Reply to How much to you typically spend on summer camps for your DC?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Now that I have learned a bit more about the camp, I am THRILLED to be sending my child to a DC Parks and Rec camp, $50/week plus $20/week for both before care and after care.  Yes, that's $70.00/week, and the community center is fine, with 2 playgrounds and a really cute spraypark literally only feed away.

And the regular camp hours are 8:45-5:00, that's $50/week before you ever add on before/aftercare.  [/quote]

Once I learned more about summer camps and my child actually attended for a few summers, I learned not to be thrilled with any park and rec camp and to be really careful about signing up for multiple weeks or the whole summer at these type of camps.  The PP is correct - there can be poor supervision, the kids do get bored because the activities become limited, the physical space they have is limited and be very careful about them going on field trips. Supervision sucks.  [/quote]

While I agree that you can't just assume there is excellent supervision at the beginning of the summer and that everything will be great (although frankly, I don't assume that about ANYWHERE that I send my kids), this will be our 2nd summer with DC DPR Parks and Recs camp, and last summer was absolutely fine.  There was one bad story I'd heard about the site, and there was one aspect of the way the camp was set up that worried me.  I spoke to the Camp lead and every single counselor about my concern, asked how they'd handle it, and then checked in with my kid every day for the 1st week (without making too big a deal to my kid, who was 4).  I also made a point of doing drop in visits about 4 times in the 1st 2 weeks, different times of day (it sucked re: my job but I just made it work, which I felt lucky to be able to do).

In the end, my kid was there for all 8 weeks, 8:30-6:00 every single day, and she had a GREAT summer.  It was *not* culturally enriching or full of high quality arts projects, but they did tons of art, they had 2 playgrounds and a spray park literally on site, and they went swimming (away from the site at a different site) once a week, and on a trip every other week.  My DD made friends, was never anxious to leave when I picked her up, and I didn't love everything about every counselor but they did a perfectly fine job.

My one complaint, which now I know to check in about at the beginning of camp this year, is that after the summer was over we were on a car ride and flipping through radio stations and my 4 yr old says "Wait, stop, I love that song!!!" and I went back and it was Robin Thicke's "Blurred LInes".  I'd never heard it before, and when I listened to the lyrics I was  like "WHERE HAVE YOU HEARD THIS SONG???"  DD: "They played it at camp after nap time every day".  Sooooooooo lesson learned, check on the music and make a point of asking for only G-rated music or G-versions of songs.

DD is going to Turkey Thicket this summer for all 8 weeks, and they have a kiddie pool onsite and a brand new nice playground with a spray park as well.  I will still be stopping by many times in the 1st 2 weeks to check on things, but I"m hopeful it will be even better than last summer.  And really, $75/week for 8:00-6:00 care (includes aftercare fees, trip fees and breakfast and lunch even though we send lunch)... That is really an excellent deal.  As long as the supervision is adequate and they are careful and watchful in the pool and outside.[/quote]

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