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Summer Camps for Kids: Good Experiences?

Dr. Detroit

Dr. Detroit

Diamond Member
Anyone been sending the kids off to weeklong overnight camps that do water sports, hiking, climbing, camping, and the like?

What age? Good experiences?

Did they help you gain self-confidence, mature, and did the child come home excited?


For $750 - $1000 per week they are on the spendy side but the activites the kids get to do are amazing and with two busy working parents we would never find time to travel and perform these adventures.


 
Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Anyone been sending the kids off to weeklong overnight camps that do water sports, hiking, climbing, camping, and the like?

What age? Good experiences?

Did they help you gain self-confidence, mature, and did the child come home excited?

For $750 - $1000 per week they are on the spendy side but the activites the kids get to do are amazing and with two busy working parents we would never find time to travel and perform these adventures.
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dont get the gravestone/coffin bundlepak option.
 
I was a Teachers Assistant at a Technology Camp my School District ran the past 3 years. Wasnt sleep over, but the kids were there everyday from 8AM - 3PM. Most of the kids enjoyed it; we did activities ranging from Photo Editing to Movie Production to Lego Programming.
 
I absolutely love(ed) summer camp. I was a late comer, did 2 years as a camper, then decieded to stay on and did a year of Counselor in training, a year or junior counselor, and now in two weeks I go for my last year of junior counseloring.

Summer camp is amazing and the one you describe sounds similar to mine. Mine costs around $325 however. I cannot reccomend week long outdoorsy camps enough.

By the way my camp is YMCA Camp Reed outside of Spokane, WA. Any alumni in ATOT?
 
Never went to come young. Now College is forcing me to go to a ripoff, graded camp for a course out in the middle of nowhere with no transportation. Not only that, it will cost me triple what I need to pay since my summer job will get cut off two weeks early at least. Mother*!@#$%^. So that will be my camp experience...
 
In two weeks I will be staying the whole week at camp for the second time as Assistant Scoutmaster. Actually my troop position is Committee Chairman, but I do the duties of AS as well. There are so many great stories to tell. Here's a few:

-Trapping a rabid skunk on a cardboard box.
-Scouts in the water competition rowing two directions at once.
-Building a 20 foot tall fire. The camp director likes us.
-Pranks, oh the pranks. With enough rope you can hang anything in a tree.

The bad:
-When two kids got lost for 12 hours in a terrible rainstorm.
-High wind taking a tent into power lines.
 
Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Anyone been sending the kids off to weeklong overnight camps that do water sports, hiking, climbing, camping, and the like?

What age? Good experiences?

Did they help you gain self-confidence, mature, and did the child come home excited?


For $750 - $1000 per week they are on the spendy side but the activites the kids get to do are amazing and with two busy working parents we would never find time to travel and perform these adventures.
Click to expand...

Being the stereotypical Asian kid and taking classes every summer since who knows when (science classes in 6th grade, SAT class in 8th grade, more SAT class in 9th grade, classes to skip classes in HS, JC classes), I went to camp once before 8th grade, and it was awesome. I think those 2 weeks were very rewarding, and while very different from what I was used to, I would definitely do it again.
 
There are basically three types of Summer camps. Regardless of whether they're live in or day trip. The wilderness camp is basic kid learns about camping without a lot of modern technology. By that I mean, no running water, electricity, radio etc. Learning to work together and work period. There are many camps like this serving ages from 8 to 18. The second type of camps are those that resemble Summer Park programs with parking lots, swimming pools and, electricity. The main difference is the camp is larger than a city park and further away. The third type of camp offers technology or arts programs not typically found in town or at least not as immersive/condensed. These can be very rewarding albeit in a different way than the wilderness camp.
Camping for kids should be fun but, and this is a BIG qualification, the kids should learn something and I'm not talking about how to make smores! I attended summer camps as a kid and later worked as a counselor/guide for a number of years. The most exciting/rewarding aspect of summer camp was learning to look at life a different way and learning to appreciate a larger world than kids are normally exposed to.
 
Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Some wild sh!t goes down at some of these....and I mostly went to Christian camps.
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Oh yeah? Like?


I never went to camp cause my parents loved me and liked having me at home.

😀
 
Child in question is an 11yr old girl. Boy Scouts is definitely out and I'm not a big fan of the Scouts in general.

Summer camp is very expensive, welcome to Silicon Valley. Day camp, 8am - 5:30pm is around $250/wk at the YMCA which she is currently in. She is doing cooking, tennis, volleyball, theme parks, zoos, beaches, and other various excurisions. All day trips or on-site.

She is not being challenged enough.

One camp for $1000/wk includes kayaking & white rafter rafting, rock climbing, windsurfing, sailing, fishing, guitar lessons, hiking and a lot more.

Another for $750/wk minimum 2-week stays includes more of a farm environment. milking cows, riding horses, archery, riflery, hiking, songs, cooking, fishing, swiming. Both are up in the Sierra Nevadas.

The week-long groups are kept small as in under 35, this is not Meatballs the movie and are not teen camps. I expect no trouble or shenanigans.

Good to hear only positives so far.

 
Boy Scouts was awesome. I learned everything I ever wanted to know about shotguns, rifles, swimming, canoeing, rowing, sailing, pot 😉 , hiking, etc etc etc....

If you (or I guess in this case your kid) gets involved with it enough to get elected to a leadership position, he will not only gain INVALUABLE life skills (team building with reluctant or even downright hostile teammates), but have another 10x as much fun.
 
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