How Many Camps Over the Summer?

[Anonymous]

Hi. This is my first time trying to sign up my kindergartener/rising-first-grader for camps, and I have some questions for the veteran parents out there in terms of finding the right balance between variety and stability.

How many camps do your kids go to over the summer? Many of them have weekly sessions, but do kids really switch week to week, or is that for the convenience for the parents (to accommodate vacations and other family plans)? If your kids do go to more than one camp, do they tend to go to one place for multiple weeks before switching to another? Would 3 weeks of soccer be too much for a 6-year-old? Should he go for 3 consecutive weeks, or should we break them up over the 2.5 months?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[Anonymous]

When we started camps in early ES, I would mix up a few weeks at a general camp with a week here and there at a specialty camp like a sport, art, etc. The general camps (we've in Arlington and over the years have used Congressional, Knights of Columbus, Camp Kids Place, YMCA, Parks & Rec) tend to have a consistent structure but vary the activities from week to week while the specialty camps repeat the same activities each week.

I'd think a kid who really loves soccer would likely be happy to repeat the camp but maybe keep it to two weeks rather than three. You could also ask the camp about how much turnover they have week-to-week.

I generally didn't have the kids spend more than 2 weeks at any new camp because I wanted them to try a variety of things and not be stuck somewhere they didn't like. But, my kids are pretty good with transitions. Now that they are in 4-6th grade they know what they like and only try maybe 1-2 weeks of new camps each summer.

[Anonymous]

We have a 'base camp' that is the standard day camp located at a school. My child goes there most of the summer. We do a 'special' camp one or two weeks for something different.
I think early one try a few different ones and see what your child enjoys. My child enjoys the stability/familiarity, and also the variety that is offered within the basic day camp. He tires of the special camps (i.e. all soccer, all the time, or computers, or science, or whatever) fairly quickly.
We also schedule a week at grandma's and of course vacation time in there, too.

[Anonymous]

My kids go to either two camps for four weeks each, or one for eight weeks.

[Anonymous]

OP it will depend on your child and how much they can tolerate / how tired they get and how much of a homebody or not they are.

My DD would probably be happy going to camp for all 10 weeks whereas my DS would need persuading to do one 2-3 week camp which would need to have a big pull in terms of his interests.

When my kids were in K and 1st I just did a few weeks here and there to ease them into it, but I knew folks who were putting their 4 year old into 10 weeks right from the get go.

[Anonymous]

Older DD preferred a single sleepaway camp and they had a max attendance of two sessions unless you were a CIT. By the time she reached CIT age, she was doing two sports competitively and we invested in skills camps for those. Plus, we let her travel abroad without family.

For her little sister, we try to do a variety (4 minimum, 6 maximum). That way younger DD gets to mixup her skills and her peer groups.

We do at least one sport, one STEM, and one religious, plus GS sleepaway. If time and money permit, I try to encourage doing an art or cooking experience, but she has done two sports or two STEM in the same summer.

This year, our finances will be constrained so we'll probably just do 4. Our most beloved camp is no longer free (at least not for us) so we have to decide if we want to continue going or look at other similar experiences (either free or lower cost).

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks for all your input! He's pretty extroverted and makes friends easily but not necessarily great with transitions. How distinct (for lack of a better word) are the different programs at the same camp, given that the instructors are different but the location is the same (or at least nearby)? IOW, if he goes to 1 camp for 4 weeks - 2 weeks of soccer and 2 weeks of day camp - will that feel like 1 camp to him or 2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for all your input! He's pretty extroverted and makes friends easily but not necessarily great with transitions. How distinct (for lack of a better word) are the different programs at the same camp, given that the instructors are different but the location is the same (or at least nearby)? IOW, if he goes to 1 camp for 4 weeks - 2 weeks of soccer and 2 weeks of day camp - will that feel like 1 camp to him or 2?

It'll feel like two different camps because where you go on the campgrounds will be different, kids will be different, counselors will be different, and what you do all day will be different.

[Anonymous]

My kid is the same age and I plan to do two, max.

[Anonymous]

We did three camps at that age and it was fine. Our "base" was Headfirst, where we did a mix of daycamp and specialty weeks. Then we did a week of taekwondo and two weeks of aquatics at YMCA. One caveat that more experienced parents warned us about was not putting expensive camps up front; start with cheaper parks and rec camps and "work up" to the fancier camps if possible.

[Anonymous]

DC, who was a rising 1st grader last summer went to 5 different camps and while she was fine with it, it was too much for me! But the benefit of doing that is now we know which camps we like and which camps we don't. She will be going to 3 different camps this summer-one of which is a sleep away camp.

[Anonymous]

We have 10 weeks of summer vacation and DH works from home. We are planning on 1 week of our own vacation, 6 weeks at home split between hanging out with grandparents, cousins (courtesy of my SAH sister's in law), and two days of paid sitting each of those weeks, and 3 weeks of camp - one each in June, July and August. We make our decisions based on not wanting to spend a shit ton on camps and a balance between structure and relaxed fun. No need to overthink this - the kids are alright. We don't have to uber-plan every single aspect of their lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have 10 weeks of summer vacation and DH works from home. We are planning on 1 week of our own vacation, 6 weeks at home split between hanging out with grandparents, cousins (courtesy of my SAH sister's in law), and two days of paid sitting each of those weeks, and 3 weeks of camp - one each in June, July and August. We make our decisions based on not wanting to spend a shit ton on camps and a balance between structure and relaxed fun. No need to overthink this - the kids are alright. We don't have to uber-plan every single aspect of their lives.

That sounds like a perfect balance of structure and free time. I would do something like this, if we had relatives nearby too.

[Anonymous]

My kid is the same age and we will probably do 2-3 camps, plus some weeks on vacation and with relatives. I didn't want to go with just one in case it was a bad fit, and this way we get to try out a few and learn more for next year.

[Anonymous]

We do 1-3 camps, but we sometimes switch up the programs withing the camps as well. Like do the soccer one week, the tennis another and the regular day camp for others- but all at the same location.