Advice about Kids in Summer Camp
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Advice about Kids in Summer Camp
Sept 2009
Hi - I'm planning ahead for Winter and Summer Camps and I'd like
recommendations about how to schedule camps. My goal is to do a
mix of academic and fun/creative experiences but it feels like
we could be hopping all over the place given camp start and end
dates. Is there a way to do this well? What would you avoid
doing? Mistakes I should not make? What are your thoughts about
the number of camps and transitioning kids to give them a breath
of experience.
Thanks for the advice
My camp strategy is as follows: I pick one academic-type camp (my specific one is 3
weeks long -- morning academics, afternoon sports), and one ''other-skills'' type of
camp (this year that was sailing, also 3 weeks). Then, I figure that's enough, and use
the Adventure Time Roberts Park Explorers (essentially, supervised outdoor play;
includes hiking, swimming, and a few field trips) for filling in between camp and a
summer family trip. If my son wants, I'll let him have one week that he specifically
chooses (chess, or Legos, or another such), but I choose that one at the last minute.
It does depend on your specific child though. Mine likes routine, so too many changes
upset him a bit when he was younger, and make him cranky now that he's older. He
also loves to just be outdoors, in a place like a regional park, doing nothing much of
anything except running around. Other kids might not like this so well.
Karen
I ended up feeling pretty crazed about the our first summer camp
experience this last year, and, indeed, we ended up with quite a
jumble of a schedule, squeezing different sessions of one-week
camps in between sessions of multiweek camps, driving all over
creation . . . . And, you know what? It worked out fine. She
got a great variety of stuff and loved her summer camps, almost
universally, and she really rolled with the changes. This is
probably largely her personality, but, also, camps are used to
it and prepared for it, and the enthusiasm and excitement of the
staff and counselors at all -- really, all -- of the camps we've
dealt with helped make it easy for our daughter.
Here's what I'm going to do differently next year: pick some
non-negotiable ''anchor'' activities early, book early, and
schedule around those. Like, if there's a music camp we really
want to do, or a particular session of something with a friend
or friends, or a particular price point that we want to hit for
some week, schedule those around planned vacation time, and book
them early. Pay the deposit, and set it in stone. Everything
else can be scheduled around it, or them, even if it means that
we have one week of Sarah's Science in June and another in
August, or end up squeezing in a week of something that we
wouldn't have considered otherwise just because it happened to
fit and still had room (had a great experience doing that with
MOCHA this year). The reality is that we're spoiled for
choices, and I spent too much time this year saying ''ooh! But
what about this one? Or this one? If I move this, then she can
do that! And we're waiting to hear what her friends are
doing!'' And with all that dilly-dallying, we lost out on some
opportunities. Sometimes a little bit less flexibility can
help, I think. So, for next year, I'm thinking ''anchor camps,''
and building from there. I'll be curious to hear what others
recommend!
Loved camp, but happy to be back in school
This past March I didn't register my kid for much because I
figured all the camps would be short on campers, but normally
March 1 is a good time to start planning summer day camps for the
following summer. I pay strict attention to the cancellation
policies - some charge as little as $5.00.
Since I'm in Castro Valley, we would probably choose different
camps. I love summer as a time to get away from
one-size-fits-all school.
Hope this helps
this page was last updated: Dec 21, 2009
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