Best camps in DC for 5,6, and 7 year olds with ADHD

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any recs for a summer day camp that would be good for 5/6/7 year old ADHDer? Looking for tons of time outside, small ratios, structure, swimming (not mandatory), some educational enrichment/foundation with counselors who are either teachers or who have substantial experience in child development.

[Anonymous]

Where are you located? For summer camps ease of getting there matters a lot.

[Anonymous]

in NW DC

[Anonymous]

I don’t know any camps that hit all of these requirements.

Sidwell? I never tried that one. I wanted CASA at Sheridan School to be a good fit, but it wasn’t prepandemic. We tried it for a couple years prepandemic with my non-ADHD kid.

Green Acres in North Bethesda does structure, good counselor/camper ratio, swimming and warm fuzzy environment well. It’s a tall order to expect excellent child development training for all counselors, but hopefully the director and lead counselors can work with you. This will be their second summer with a new director and I noticed they have restructured their sessions into shorter 2 week chunks. The nearest bus stop is at Brookville Market - not too far if you are in Chevy Chase, DC— but far from other parts of NW DC.

Creative Summer at Holton Arms seems great, but I never tried it.

I wonder if Nature Forward camp at Woodend in Chevy Chase could work for you. It is an outdoor nature camp. It’s a good value and they are passionate about nature education. My daughter was not outdoorsy enough and she complained bitterly after a while (too hot).

[Anonymous]

Holton/Creative Summer, Barrie, Calleva.

[Anonymous]

Power Play in Virginia is great! https://powerplaykidscamp.com/
Our 6 year old with adhd went there and loved it - its only 2 weeks in august

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure Barrie meets all the criteria you listed but it was a good fit for our kid with a similar profile

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Power Play in Virginia is great! https://powerplaykidscamp.com/
Our 6 year old with adhd went there and loved it - its only 2 weeks in august

This looks amazing. Does anyone know of a similar camp in DC or close-in MD or VA? This one is in Falls Church, which is just a crazy commute for us. But it looks fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Power Play in Virginia is great! https://powerplaykidscamp.com/
Our 6 year old with adhd went there and loved it - its only 2 weeks in august

This looks amazing. Does anyone know of a similar camp in DC or close-in MD or VA? This one is in Falls Church, which is just a crazy commute for us. But it looks fantastic.

To be clearer, this camp appears to be targeted at young kids who need OT and/or other therapies. We'd love to find more options like this in DC.

[Anonymous]

Bump. We are starting to explore camps for a rising first grader with ADHD. Any camps that worked or didn't work?

[Anonymous]

For us it wasn't even so much which camp but sticking at the same camp, not jumping around, and ideally with 2week + sessions

[Anonymous]

Just fyi casa Sheridan is closed this summer.

My kid isn't ADHD but woodend is great for us.

Can some give honest feedback on Cavella? And be specific about the location?

[Anonymous]

Landon Summer is excellent for that age (and older with the specialized day camps), it has swimming on site and lots of activities and choices. Also Valley Mill. Both gender separate for the youngest groups and then combine as they get older. My kids loved the fishing trip / laser tag / ceramics.

We had them go to a lot of different camps in and around Bethesda over 8 yrs, including Norwood (bit boring and not as active as it could be, needing a bus to get to a pool etc)

Sidwell was patchy - there were specific activity camps that worked very well and then the SSL ones were a bust with either nothing like the program promised, or young new counselors who were heavy handed.

Kid Museum was good. Calleva was a bit rough. Camping overnight was a bug fest and they gave the kids soured orange juice in the morning that made people vomit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just fyi casa Sheridan is closed this summer.

My kid isn't ADHD but woodend is great for us.

Can some give honest feedback on Cavella? And be specific about the location?

Calleva was great for our ADHDer, and at a time they were going through a med change. They even met another ADHDer they are still friends and see each often. The VA location has been a lot better than MD for them. I think largely due to the shorter bus ride. I found the staff and nurse very supportive with the meds. The counselor gave us some behavioral feedback. It was a lot better than we expected.

Woodend has been a good match for years too.

Those two and D&D or Minecraft and summer has been fun and easy!

[Anonymous]

Also Beauvior camp has swimming and actual teachers.