Sidwell summer camp Early Bird discount gone - what are alternatives ?

[Anonymous]

Minimum wage is rising in the city, making it more difficult to compensate for the amount of staff needed to run these programs. Prices simply must go up.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP.
Still, I like the early bird discount-you know you will pay more later regardless of point if you on sales tactics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Minimum wage is rising in the city, making it more difficult to compensate for the amount of staff needed to run these programs. Prices simply must go up.

I don't think all counselors or teachers are making minimum wage. Some of them are year-round teachers in another school (the tennis guy for sure is). Nevertheless, you are missing the point. The fees did go up. That is where minimum wage was already reflected. The early bird discount disappeared.

[Anonymous]

yes they do pay minimum wage to all counselors! My child's first year (16 years old) last year making $12.50 and returning this summer they will pay $13.25 as minimum wage is going up again this summer. Crazy to make that much at her age but awesome pay check and spending money for her! We are beyond the camps now but we did get a postcard that the early bird was the month of December.

[Anonymous]

I can't speak for Sidwell, but I noticed that all the camps went up in price this year. We are looking at $500 a week easy, without aftercare. Le sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doing the math:

We are a CHDS family. It costs us about $30000 for 40 weeks of school (Sept 4 to June 15). That amounts to $750 per week.

So Sidwell is going to charge about $700 per week for summer "hand work"? CHDS is a school, that is it actually TEACHES not just babysits or plays "Floor Hockey" (Yes, that is a Course at Sidwell Summer Camp).

GREED.

Floor hockey is a workshop choice in Explorers- so your child can do for a period... my now HS son loved it when he was in 3rd grade! he did that along with 4 other choices in a given week... and the instructor back then was a PE teacher who taught the skills but also sportsmanship, how to win and lose gracefully... if you want more of the academic classes - you can pick them... or choose another camp to go to...my son went to public school during the year but loved going to Explorers, soccer, voyagers in his summer... it was worth the money to us.

My son adores floor hockey as well. For the life of me I can't figure out why PPP would choose floor hockey as something to mock. Street hockey/floor hockey is a big thing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't speak for Sidwell, but I noticed that all the camps went up in price this year. We are looking at $500 a week easy, without aftercare. Le sigh.

Yes! I noticed the same. We were able to sign up for a couple with a very slight discount, but doesn't help much.

[Anonymous]

We cut our Sidwell from between 4-6 weeks to two weeks this year. In its place, we took an additional week of Calleva, two BSC, and one still to be determined. There are many options outside Sidwell summer, people!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We cut our Sidwell from between 4-6 weeks to two weeks this year. In its place, we took an additional week of Calleva, two BSC, and one still to be determined. There are many options outside Sidwell summer, people!

What is BSC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We cut our Sidwell from between 4-6 weeks to two weeks this year. In its place, we took an additional week of Calleva, two BSC, and one still to be determined. There are many options outside Sidwell summer, people!

What is BSC?

I am not that poster, but if I am not mistaken it is Bethesda soccer club (which has year-round soccer as well as summer camps)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We cut our Sidwell from between 4-6 weeks to two weeks this year. In its place, we took an additional week of Calleva, two BSC, and one still to be determined. There are many options outside Sidwell summer, people!

What is BSC?

I am not that poster, but if I am not mistaken it is Bethesda soccer club (which has year-round soccer as well as summer camps)

Okay. I didn't know whether they meant Barrie, Beauvoir summer camp, etc., lol. These two have been on my radar so wanted to check.

[Anonymous]

Due to the change in the early bird discount, we most likely will not go back next year. Having to make a decision prior to December 31 (and during the holiday season when the last thing I want to think about is summer camp) for just a $50 per week savings is not worth it. Also, as pp mentioned the camp is not significantly different from other day camps.

[Anonymous]

LOL! We had penciled into our diaries to sign up for Sidwell on January 30 as in previous years. Went to the website, and could not find link for the discount. Sent stressed email to summer@sidwell, knowing there was one more day to sign up. Didn't hear back. Went through all our email accounts trying to figure out where was the email with the early bird notification. Finally found it on 31st morning. It sucks that they took it away. I wonder if their enrollments have gone down a lot? Just seeing this discussion on urbanmom.

Please share your other choices. We are looking for 1 9 yo boy who prefers non-sports camps like the Sidwell Explorer.

[Anonymous]

Anyone have an early bird code?