Do not count on neighborhood kids - their schedules will be all over the place with camps not to mention various family traveling schedules.

My kids do summer sports, we belong to a pool, and take the occasional one week enrichment camp (academic, art). We also travel and they do at least one week of sleep away.

DD took summer enrichment classes in the mornings then swimming and taekwondo in the afternoons. She did language camp until the summer before 6th but aged out. She’s been left to her own devices since then.

I’m a single parent and work all day so she had to occupy her free time herself. Luckily she’s a good kid and has always been an avid reader.

Hang out and ply with my neighborhood friends. At least that's what we did.

In 6th-7th grade, our DC had a mix of weeks: one week of sleep away boy scouts camp, one week of sleep away space camp, around 3 weeks of day camps, the rest at home. During the at home weeks, he spent a lot of time sleeping in, playing video games online with his friends, or hanging out at the pool (not a swim team kids, but liked meeting friends there to hang out).

Not much

Camp

Half day tennis camps, super Y practice at night, lots of video games, and some required amount of reading every day.

They go to the pool, play video games, go back to the pool, the older ones start to fool around with girls, go to the pool, play some video games, sleep until noon, go to the pool, and then eventually come home for dinner.

A few camps, swim team, pool with friends

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Camps, swim team, summer school class, hang out, babysit.

+1

This plus LIT and volunteer work to get those SSL hours.

My son volunteered at a camp, it was his favorite to attend and he'd aged out. After a few summers as a volunteer he was old enough for a paid staff position.

My daughter did a mix of camps for older kids, some free time to hang out with friends, and a 2-week sleepaway camp.

Anonymous wrote:Camps, swim team, summer school class, hang out, babysit.

+1

Swim team and hang out at pool and houses with friends.

Camps, swim team, summer school class, hang out, babysit.

Camp registration is starting soon and DD (in 6th grade) has no idea what she wants to do this summer. She's not interested in overnight camp. She's fairly resourceful and responsible and I think she could entertain herself at home all summer and arrange to meet up with friends, but will they be unscheduled too? What do kids around here do in the summers once they hit middle school? Do they still go to day camp? I don't think she'd be averse to working, but are there jobs a 12 year old can do?