Next summer camp planning

[Anonymous]

We live in montgomery county. For the past few years, we do 1 week vacation, kid go to day camps for 8 weeks, and last week is vacation before school starts. We need childcare.

If I want him to do swim summer team the first time next year, does that mean I should hold off to plan vacation in late June? I assume that I still need to sign up day camps during those summer swim meet/practice, right? He is going to sleepaway camp for 2 weeks next summer as well. It seems like those summer swim meet normally ends at mid/late July, is that correct?

[Anonymous]

Op here. I wonder what is your child's summer like if kid do summer swim. It seems I need to spend time looking at the summer calendar or else I will screw up if I sign up the wrong things at wrong weeks.

[Anonymous]

Yes if you want to do swim team I would think about it in your planning for next summer. Swim team will start early June for most (after school) and run until mid-late July. Some kids will take a vacation within those weeks, that is ok especially if your swimmer isn't particularly serious/already in A meets. But in an ideal world, most swim team families take their vacation after swim team ends.

For planning purposes we think of our summers in two blocks - first half, swim team is primary focus. We hire a late high school or college age sitter from mid June - mid July to get kids to swim lessons etc., hang around for those weeks. Then once swim is done we do a few camps and vacation. Kids aren't old enough for sleepaway yet but I do plan to do that but after swim. If my kids had to miss the last week of swim to still get a sleepaway experience I would do it if they aren't super serious about it.

Some people do swim team plus camps. If your pool offers an early practice or a late afternoon practice, this can be done. it is just a lot for our family so we do the sitter over those weeks.

[Anonymous]

How old it your child and do you think he will be A meet swimmer?

Some families are more committed than others and some kids care more than others.

When my kids were little we did camp and had older child do afternoon practices. Once both kids were on swim team we hired sitter for the swim season and did camp and vacation in August.

[Anonymous]

Do you belong to the pool where you'd like your child to swim, OP? If so, ask now what the practice schedule is like and whether any significant changes might be expected next year. Talk to other parents of current swimmers. Practice schedules can vary quite a bit between pools; our team offers four practices/day once school is out, twice in the morning and twice in the late afternoon. That means camp is tenable for most kids of camp age. Other pools, not so much.

We also need childcare and do camp + summer swim team. We choose camps relatively close by for this reason and don't take vacations until August. So far, so good.

[Anonymous]

We do camp some weeks during summer swim and go to evening practices. I know some don’t do camps at all. But my kids enjoy camp.

[Anonymous]

This depends on your kids. If your pool team has a shallow bench at their age and they like to compete for ribbons then the 6-7-8 Saturdays from early June to end of July are busy (time trials / 5 meets / divisionals / all stars). A bunch of #4 8 and unders find themselves in relay all stars due to swimming a decent freestyle and having some other teams DQ in the 8U medley relay. Even more so if one of the kids swam it at carnival are not available for all stars.

[Anonymous]

I think it's good to start thinking about it now OP- I did not plan very well initially. Last year when DD did pre-team, she ended up doing camps during the day and evening practices, but frankly didn't get much out of them. This year was the first on the regular swim team and we structured the first month of summer so she could go to morning practices most weeks, which was better. But we also were gone for almost a week for an extended family vacation. I'd probably push to go on any vacations after swim season in the future, but we didn't know how much DD would like it. Also while the season may seem long there were only 5 B meets, and the last two got cancelled due to weather. So combined with the one we missed she only swam in 2 B meets (thankfully she swam in a couple A meets too). Just saying you never know what will happen so good to plan on being in town and available as much as you can.

[Anonymous]

It’s ok to miss a week of practice. If you are doing swim team with morning practice I would try and hire a sitter for those weeks instead of camp.

[Anonymous]

The summer swim schedule should be almost identical to what it was this year so that will help with planning. Just be prepared - working and managing a summer swim schedule without a nanny is basically a nightmare and will test your limits. So if you have a demanding job plan for that.

[Anonymous]

We do morning practices with a sitter and then 2-3 hour afternoon camps to keep the kids busy. It's a good pace for us.

[Anonymous]

Op here. We are looking for pool because we don't have community pool. I can ask around for this summer schedules. Excuse me, I assume A meet is for advanced swimmer, B meet is for average swimmer, right? Well, he is not a great swimmer, by next year summer, I hope he can get in B meets or at least practice or pre - swim. He is doing 1x/week group swim & 1×/week private swim. I

I do need day camps because I work full time. Sitter may not work for us because he may get bored. He has adhd, so he has unused energy at the end of each day. His day camp has daily pool time, but he loves it even though I link pool play time never improves swimming skills. I need to look into it more to see if I could make it happen. Normally I sign up all day camps by January because some sell out fast. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do morning practices with a sitter and then 2-3 hour afternoon camps to keep the kids busy. It's a good pace for us.

After a great first year, I can see us doing this model next year. How do you find the camps? And do you do active ones like tennis or more crafty things?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do morning practices with a sitter and then 2-3 hour afternoon camps to keep the kids busy. It's a good pace for us.

After a great first year, I can see us doing this model next year. How do you find the camps? And do you do active ones like tennis or more crafty things?

Given the afternoon heat, I try to do indoor camps. We've done basketball and ice skating, but also art and STEM.

Afternoon camps in July during the very hottest weather and subject to afternoon thunderstorms aren't as good a choice, IMO. I cant imagine having had a kid do tennis camp from 1-3 PM the first few weeks of July this year--so miserably hot. So no, not tennis.