Has anyone used Sunshine Academy for summer camp? Any reviews?

[Anonymous]

It's our first time and it's not amazing, not terrible. I think it's a bit too test focused given the age of the kids. And the emails from the school really come across like they are playing on people's fears of their kid falling behind in the rat race to the top college, top jobs, etc. DC thinks their teacher is too serious (DC is used to having a teacher who had a sense of humor). On the other hand, DC is being challenged and doing a lot of quality work and is proud. Is actually learning, whereas in regular school didn't learn much. Fwiw, I'm not interested in competing so much as providing learning opportunities that my child is ready for, and fostering their growth and further learning, curiosity, etc...hopefully increasingly self-initiated. Many kids learn very little of real value in school, despite being ready and then get very lazy, unsurprisingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are half a dozen other vastly more beneficial things that are more helpful for kids.

These schools are actually counter productive because it short circuits the learning process. None of the Curie or Sunshine students end up being exceptional. If they were left alone, they might have a shot.

And yet so many of them end up at Ivy+

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another problem, these kids get used to learning most material before hand and at school they are able to do homework and tests easily. Who would not if you have already learnt the material?

Then when they encounter something new, they hit a brickwall. That is why these kids end up not doing well in certain "activities". And they have a tough time in college.

Hey, you need to alleviate guilt, so enroll them. Curie and Sunshine lines are open..

I personally don't think these things are necessary but they aren't stunting intellectual growth.
It's sad that you need to tell yourself that.
If your kid can't or won't do it that's becasue your kid is mid.
That's OK, most kids are.
But it's silly to think there's anything wroing with kids who learned the material getting good test scores.

These kids learn good study habits for college. They don't spring the material on you the day of the exam. You have time to learn the material beforehand.
These kids don't hit a brick wall, but these places are better at finding academic talent than creating academic talent.

What "activities" do they not do well in? Smoking pot behiond the 7-11?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We attended last summer, mostly east and south asian with a few white kids.

Classes were great. Kids memorized about 40 vocab words a night for 2nd grade, did logic puzzles and above grade level math. Teachers were current FCPS teachers, I think most worked in AAP classrooms.

Kids also did chess matches every other day or so. My son loved it.

Seriously? There are FCPS teachers working there and were party to the test stealing scandal?

Not sure if there "are". Looks like there "were" according to the PP. Not verified though. Would like to see a news article or something along those lines to validate.

My google fu seems insufficient to find anything.

I did find something about the fxat which seems to be a cogat for ELLs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am Asian and do not like either Sunshine or Curie. These have become marketing machines and a huge waste of effort. All they are doing is pre-teaching what they would be learning in their schools anyway. Yes, they add a little, tiny, tiny bit of additional harder questions in their tests to be able to say we are more rigorous or teach at a much more advanced level than FCPS, etc. But that is complete nonsense.

What they do is alleviate guilt that parents is not doing everything they can to give a child a leg up. You are enrolling to get rid of this feeling. That is what these guys are preying on.

I agree that they are probably unnecessary.
They do a much better job of identifying academic talent than creating academic talent.
But still if your kid wants to spend their time doing this tuff instead of little league...
I wouldn't force my kid into it though.

[Anonymous]

My kid asks for sunshine, as they are there with their friends. It doesnt suit all kids, most would get frustrated with the fast pace and advanced rigor. Teachers are not overly friendly but straightforward and no-nonsense. He doesn't like going there late and miss even a minute, and forces me to drop-off on time. My kid does little league too, wouldn't let that go either.

[Anonymous]

Wow. So much hatred.

So one of my kids is doing gardening/sawing/cooking type classes this summer and one is going to Sunshine. They each love their respective summer activities, although I don’t have first-hand experience of what they go through each day. Summer break is for exploring things that you couldn’t while in school. In fact, the one in Sunshine raves about it at home so the garden-sewing kid is asking me to sign up for that next summer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are half a dozen other vastly more beneficial things that are more helpful for kids.

These schools are actually counter productive because it short circuits the learning process. None of the Curie or Sunshine students end up being exceptional. If they were left alone, they might have a shot.

Thanks for your review of Curie, but all classes are full. Don't come to Curie and complain how difficult the curriculum is. Go enroll in Kumon or better yet stay away from academic enrichment and enroll in gardening, sewing, cooking, etc., classes.