School may be out for summer, but that doesn’t mean that learning has to come to an end! In fact, summer is the perfect time for parents to pick up where the teacher left off by introducing their children to hands on, experiential education activities such as summer camp.

Summer activities that involve elements of experiential education can help close the gap between what children learn in the classroom and how they can apply this knowledge to their every day life. Real world experience often helps to “cement” classroom lessons and help students retain the information they worked so hard to learn. For example, there is a major difference between learning how to speak a foreign language and actually having to speak one while studying abroad.

Luckily, parents don’t have to go far to introduce their children to experiential education during the summer months. Sports camps, such as summer soccer camps, are a great way to enrich students during the summer while keeping them engaged. Although it may seem like a distraction from their academic studies, sports camps allow students to learn in an entirely different way that can support their classroom instruction. Here’s how:

Build self-confidence

A growing number of students struggle with issues related to low self-esteem or a poor self-image. These attitudes can continue later in life and into adulthood, and can impact how well students perform both in and outside of the classroom. Playing a sport is the perfect way for students to improve their self-esteem and build confidence. Sports camp helps students to discover, develop and celebrate their strengths.

Practice team building

Although children begin learning about the importance of sharing well before kindergarten, learning how to work with others and be sensitive to their needs is a lifelong skill that requires constant development. Sports camps help students to refine their team building skills by learning how to recognize their strengths as an individual and a team. What students learn on the field during sports camp can be directly applied to their classroom lessons and beyond.

Personal responsibility

Accountability and personal responsibility are difficult to teach in a classroom setting, though homework assignments go a long way to developing these important traits. However sports camp take it one step further by helping students apply personal responsibility in a more practical setting. At sports camps, students soon realize that when they win and do their part, their entire team is more likely to succeed.