2. Children learn appropriate risk taking. As a former camp counselor and camp director, I can tell you it's a good thing parents don't see their children at camp. Camps encourage children to take risks. Counselors want your daughter to grab the rope swing, fly over the river, and drop eight feet into the water. Scary? Yes! Satisfaction your daughter receives from trying something out of her comfort level? Priceless!

As parents, we're so quick to say, "Be careful! Don't jump so high! You're riding your bike too fast!" Psychologists tell us children join gangs because they enjoy the thrill and adrenaline rush of doing something wrong. Camp channels that thrill into wholesome activities like water skiing, participating in a talent show for the first time, and taking a midnight hike. (Yes Mom, counselors have been known to get kids up in the middle of the night to "stalk for wild animals." They sleep in the next morning though.)

Your child learns it's an appropriate risk to repel down a cliff with safety gear. Along with the risk comes the satisfaction of gaining self-confidence in doing something not all kids do.

"Camp is a specially created environment where children develop assets that help them grow into successful adults. Because they feel safe, youngsters are comfortable taking healthy risks and setting goals, so they actually invent their futures," says Marla Coleman, director of Coleman Country Day Camp in Merrick, New York.

3. Your children meet a variety of people. It's all too easy for your son and daughter to think the entire world is like their core group of friends and teachers. Camp brings your child in contact with kids from different schools, communities, and cultures. Many camps make a point of hiring international counselors. Your daughter's camp soccer coach might be from Australia while your son's cabin counselor shares stories about growing up in South Africa.

My daughter had a counselor from England, which meant all the girls in her cabin began speaking with British accents. When you're in third grade, it's the height of humor to say things like, "I shan't be able to attend tea with the Queen today" (in a British accent of course).

Instead of meeting 50 minutes a week for dance class, campers spend all day, and in the case of residential camps, all week with other children. This encounter-of-a-close-kind forces children to learn about getting along with others. One nine-year-old, the top athlete at his elementary school, was shocked at the high athletic ability of other campers his age. Camp taught him that there was a bigger world than his small community.