Loose Parts

For years, camp has offered campers a chance to reconnect with nature and enjoy activities, something often lost in the busy schedules of today’s kids. Take Family Camp on Lake Kanawaukee in Harriman State Park New York for example, where

"dozens of families spend the entire summer here — some for generations — renting rustic cabins and pursuing the same activities across the decades. Despite the social upheavals of the 1960s and the technology revolution of recent years, tradition holds fast… timelessness seems to be the point. Potato sack races on the Fourth of July give way to the canoe regatta in early August, then a square dance”
- Foderaro, "In a New York State Park, a Rustic Summer Camp for the Whole Family" Aug. 22, 2014 The New York Times.

However, according to the ACA, trends in camp programming are changing. The ACA 2013 Emerging Issues Survey reported that camps are adapting to the evolving interests of campers. The study shows that camps are adding programs in areas such as Adventure Programs, Family Camp Programs, Nature/ Environmental Education Programs, and Gardening Programs.

Today’s camp programming is certainly far from the “ad hoc affair” of early camping where campers were “absolutely free to do anything they want to do.” as described by Van Slyck, in A Manufactured Wilderness. According to Michael Thompson, a psychologist, author, and camp consultant, “The loss of time for free, undirected play in everyday life is one of the saddest facts of modern childhood.” Thompson goes on to suggest that perhaps camp is the place where free and undirected play can become a reality.

How can the camp landscape continue to meet the evolving interests of the camper while providing the child with the chance for the unstructured play they need? Camp Vanderkamp in Cleveland, New York seems to be onto something. They have created “an intentional space where imaginations could soar.” This space is filled with “loose parts” such as a boat, crates, logs, rope, and stones. The theory of “Loose Parts” originated in the 1970s from architect Simon Nicholson. The idea that the “loose parts” are the start of the creative process.

What can your campers create with your camp’s loose parts? Forts? Castles? Faraway lands? The possibilities are endless, perhaps all you need to do is give campers the “loose parts” and they will create the rest.



Thompson, Michael, Ph.D. "The Impact of the Loss of Free, Undirected Play in Childhood (And What Camps Can Do About It)." Parents & Families. American Camp Association, 19 Jan. 2010. Web. 10 Sept. 2014.

Van Slyck, Abigail. A Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth, 1890-1960. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 2006. Print.