N1cky

It's that time of year when I have to think about filling 10 weeks of school holidays with fun activities, while working full time.

I'm really lucky, as I work from home (although it is full time; be sat at my desk for 8.30 and leave at 5.00 at the earliest) it does mean I don't have to send my daughter off to camp every day.

For the last couple of years she has done a 5 night residential camp with the YMCA and absolutely loved it. She is doing it again this year, but worse still she is going on a 7 night specialized camp in the Sierras. On top of this she'll do 2 maybe 3 weeks of day camps with the YMCA where they go swimming and to theme parks...

Camp seems such a huge part of childhood here, I know I would have loved some of the activities when I was a kid, instead we had to occupy ourselves for hours on end with a bucket of water, a tennis ball and a skipping rope.

I was just wondering what everyone else did with their kids during the long summer break?

Scouse Express

Send them to Blighty for some Culture & History.

naomi

My daughter will be attending Campfire USA camps for a couple of weeks, science center camps in Seattle, and then I'm paying a friend's mom to take her for the rest of summer, calling it Mom camp. She'll be chilling with her best friend then. We're also heading back to England for a 3 week vacation, can't wait.
Naomi.

kimilseung

I am so looking forward to sending my daughter to a Aerial & Acrobatics ZinZanni camp in Seattle, but it will not be till next year at the earliest.

Teatro ZinZanni is a dinner/cabaret/cirque so the camps are teaching circus acrobatics.

redglade

Daughter (15):1 week volunteering at a camp I help run at work, 1 week tennis camp, week at Yosemite on family vacation, week off, 1 week residential band camp, one week camping at Garner State Park, week off, 5 weeks of high school Marching Band camp. Also she's doing driving school this summer.

Son (12): 1 week tennis camp, 1 week scout camping, week at Yosemite on family vacation, week off, Hunger Games Camp, 1 week camping at Garner State Park, 1 week sailing camp, 1 week learning to write video games camp, August tbd.

This will be our first summer when I will be working most of the time, our first summer not to return to the UK for several weeks and our first summer not to do Summer swim team (at the kids' request).

Our son has been banned from the computer (esp playing Minecraft) until his science grade improves from his current 69. Every time we catch him out it's another week booked at tennis camp....

Weeze

Hunger games camp???????

naomi

Oh cool, didn't know about these camps, my daughter would love those too. Next year for sure.
Naomi.

redglade

It's something new we're offering where I work (I'm in Environmental Education). We're aiming it at Middle School aged boys and girls and will be doing stuff like tracking, fishing (including prep and cooking outdoors), knife skills, gps activities, scavenger hunt, plus all the usual games and crafts that you get at camp but themed around the Hunger Games novels. We're based on the University of Houston - Clear Lake campus so have a fabulous location for all of these activities.

N1cky

They both sound loads of fun. The variety of camps amazes me, there really is something for everyone.

Bob

Little ones are a bit to young...or they're just a bit to expensive for what they are...ballet one in town was something like $400+ for a week, but it was only a couple hours a morning for 5 days.

I have trawled through the parents magazines for the area and we'll check out a few of the camps in the area when they do open days, mostly for the free face painting, bouncy castles and other activities they put on to entice you.

Last year, kids did a few fishing things at a local camp which was pretty fun for them and will probably do the same again this year.

Plenty of nice camps around here and up in Maine though, on various rivers, doing various sporting events, dance, theatre and stuff like that.

redglade

$400+ for mornings only - wow! You could probably do an extra dance class all summer for that kind of money. The most expensive camp we've paid for is a week of residential camp (marine & coastal biology) last summer at Texas A&M in Galveston. That set us back $950. The Teenager had to jump through several hoops to be allowed to go on that one. The Band camp at UH this summer (also residential) is $485.

I don't know about Maine, but in Texas the State Parks offer a lot of Ranger led activities free of charge - may be worth looking into.

kodokan

Last summer, our first, the kids did a two-week residential camp in the Northern Arizona mountains to get away from the heat for a while (and give us the chance for our first grown-up vacation in 12 years ). I was a teensy bit worried as my daughter was only 8, but she was totally up for it and had a fantastic time riding horses, caring for the pets' corner, swimming, etc.

They also did a couple of weeks of day camps at their karate school - for...um...$150 for the week, I think, they could go from 7am to 6pm, and did lots of sporty team game activities as well as field trips for swimming, laser tag, etc. I don't work, so camps are more for entertainment for them and sanity for me, so they usually went from 8am-3 or 4pm, a bit like school hours.

Not sure what we'll do this year. We're going to England for two weeks, so that's wiped out the potential sleepover camp budget - it was about $3,800 for the two of them for two weeks; 'twas excellent though, with lots of expensive activities involving horses. And my 13 yr old is now a little too old for the elementary-aimed camps they do around here (LOVE the sound of that Hunger Games one). I expect he'll fritter away the summer at the computer (in fairness, it'll be 115 degrees outside; AZ summer is an indoors time, like UK winter), and I'll pop my 9 yr old daughter into the odd week here and there, probably based on where her friends say they're going.

N1cky

Speciality ones seem really expensive compared to the general day camp ones where they swim/play games/trips out... My daughter wanted to do a writing one a couple of years ago that was 9-2pm (what use are those times to working parents) and around $700 per week. She got a flat out no, you're going to the pool The Y day camp ones here are around $220 per week, and its 7am - 6pm, so works well for working parents.

The 1 week residential camp mine is doing this time is $1k (and we got a $200 discount) and is purely rock climbing. This is on the provision she gets all As and Bs this trimester, her grades have been slipping this term and this was the bribe. So far she is on track with all A+'s so far, hope she keeps it up, otherwise I'll have a summer of her sulking if she can't go.

redglade

http://www.uhcl.edu/portal/page/port...education/camp

Bob

This was for the 5 year old group...gets on for about double for teenagers.

MIL looked into it up where they live in Maine and regular ballet classes at a couple hours a day were $12 a week

The parks around here and up in Maine do have a lot of decent programs, but they're not free.