kids have fun in a kind of science-adjacent environment, and then it excites them about science and maybe inspires them to learn more on their own, ” Solomon Starling, the science education specialist at The Morehead Planetarium, said. 

From the little Einstein to the next Taylor Swift, there is something for every big dreamer.

@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com