Did you love the camp(s) your child(ren) attended this summer?

[Anonymous]

If so, please share the name/location of the camp, ages it is best for, and what you loved about it. Hoping to get good ideas for next year while the information is still fresh in everyone's minds. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't recommend WIS for very young children. It's a madhouse.

[Anonymous]

I sent my preschooler to Little Langley and it was great. She had so much fun and loved showing me all her artwork and loved the waterplay days (although they don't have a pool).

[Anonymous]

St. Patrick's Camp - (nursery, junior and scoccer) Amazing, fun, sweet. Great swimming program. Very organized. Super nice counselors. Lots of variety in activities.

Head First Sports Camps (soccer and lacrosse) - Very well organized. Excellent staff. Good skills instruction. Weather/Heat safety handled very well/effectively.

Discovery Creek Camps - Great materials and focus. Counselors could be a bit better/more organized/more interactive with parents. A bit over priced.

[Anonymous]

Little Gym Potomac - It's one of the few options for the 3yo set, and also one of the few options that go all the way through August. They are doing a great job - a variety of imaginative play, gymnastics, crafts and group games. It isn't full day, but it gives me a few hours to get things done sans DS, knowing that he is having a blast & getting to run around without getting a sunburn. Counsellors are their FT staff, so they are highly trained, attentive, high-energy folks.
From DS's perspective, he said he likes Silver Stars better because they have a long trampoline and the enormous bouncy castle. We go there for classes during the regular school year, but he wasn't old enough to attend summer camp there.

[Anonymous]

Any other recommendations? (Wish I could add my own, but our camp's primary attraction was that it provided continuity from the school year.)

[Anonymous]

I can recommend Barrie Camp in Silver spring. More traditional camp with canoeing, pony riding, pool time, etc. They have a bus service. The only negative was it was a long day for the younger set (including the bus ride home) although they all liked the bus ride as they sang songs etc.

[Anonymous]

Sticks Lacrosse Camp is great. Its run by Malcolm Lester, the St Alban's lacrosse coach and is co-ed, held at diffarent facilities aorund NW DC. He is great with kids, has little ones of his own, has counselors who are current or ex-students (playing lacrosse in college). Its for 5 - 11 year olds. Really fantastic.

[Anonymous]

YMCA Camp Letts in Edgewater, MD.

[Anonymous]

My kids loved Sidwell's Explorer Program - chose their 5 periods of workshops (from cooking and pottery to soccer and floor hockey). This week both are doing the field trips Voyages program - love the water parks.

[Anonymous]

My kids LOVED, LOVED St. Patrick's Nursery program camp. What a way for them to spend the day!

[Anonymous]

Would not recommend Homerun. It's a mad house and drop-off and pick-up felt very unsafe. I felt like anyone could have grabbed my DC and no one would have been wiser. I also think they say 5:1 ratio and that is definitely not the case. The head coach/owner of the op drones on way too long IMHO during the Monday morning meeting about baseball and what several people who once attended his camp achieved. It's a bit much for a 4-year old.

[Anonymous]

Any thoughts on CASA at Sheridan or the Levine School for a 6-year-old girl?

[Anonymous]

My 15 year old went to a US Performing Arts Camp for Music Theatre, she did one week at GW overnight and loved it. They have different programs and a bunch of locations-we may send her to a different site next year, they stay in the dorms and use the campus spaces and that way she can see another college. I was originally worried about supervisor but on day 1 she was commenting that the mentors were always around to me on the phone. She loved it and I'd recommend it.

[Anonymous]

I was not in love with Barrie Day Camp for my 6-year-old. I found the counselors to be too young, inexperienced and punitive. There was very little communication with parents and I had to make repeated calls to get to the bottom of a situation where my daughter was being physically bullied by one of the boys her her group. I also thought that the bus ride did not have enough supervision so there was some bullying--physical and psychological--that she found hard to handle on her own. She's normally a very extroverted, competent kid, but it was asking a lot of her to navigate full days with only a couple of 15-year-olds to provide guidance/support. She could do it, but it was a strain and the counselors weren't always the best influence. Some, of course, were great--but overall I didn't think it was the most positive experience.

My daughter loved the range of activities, but that doesn't compensate for the lack of experienced, adult supervision or communication.