Abstract
Summer camps for children and youth are organized in different countries around the world. These camps vary in length and also their sport or outdoor activity focus.
Czech summer camps, tábory, have a long history dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. Neuman, Turčová and Martin (2007) describe an anthropological focus to the specific cultural development of tábory, summer camps for children and youth in the Czech Republic.
This current article examines the preparation and implementation of the turistika activities and games in nature for these programmes and presents the findings of a survey of 69 leaders of the four main not-for-profit youth organisations undertaking summer camps in the Czech Republic: ATOM (Association of Touristic Youth Clubs), Junák (scouting), Pionýr, and Liga lesní moudrosti (woodcraft). The findings indicate that volunteers prepare year-long for these two to three week summer camps, which provides a pedagogical scaffolding and then culmination for the group of children, who have played games in nature and taken part in turistika activities throughout the year.
The implications of these finding are that Czech summer camps' activities provide opportunities for children to 'stay in nature', are culturally different and unique, and can provide inspiration for the scaffolding and development of outdoor adventure and environmental programmes internationally.