2009 summer camp retrospective

[Anonymous]

Last year's camp thread (which was incredibly useful to me, so thank you, thread starter) has moved on to this year. Because camps change, directors move, and so on (three years ago, we loved Arlington's Y camps, but last year not so much), could we start a new thread to cover people's camp experiences this summer?

The 2008 thread provided guidelines:

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]

We were very pleased with Congressional Camp's day camp for both of our kids (ages 7 and 5). Our 7 year-old also was in their Pony camp and one of their travel camps (Colonial Kids) and she absolutely loved both of those camps as well. The camp staff were quite good and the communications between staff and parents was very well done (particularly for the Great Adventures program with the younger kids as well as the travel camp). We also signed up for the aftercare program and the drop-off/pick-up process worked quite well. If we could afford to do the entire summer there for two kids, we'd do it!

[Anonymous]

DD (6) loved the Levine School in DC--loved learning the songs and dance routines, trying different instruments, playing games with the apprentices, doing art and yoga. Things I thought could have been improved: before care was a little casual (fine for older kids, not so great if your child needs structure and needs more time to warm up); pick-up was disorganized; and the end-of-camp show was much too long.

On the other hand, DD disliked Beauvoir so much that we had to pull her out. I don't think there was anything terribly wrong with it, but there was nothing great about it. The activities were mediocre, and from her perspective, the school was too big, and there was too much change from week to week. On the plus side, the staff were very nice, and we even got a refund. Swimming, which is supposed to be a strength of the camp, can be a plus or a minus. When DD was in a room where swimming was scheduled early in the morning, several kids didn't want to take part.

[Anonymous]

11:05 again. An important difference may have been that Levine felt like something fun and different from school; Beauvoir felt more like school but not a very good one. (I am referring just to the camp, not the school proper.)

[Anonymous]

Beauvoir felt more like school but not a very good one.

We did Arlington Public School summer enrichment, which friends' kids have loved. My kid, not so much, at least in retrospect. He seemed to like it while he was there, he talked abut what he had learned, and he points out where it was when we drive by. But he does not want to return. So OK but not scarring, I guess.

He does want to return to Congressional Camp, Arlington's Knights of Columbus camp (I know some parents feel strongly against, but he had a great time), and Left Noodle Right Noodle camp. Also popular: VBC baseball camp, All American Sports Camp football camp (started out lukewarm, ended up loving it), Technology Is Cool Camp (I cannot say enough good things about TIC Camp), Knights of Columbus golf camp.

[Anonymous]

Bump - Ive already found out some good things - I'd hate for this post to get lost...

[Anonymous]

9:38 here. Wanted to add -- although you could probably have figured this out -- that I have more than one kid. I also wanted to add that certain camps that he liked at one point seem to have lost their charm: Arlington YMCA, All-Star Sports. All-Star Sports is run by the same people who do the football camp he liked. I have no idea what that means, although the football camp seemed to be staffed by high school football players, and I think they brought a certain star power to the event. The All-Star Counselors may have been high schoolers, too, but maybe the jack-of-all-trades-ness of that didn't translate as well.

[Anonymous]

My son loved Headfirst McLean- Mini-Shake and Baseball. The program was very well-organized, the kids had a ball, and the counselors made sure to stress good sportsmanship. It's expensive but worth the money!

[Anonymous]

When should I start looking for camps for the summer and registering for them? This will be the first year I have to do the camp thing.

[Anonymous]

Some camps start registering in January (yes, really). Poke around this thread and the original and see if you can find some likely candidates for your child, then keep an eye out for when registration starts.

[Anonymous]

Great info so far.

Could parents please post the age of their child so we know if the Left Noodle Right Noodle Camp is for 13 year olds or not

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Last summer, we did Beauvoir (4 wks), Sidwell (4 wks @ Bethesda campus), and Silver Stars (2 wks) for our DS, who turned 4yo during the summer.

DS is desperate to return to Beauvoir (loved the staff, play area, swimming & projects); gave Sidwell a pass (nice staff, hot playground with no shade, no pool/only sprinklers and not enough variety in materials/fun stuff to do).

He did have fun at Silver Stars & I appreciated their running camp all the way through the summer, as opposed to stopping in early August. But I felt like SS was/is uncontrolled chaos.

[Anonymous]

My son did TIC Camp in Bethesda (they have a VA one, too). It's a computer/sports camp (half day computer and half day sports). He really loved it and can't wait to do it again next summer. They have different computer classes you can take like programming or robotics and they start at age 7 and go through the teen years with the campers split into junior and senior groups. He really liked what they did in both halves of the day and enjoyed his counselors.