The Value of Camp: What a tech-free summer teaches kids

Color War. Underwear on the outside of your clothes. Sailing badges. Friendship bracelets. It is difficult to overstate how attached some people get to their sleepaway camp experiences - they don't explain, they proselytize. And right now, camp is having a moment in our popular culture as we debate what Jon Haidt has deemed the “phone-based childhood.” Camp is one of the last screen-free zones for kids, and that’s both exciting and, as a parent, a little scary. Today on ParentData, we're joined by Steve Baskin, a career camp director and incoming head of the American Camping Association, to talk about all things summer camp.  We discuss resilience, the value of free play, the need for phone-free time, whether or not your kids will actually brush their teeth (they will!) and why homesickness might actually be a good thing.  Special thanks to Falcon Camp in Carrollton, Ohio for lending their voices to this episode. Subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting.