NoVa camps for a 4 year old

[Anonymous]

Looking for a good camp in NoVa (preferably Arlington, Mclean, Falls Church or Vienna) for my 4 year old DS. My priority is finding a situation with good supervision for young kids, including adult supervision (instead of just teenaged counselors) and a range of fun, stimulating activities (not too athletics oriented). Any recommendations and feedback appreciated!

Camps I'm considering are Green Hedges, Kinhaven, Dolley Madison, Rodef Shalom and Congressional but would also love to hear about others I may not be aware of yet!

1/2 day programs are fine.

[Anonymous]

I have been very happy with Congressional the last couple summers. Its a beautiful 40 acre campus. Their program for 3-5 years olds includes swimming every day and pony rides. Lunch is also included. Its great knowing my child is under the supervision of professional educators

[Anonymous]

Congressional is great - extremely well run and the swimming and pony riding are big hits with my kid. Congressional is a very long day for the little kids though, even with the quiet time. He did Rodef Shalom as a 4 yr old and absolutely hated it - found it too chaotic, though he knew the school well from attending the nursery school for the 2 previous years. My sense from talking to other parents is that kids love or hate it because it is big and noisy, which some kids LOVE. If your kid is at all into music, you should take a look at the Levine School at Westover Baptist. They have a great 3 week camp.

[Anonymous]

PP - can you expand on what your son didn't like about Rodef being "big and noisy" - I was strongly considering it because we are members - my child doesn't go to school there, but several of my close friends kids do and they will probably send them to the camp so it would be a good fit in that sense BUT my DS is reserved, needs time to warm up to situations - Rodef sounds like there's a lot of traditional camp silliness and I thought he would like that, but "big and noisy" don't sound like things he would like -- how did that impact what your son did day to day?

[Anonymous]

You could do the Langley School's 4's program. It doesn't have swimming, but they do water play and lots of arts and crafts. The teachers are usually other staff members or teachers at Langley, although they usually switch around classes for the summer program, but not always. Its well run and is flexible because you just sign up for a week. Its just in the am, I think from about 9-12.

[Anonymous]

I am the PP whose son did not like Rodef Shalom's camp. It is big and boisterous and silly with little supervision - on purpose. Very different from the nursery school. All the kids start off together in huge room singing and then peel off into different groups. My son didn't like all of the noise associated with that and all of the craziness at the start and finish of camp and in the hallways (imagine lots of 10-12 yr olds w/minimal supervision roaming the halls). How did it impact him day-to-day? I think that he was intimidated by the noise and the bigger kids (though to be fair, he was completely unused to being around so many older kids, so that may have happened no matter what, but with Congressional, the kids are well segregated and separated by age.) Also, we were less than impressed with the counselors. One "experienced" adult and lots of 13 yr olds. They were not great at handling conflict among the kids in my opinion and the administration was not as responsive as we'd have liked. We actually pulled him out. FWIW, it's obviously a lot of fun for some kids and I think that older kids have a better time as they are better able to handle the chaos and they appreciate the extensive freedom.