**This post has been sponsored by Cooper Fitness Center to bring you this experience.**

Overwhelmed with all the summer camp options? With so many choices ranging from sports, science, coding and art camps—how do you choose?

Kids need to be kids and explore a wide variety of interests while parents want them to develop socially and emotionally at summer camp.

At Cooper, we believe campers should have a camp experience where they engage in physically active play on a daily basis. At Cooper Fitness Center’s Fit and Fun Summer Camps, kids not only create summer memories that will last a lifetime, but also get their bodies moving and learn to love physical activity.

Our camps include exposure to both traditional sports such as soccer, tennis and basketball, as well as yoga, martial arts or even parkour!

Top 5 Benefits of Active Summer Camp:

1. Stay active and stress-free: The youth physical activity guidelines given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that kids and adolescents ages 6 to 17 should incorporate at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. This could be a combination of aerobic, muscle-strengthening and bone-strengthening physical activity.
2. Less screen time: As we know, technology is a significant part of life for today’s youth, from a necessity at school to enjoyment as leisure time. According to research by Kaiser Family Foundation, kids ages 8 to 18 spend an average of 53 hours per week on their screens! At Cooper camp, kids enjoy a day engaged in a variety of physical activities led by both our counselor staff as well as our Sports Professionals on campus—without phones. Activities range from sports such as soccer, volleyball and tennis to relay races and parachute games. Sports-specific camps for basketball and tennis are also offered.
3. Identify your interests: Our purpose at Cooper is to improve the quality and quantity of people’s lives. Through our purpose, our camp philosophy is to help kids find an activity they love and will continue into adulthood to live a healthier life. According to research conducted by the American Camp Association, 63 percent of children who learn a new activity at camp tend to continue engaging in these activities after they return home. In addition to various sports and physically-active games, campers also benefit with overall wellness through daily fitness and nutrition lessons.
4. Improved self-esteem: While many habits and traits are learned from parents and the environment kids grow up in, some skills such as independence and confidence are derived through specific outside experiences. When a respected adult, such as a camp counselor, gives a child positive feedback or points out his/her strengths, this can have a tremendous impact. At Cooper Fitness Center, our summer staff attends extensive training based on American Camp Association research to learn how to implement physical activity and sports and incorporate new skills to heighten kids’ self-esteem. Each defining moment of connection at camp has the ability to change the way a child views himself or herself, helping them to navigate the world with more confidence.
5. Safe, Outdoor Play: A camp with physical activity, large group games and sports offers valuable opportunities to get outdoors! Over the last two decades there has been a shift in how kids spend their free time as well as a shift in the way we parent. With technology, more time is spent indoors in front of screens and parents are more reluctant to let kids roam free outside per safety concerns, reflected in this Washington Post article. Camp is a safe space for kids to reap all the social, cognitive and physical benefits of exploring the great outdoors while exercising their curiosity.

If you’re looking for an action-packed summer camp to keep your children entertained and off the couch, look no further than Cooper Camps at Cooper Fitness Center, starting June 9 for ages 5-13. Limited spots are still available for kids (ages 5-7) and youth (ages 8-13) camp, so reserve your camper’s spot today!

Lexie McClelland is the Camps and Youth Programs Manager at Cooper Fitness Center. Lexie studied Kinesiology and Sports Psychology at Texas Christian University and plays an integral role in the Cooper Youth Programs.

Cooper Fitness Center has offered youth programs for more than 25 years and provides a variety of year-round programs in addition to summer camp, including basketball, swimming, tennis, boxing, martial arts, soccer and other seasonal programming. Download the full 2019 Youth Programs Guide and register online at cooperyouth.com/Dallas.

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