When the Kid Doesn't Like Camp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, I sent my daughter to a highly regarded expensive day camp for 6 weeks last year. The first session there were a group of boys that were taunting one of the junior counselors. The second and third sessions had a boy who picked on her relentlessly. She asked specifically not to go back and we spent thousands of dollars for her to be generally unhappy. If you are in NOVA have you tried any of the Parktakes camps? They are far less expensive than private camps. One of my friends sent her son to different ones all summer and he really enjoyed it. And he is kind of a socially awkward introverted kid.

I'm wondering if this is the same camp I sent my son to last year. Camp jcc in rockville?

[Anonymous]

Any way you and or family could break up the days a bit by taking him early a few hours or days a bit? Any cousins he could get sent to for a few days or week?

[Anonymous]

A lot of kids from our school go to the karate camps, YMCA camps, and Parktakes camps in the summer. They are about the same price as SACC. There are also sports camps which are about the same price. Overtime Athletics runs one and so do the various local sports groups in the area. You can probably pull him out of SACC and place him somewhere else in July. I'm not sure the notice they need to cancel, but it isn't that much.

[Anonymous]

Is it the SACC camp? Our neighbor's son, who loves SACC during the year, had a total meltdown this morning about having to go because "school was over". I felt bad b/c I had the kids outside running through the sprinklers and he wanted to stay and play.

What kinds of things is he interested in? The FFX county parktakes camps are reasonably-priced for all day care. It sounds like the rec-pac camps might be too chaotic for him If you know the families of the boys he liked to play with in K, you could call and ask what camps their dc are doing this summer (even SAH kids will often do a week or two of something,)-if they were doing something less expensive your son could try a week of that.

[Anonymous]

another idea, you could also talk to the SACC workers and see if there is a quiet place they could find for him to go when he needs to decompress from all the chaos.

[Anonymous]

That happened to my dd. he eventually came around.

[Anonymous]

If it's Falls Church City, at least you can cancel any week of camp I think 2 weeks ahead of time? So if you did find something else, you wouldn't be double paying. A lot of the kids do camps at the rec center, some of them may still have openings and they could be more tailored to his interest (and they are just a little more than the schools camp)....

[Anonymous]

Also, definitely give it a little more time. Different kids will be coming and going each week probably, so maybe he'll bond with the kids in there or a new friend will start next week...

[Anonymous]

We has similar issues when our son went to the camp through school between PK and K. By the time K started he was tired of being at school. He needed a change of scenery/teachers/kids. We switched to another camp (incidentally cheaper) that did similar activities, but it gave him a chance to get away from school and have a "vacation."