How much to you typically spend on summer camps for your DC?

[Anonymous]

What do they do?

[Anonymous]

$478/week per kid (with aftercare) X2 kids X7 weeks =$6692.

[Anonymous]

4 weeks of Y camp $1600 (for 2 kids)
2 weeks of GS sleep away camp $700
1 week of Camp Letts $750

Plus assorted bus fees, health forms, nonsense.

Rest of the summer is with my MIL, my mom, and some vacation.

[Anonymous]

approx $90 a week. 10 weeks of coverage from 8-6pm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:approx $90 a week. 10 weeks of coverage from 8-6pm

Is it even possible? Where are you, PP?

The cheapest ones I found in Falls Church/Arlington area are Rec center's and school camps, which are still $260/week.

[Anonymous]

Some of those rec camps are pretty rough.

[Anonymous]

No summer school for him.We work opposite hours and he can stay at home.I'll give him some homework to keep him busy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:approx $90 a week. 10 weeks of coverage from 8-6pm

Is it even possible? Where are you, PP?

The cheapest ones I found in Falls Church/Arlington area are Rec center's and school camps, which are still $260/week.

In DC. No, I do not use DC Rec camps. 4 of the weeks are via our charter school-the school after care is $200 for the enitre 4 week period. The reguar school camp is free and goes until 3pm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that I have learned a bit more about the camp, I am THRILLED to be sending my child to a DC Parks and Rec camp, $50/week plus $20/week for both before care and after care. Yes, that's $70.00/week, and the community center is fine, with 2 playgrounds and a really cute spraypark literally only feed away.

And the regular camp hours are 8:45-5:00, that's $50/week before you ever add on before/aftercare.

Once I learned more about summer camps and my child actually attended for a few summers, I learned not to be thrilled with any park and rec camp and to be really careful about signing up for multiple weeks or the whole summer at these type of camps. The PP is correct - there can be poor supervision, the kids do get bored because the activities become limited, the physical space they have is limited and be very careful about them going on field trips. Supervision sucks.

While I agree that you can't just assume there is excellent supervision at the beginning of the summer and that everything will be great (although frankly, I don't assume that about ANYWHERE that I send my kids), this will be our 2nd summer with DC DPR Parks and Recs camp, and last summer was absolutely fine. There was one bad story I'd heard about the site, and there was one aspect of the way the camp was set up that worried me. I spoke to the Camp lead and every single counselor about my concern, asked how they'd handle it, and then checked in with my kid every day for the 1st week (without making too big a deal to my kid, who was 4). I also made a point of doing drop in visits about 4 times in the 1st 2 weeks, different times of day (it sucked re: my job but I just made it work, which I felt lucky to be able to do).

In the end, my kid was there for all 8 weeks, 8:30-6:00 every single day, and she had a GREAT summer. It was *not* culturally enriching or full of high quality arts projects, but they did tons of art, they had 2 playgrounds and a spray park literally on site, and they went swimming (away from the site at a different site) once a week, and on a trip every other week. My DD made friends, was never anxious to leave when I picked her up, and I didn't love everything about every counselor but they did a perfectly fine job.

My one complaint, which now I know to check in about at the beginning of camp this year, is that after the summer was over we were on a car ride and flipping through radio stations and my 4 yr old says "Wait, stop, I love that song!!!" and I went back and it was Robin Thicke's "Blurred LInes". I'd never heard it before, and when I listened to the lyrics I was like "WHERE HAVE YOU HEARD THIS SONG???" DD: "They played it at camp after nap time every day". Sooooooooo lesson learned, check on the music and make a point of asking for only G-rated music or G-versions of songs.

DD is going to Turkey Thicket this summer for all 8 weeks, and they have a kiddie pool onsite and a brand new nice playground with a spray park as well. I will still be stopping by many times in the 1st 2 weeks to check on things, but I"m hopeful it will be even better than last summer. And really, $75/week for 8:00-6:00 care (includes aftercare fees, trip fees and breakfast and lunch even though we send lunch)... That is really an excellent deal. As long as the supervision is adequate and they are careful and watchful in the pool and outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of those rec camps are pretty rough.

But most of them are fine. THere was one little girl in my DD's camp last year (3-5 yrs old), she was blonde, wore glasses, and seemed SOOOO shy and timid. I really watched to see how she seemed to blend in and how the counselors seemed to work with her. I was very heartened that she seemed to always be having a good time when I stopped by or picked up, and that basically she didn't really seem to have any issues. I spoke to her parents near the end of her 2 weeks (they'd only signed up for 2 weeks) and they said now that they knew how it was, they wished they'd signed up for the whole summer.

So it really does vary, but I've only heard bad stories from a few sites and only one bad story from last year (which I heard here, about Turkey Thicket, and I've already been bugging them about that story so hopefully it will not be an issue with this year's counselors (complaint was kids watched too much t.v.).

[Anonymous]

Man, I would not let a DC rec camp take my child-young-enough-to-nap swimming off-site. No way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of those rec camps are pretty rough.

But most of them are fine. THere was one little girl in my DD's camp last year (3-5 yrs old), she was blonde, wore glasses, and seemed SOOOO shy and timid. I really watched to see how she seemed to blend in and how the counselors seemed to work with her. I was very heartened that she seemed to always be having a good time when I stopped by or picked up, and that basically she didn't really seem to have any issues. I spoke to her parents near the end of her 2 weeks (they'd only signed up for 2 weeks) and they said now that they knew how it was, they wished they'd signed up for the whole summer.

So it really does vary, but I've only heard bad stories from a few sites and only one bad story from last year (which I heard here, about Turkey Thicket, and I've already been bugging them about that story so hopefully it will not be an issue with this year's counselors (complaint was kids watched too much t.v.).

Why do we need to know that she's blonde and wore glasses? Relevance please?

[Anonymous]

Relevance is she stood out from all the other campers and seemed really I comfy initially. And ended up fitting in and having a really good time. If my child was the only anything in a situation (only girl, only Latina, if she was super shy) I'd be nervous about her fitting in. I was happy to see no one had an issue in any direction. You can be PC about it all you like - her parents admitted they were nervous especially with how shy she is. It seemed like a success story all around.

[Anonymous]

"I comfy" should be uncomfy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Man, I would not let a DC rec camp take my child-young-enough-to-nap swimming off-site. No way.

They did it once a week all summer, no problems. Always the gradual entry kiddie pool.