Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sleepaway camp is amazing (for kids). But if they hadn’t been before, 12 is probably late to start. Middle schooler age like it because they have their summer friends all there, a total change of scene, lake all day, no screens.

If we didn’t do sleepaway camp, I’d do day sports camps or one of the week long overnight camps colleges offer for specific sports. Or music camp at Blue Lake or Interlocken. We don’t have a neighborhood pool, but they would do their normal swim team practices and tennis that they do during the year. But those aren’t all day, just 2 hrs max. My middle schooler has a significant amount of summer homework too to work on.

You must be in Michigan!

These camps draw from kids from all over! They are very done if your child plays an instrument or is into art.

I try to work from home more frequently in the summer so that I can drive DCs places. The other WFH parents and I will coordinate to share in the driving, especially for those kids whose parents are in the office. We're lucky that we have a neighborhood pool DCs can walk to and meet up with friends and there is a shopping center they can also walk to.

We really just lucked into the shopping center. It was built while my DCs were babies and it's been amazing to have it as an option. It's a game changer when you have teens. A lot of the neighborhood kids end up working there in high school.

My rising 8th grader is doing weekly vacations, plus weekend travel and a one week camp. I try to space things out so there's down time between the travel and camp.

sleep away camp where do you send them

Anonymous wrote:Sleepaway camp is amazing (for kids). But if they hadn’t been before, 12 is probably late to start. Middle schooler age like it because they have their summer friends all there, a total change of scene, lake all day, no screens.

If we didn’t do sleepaway camp, I’d do day sports camps or one of the week long overnight camps colleges offer for specific sports. Or music camp at Blue Lake or Interlocken. We don’t have a neighborhood pool, but they would do their normal swim team practices and tennis that they do during the year. But those aren’t all day, just 2 hrs max. My middle schooler has a significant amount of summer homework too to work on.

Think 12 is too late to start a new sleepaway camp?

Anonymous wrote:Sleepaway camp is amazing (for kids). But if they hadn’t been before, 12 is probably late to start. Middle schooler age like it because they have their summer friends all there, a total change of scene, lake all day, no screens.

If we didn’t do sleepaway camp, I’d do day sports camps or one of the week long overnight camps colleges offer for specific sports. Or music camp at Blue Lake or Interlocken. We don’t have a neighborhood pool, but they would do their normal swim team practices and tennis that they do during the year. But those aren’t all day, just 2 hrs max. My middle schooler has a significant amount of summer homework too to work on.

You must be in Michigan!

Sleepaway camp is amazing (for kids). But if they hadn’t been before, 12 is probably late to start. Middle schooler age like it because they have their summer friends all there, a total change of scene, lake all day, no screens.

If we didn’t do sleepaway camp, I’d do day sports camps or one of the week long overnight camps colleges offer for specific sports. Or music camp at Blue Lake or Interlocken. We don’t have a neighborhood pool, but they would do their normal swim team practices and tennis that they do during the year. But those aren’t all day, just 2 hrs max. My middle schooler has a significant amount of summer homework too to work on.

8 weeks of camp until 13, then at 14 they work full time.

OP here - my kids friends all have to be driven to for the most part .. they are in ES now but one going into middle next year and it got me thinking what our summers will look like soon. Both parents work FT out of the house some days so I guess a summer sitter that can drive them around will be needed until they can drive I guess.

I just played and hung out with friends. Not every kid went to camp, actually I didn't know any kid that went to camp. Does yiur kid have friends near by?

Mine spend most of the summer in camps of their choosing and on vacation with us. I work in a school though so I’m home in the summer. Most of their friends are the same, so having them just stay home wouldn’t result in hanging out with friends because the friends are not around.

Mine isn't quite in Middle School yet, but what he does now will be the same then. He goes to sailing camp and spend the summer on the water and racing regionally. If you are near a sailing center or yacht club it's a great option for the tweens/teens.

I let mine have a break. So yeah, she spends way too much time on YouTube and social media but also spends a large amount of time outdoors including going to the pool, walking to the shopping center with her friends to eat lunch, doing what we all did as kids roaming the neighborhood. She also has sports practice two times a week in the afternoon.

Sleepaway camp
Be a CIT at a local day camp
Babysit half the day and go to the pool half the day
Some arts (visual arts, theater), sports, and STEM camps run through MS age

My middle schooler will do a mix of sports camps, be home alone and vacation. Sports camps will be the key. Many of their friends will do swim team but that's a very slight portion.

For some reason I cannot wrap my head around what children do that are middle school age in the summer months. They are technically old enough to be home solo when parents work , but also they cannot drive themselves anywhere.. do you just drop them at the pool all day etc. or are there still camps that middle schoolers attend.
TIA