2015 Summer Camp Reviews and Recommendations

[Anonymous]

My DD loved her half day ballet camp at Ballet Petite.

She is now at a full day camp at the Levine School of Music and is just thrilled with everything about it. She is having a wonderful time and learning a lot. Highly recommend this camp!

[Anonymous]

Son is at CASA at Sheridan (CLK) and really loves it. It is well supervised and seems like a fun setting.

[Anonymous]

8 year old dd loved her camp at Renaissance art in Gaithersburg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Sidwell Summer is going very well. I was also pleased with its cost. You won't like it if you want a strong swimming component for little kids, but we don't care about that and the water play suits us fine. We love it!

This is our 3rd summer and will stick with it for the forseeable future. The cost can't be beat.

This is our first summer at Sidwell Summer Camp - we're generally a St. Columba's family, but that camp was closed this summer for building renovations. I chose Sidwell because 1)it seemed like a fun and basic day-camp (my kids are 4 and 6) and 2)in January, the price was really good - 100$ off per kid, per week, plus a sibling discount.

My kids have been LOVING it this summer! They have water play, moon bounce, music, art, science, cooking, yoga, even Chinese class. On Friday the kids get a pizza and ice cream party (no extra cost) which is a bonus because I don't have to pack lunch. Next year we will be back for sure.

This is good to hear. I am considering if for my preschooler next summer. Did you go to the DC or Bethesda campus.

I'm the first PP. We've done 1 in Bethesda and 2 summers in DC. The explorers/kalidescope programs are basically the same. DC, however, has more specialty camps. Been happy both places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell Summer is going very well. I was also pleased with its cost. You won't like it if you want a strong swimming component for little kids, but we don't care about that and the water play suits us fine. We love it!

This is our 3rd summer and will stick with it for the forseeable future. The cost can't be beat.

This is our first summer at Sidwell Summer Camp - we're generally a St. Columba's family, but that camp was closed this summer for building renovations. I chose Sidwell because 1)it seemed like a fun and basic day-camp (my kids are 4 and 6) and 2)in January, the price was really good - 100$ off per kid, per week, plus a sibling discount.

My kids have been LOVING it this summer! They have water play, moon bounce, music, art, science, cooking, yoga, even Chinese class. On Friday the kids get a pizza and ice cream party (no extra cost) which is a bonus because I don't have to pack lunch. Next year we will be back for sure.

This is good to hear. I am considering if for my preschooler next summer. Did you go to the DC or Bethesda campus.

I'm the first PP. We've done 1 in Bethesda and 2 summers in DC. The explorers/kalidescope programs are basically the same. DC, however, has more specialty camps. Been happy both places.

Oh, but your kid needs to be 3.5 to start in Bethesda (MD rules) but only 3 in DC.

[Anonymous]

Week 1 -- 10 year old DD at Camp Winona Girl Scout sleepaway camp. Very reasonably priced for sleepaway camp and she absolutely loved it.

13 year old DS at Calleva kayaking (the one based here, not High Adventure) -- he loved it and begged to do it again.

7 year old DD at Calleva Explorers -- I have to say, meh. It really didn't seem to live up to the adventure/explorer theme from her description. She has one more week to do so we will see if it's better the second time around.

Weeks 2 through 7 - six weeks at Valley Mill for all three -- fabulous. We love Valley Mill and I think it's a very well-run camp that gives kids exactly the kinds of summer camp experiences they should have (outdoors, lots of activities, skill-based accomplishment cards). I love the convenience of bus pick-ups and drop-offs and the fact that all three of my kids have their own groups and aren't together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just finished up 3 weeks at Beauvoir Summer - my rising kindergartener LOVED it!!!

Also had a rising kindergartener in Beauvoir Summer. Overall found it to be mediocre -- liked the swim part of the camp, but not much else. The specialty camps were underwhelming; the kids definitely weren't doing the kind of interesting stuff that was advertised. Almost zero communication from camp counselors or the camp generally about what the kids did or what went on. Quality of the counselors also greatly varied - some seemed terrific and enthusiastic, others appeared actively bored and uninterested in engaging with the kids. Camp organization was also so-so -- seemed kind of chaotic, a lot of missed messages. Overall seemed fine if you just want overpriced daycare for the summer; next year we'll look for something more engaging. Pros: liked the swim lessons, camp facility and playground are lovely, they provide lunch. Cons: Activities were not that interesting, poor communication, disorganized, quality of counselors varied, and expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell Summer is going very well. I was also pleased with its cost. You won't like it if you want a strong swimming component for little kids, but we don't care about that and the water play suits us fine. We love it!

This is our 3rd summer and will stick with it for the forseeable future. The cost can't be beat.

We did the half-day explorers camp at Sidwell Summer and it was not great. It was cheap but that's about all that could be said in its favor.

[Anonymous]

This is our 2nd summer doing Parktakes camps and unfortunately, it's an epic fail. Counselors have no control over kids, many of them seem pretty aloof and disinterested. DS has been coming home bored and just today he told me he doesn't want to do any of their camps for the rest of the summer. It sucks that we won't get refunds

[Anonymous]

My kids loved Green Acres again. Swimming program is great and the after care is best we've seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8 year old dd loved her camp at Renaissance art in Gaithersburg

My dd did, too. My only problem with this one is that there is zero outside or physical activity time. Full day goes to 4:30. That's a long day with very little movement. I pulled dd out to another art camp that has at least 30min of physical activity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just finished up 3 weeks at Beauvoir Summer - my rising kindergartener LOVED it!!!

Also had a rising kindergartener in Beauvoir Summer. Overall found it to be mediocre -- liked the swim part of the camp, but not much else. The specialty camps were underwhelming; the kids definitely weren't doing the kind of interesting stuff that was advertised. Almost zero communication from camp counselors or the camp generally about what the kids did or what went on. Quality of the counselors also greatly varied - some seemed terrific and enthusiastic, others appeared actively bored and uninterested in engaging with the kids. Camp organization was also so-so -- seemed kind of chaotic, a lot of missed messages. Overall seemed fine if you just want overpriced daycare for the summer; next year we'll look for something more engaging. Pros: liked the swim lessons, camp facility and playground are lovely, they provide lunch. Cons: Activities were not that interesting, poor communication, disorganized, quality of counselors varied, and expensive.

I also have a rising kindergartener who did one week of a specialty camp at Beauvoir (two activities, one AM and one PM). One was what we expected and DS enjoyed it a lot. The other was underwhelming and not as advertised. As for communication from counselors, there was none, but I didn't expect any (I've never gotten information from counselors in the 5 years I've been doing various camps). I'm not sure if we'll be back -- rising 1st graders have so many more options.

We've also done several weeks at Audubon, which have been fabulous -- DS comes home all chatty about what he's learned and did. We will definitely go back.

[Anonymous]

My rising 3rd grader went to TIC and Valley Mill. It was the perfect combination of camps and we will be back to both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is our 2nd summer doing Parktakes camps and unfortunately, it's an epic fail. Counselors have no control over kids, many of them seem pretty aloof and disinterested. DS has been coming home bored and just today he told me he doesn't want to do any of their camps for the rest of the summer. It sucks that we won't get refunds

We had the exact opposite experience with Parktakes camps- sorry to hear about yours. My kids only had 2 weeks there this summer, and were begging to get more. The counselors were awesome, and they remembered my kids from previous years, and my kids loved them. They know all of them by name, even the ones not in their groups, and the counselors were really engaged and enjoyed spending time with the kids. This was at Providence rec center, FWIW. I am sure it varies by location though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Week 1 -- 10 year old DD at Camp Winona Girl Scout sleepaway camp. Very reasonably priced for sleepaway camp and she absolutely loved it.

13 year old DS at Calleva kayaking (the one based here, not High Adventure) -- he loved it and begged to do it again.

7 year old DD at Calleva Explorers -- I have to say, meh. It really didn't seem to live up to the adventure/explorer theme from her description. She has one more week to do so we will see if it's better the second time around.

Weeks 2 through 7 - six weeks at Valley Mill for all three -- fabulous. We love Valley Mill and I think it's a very well-run camp that gives kids exactly the kinds of summer camp experiences they should have (outdoors, lots of activities, skill-based accomplishment cards). I love the convenience of bus pick-ups and drop-offs and the fact that all three of my kids have their own groups and aren't together.

I hear Valley Mill is great and would do it next summer. One question -- for water stuff, I'm worried about swimming safety. Do you know how much swimming is done for 7 year olds?