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Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. Abraham Lincoln.
After a Super Bowl party with some friends, and discussion around family camping, my wife and I had a conversation around whether or not we had our kids enrolled in too many organized activities (e.g., basketball, soccer, baseball, etc.). This included wondering what types of activities best lead to building character in children. For example, would they be better off spending more time in unstructured play outside, or doing more camping as a family. Having team/organized activities each weekend makes it difficult to get away. They love the sports, but they also being outdoors and just being kids. Its something I'm still thinking about now.
Character: the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.
The outdoors have played a huge part in the development of my own character. In many ways, it was (and still is) just what I learn about myself while enjoying the peace, and challenges, of hiking, canoeing, etc. But I was also involved in the Boy Scouts which, while an organized activity, was focused on the outdoors. As a boy led activity, I still to this day use many of the leadership skills I learned on my way to earning my Eagle Scout rank. But I think I learned more in my time camping with great friends each month and on long, high adventure trips each summer than I did in the structured activities designed to instill a particular skill set or piece of knowledge. I learned how to trust others, how to work as a team and use the strengths of each member of the patrol to best accomplish tasks, I learned how to improvise in order to stay warm or dry, or keep a tent from blowing away, how to make due with what you have, and most of all, how to be content with who I am. Some of these lessons are the ones that really formed my character and drive who I am today.
I think this is why its so important to me to take my kids outdoors. I want them to have the same chance to experience those challenges, successes, and failures. I want them to stare at the world around them with a sense of wonder, and try to figure out there place in it. I want them to feel near total exhaustion during a trip, to have it washed away by the rush of standing on top of a mountain, having achieved their goal. Then realize that they have to keep going, because they now have another goal of getting back safely. Succeeding in these goals that stretch our skills and knowledge are, I belief, one of the core ways of building character. I guess they can happen through organized activities in some ways too, but there just seems to be something unique about accomplishing them in the outdoors.
The kids love participating in sports, and have made some great friendships (as have we by meeting other great parents), so I don't want to minimize their participation there. I guess we just need to find more ways of fitting in outdoor play and camping time too.
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I think spending time outside is the best thing in the world for kids. A combination of learning skills (how to read weather, tie a knot ID plants) and free roaming make an excellent education.