Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5. Girl Scout camp is affordable and a fabulous tradition for Girl Scouts. Troops should be working on camping skills and Girl Scout traditions all year, so the way DC area camps operate now is almost identical to the way they ran on the other side of the country when I was a camper. If your girl isn’t a Girl Scout or her leader isn’t building camp and traditions into the year, then a lot of the games and activities may be lost her (and boring).

Can you say more about what this means? My daughter isn't a Girl Scout and I was planning on sending her, but should I be looking for a different camp instead? What kinds of things about camp might be worse, confusing, or boring for her because she hasn't been in a troop?

Oh, I didn’t mean that GS camp is an exclusive insiders club at all. I was responding to the posters that were expecting a specialized camp based on the session theme, not Girl Scout Camp plus session theme extras. GS camp, particularly for elementary aged girls, is going to be mostly the same activities, games, songs, and traditions, regardless of what session you pick. It’s run that way for generations and is great if that’s what you know you’re signing up for. My hunch is that some PPs were hoping to get a specialized camp experience for GS camp prices, then blamed their kids unmet expectations on the camp itself rather than the expectation setting.

Not to say shooting one arrow during an entire archery session is great. But it's also not the norm and I'm guessing something came up that day (staff, equipment, weather) that made them have to combine groups.

Anonymous wrote:5. Girl Scout camp is affordable and a fabulous tradition for Girl Scouts. Troops should be working on camping skills and Girl Scout traditions all year, so the way DC area camps operate now is almost identical to the way they ran on the other side of the country when I was a camper. If your girl isn’t a Girl Scout or her leader isn’t building camp and traditions into the year, then a lot of the games and activities may be lost her (and boring).

Can you say more about what this means? My daughter isn't a Girl Scout and I was planning on sending her, but should I be looking for a different camp instead? What kinds of things about camp might be worse, confusing, or boring for her because she hasn't been in a troop?

A few things:

1. Girl Scout camps are very rustic - think open air cabins, latrines or very basic flush toilets like at a national park, cots, running water at one wash station per unit, no lights outside (so pitch dark at night). A girl who would do better with slightly more luxury accommodations should probably stick with other camps.

2. They are not a full week so that the camp staff can get a day off between sessions. Girl Scouts just can’t afford to increase staffing to allow counselors to rotate days off. Some Councils have two weeks for middle school and older girls.

3. Cooking will be geared towards Girl Scout camp cooking techniques. Over the fire, box ovens, etc. Do not expect them to come home with new kitchen cooking techniques.

4. As has been mentioned, Council camps are intended to be intro camps that are accessible to all girls and skill levels. Any prerequisite skills are going to be kept to the absolute minimum possible. The Destinations are for more advanced speciality activities. That is by design so that more girls can get more experiences locally.

5. Girl Scout camp is affordable and a fabulous tradition for Girl Scouts. Troops should be working on camping skills and Girl Scout traditions all year, so the way DC area camps operate now is almost identical to the way they ran on the other side of the country when I was a camper. If your girl isn’t a Girl Scout or her leader isn’t building camp and traditions into the year, then a lot of the games and activities may be lost her (and boring).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids both went last year. One did a general camp and the other did a specialty camp. Neither camp seemed to be especially good.

Both kids were unimpressed by the activities and thought there was a lot of waiting around. For instance, they did archery one afternoon, but each kid only was allowed to shoot one arrow. It took a lot of time to get everyone ready and out of the unit to the activity, then there was a long safety training, all for 30 seconds of an activity. For the specialty camp, they only did the specific activity on one day and all the other days were just normal camp. (This wasn't clear from the description.). On top of that the group for the specialty activity was too big so it was a lot of waiting and not very fun because they didn't get to do much.
The rest of camp was lots of friendship bracelets and tie dye, both of which my kids have done a million times.

I'd try a different camp.

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Which location? (And if you're willing to name the specialty that would be appreciated, but I understand if not.)

One kid was at May Flather (older kid) and the other at Winona (younger kid). The older one asked to try a different camp. She's into adventure (backpacking, rock climbing, caving, kayaking, etc) so we're looking at other outdoor adventure camps. I don't think any GS camp is going to meet her expectations. They're really "intro" camps at best and not for a kid who really likes and is experienced at outdoor activities.

You should look at the GS Destinations for that. Camp Whiterock has some high adventure but it’s not going to be as advanced as what you get with the Destinations camps.

Those are for older scouts, so my DD isn't eligible yet. There are non-GS camps that offer more opportunities to tweens.

13:21 PP again. We had better luck with the GS camps in PA (Camp Laughing Water and Camp Mosey Wood), if that is an option. No bus transportation there, but there was transportation between the two. My daughter particularly liked the Mosey Wood camp where they had a different activity every day including road trips to area attractions.

Anonymous wrote:My kids both went last year. One did a general camp and the other did a specialty camp. Neither camp seemed to be especially good.

Both kids were unimpressed by the activities and thought there was a lot of waiting around. For instance, they did archery one afternoon, but each kid only was allowed to shoot one arrow. It took a lot of time to get everyone ready and out of the unit to the activity, then there was a long safety training, all for 30 seconds of an activity. For the specialty camp, they only did the specific activity on one day and all the other days were just normal camp. (This wasn't clear from the description.). On top of that the group for the specialty activity was too big so it was a lot of waiting and not very fun because they didn't get to do much.
The rest of camp was lots of friendship bracelets and tie dye, both of which my kids have done a million times.

I'd try a different camp.

This was our experience at two different camps (May Flather and Winona). My daughters had an ok time but the camps were not well-run with little supervision, particularly Winona (although I've heard it has a different director now). For rock climbing it was as PP described for archery, a lot of waiting around for 30 seconds of activity, and only one day for the specialty activity and then a lot of tie-dye and friendship bracelets the rest of the time.

I'll add that my daughter was in 2 of the 80+ photos of the rockclimbing camp. I get that they can't guarantee that your kid will be in photos but there was literally a photo of every other camper in her group rock climbing and in the end of camp skit. My kid was in the original group photo and in a photo with a bandana covering her entire face and holding onto a rope with a very large camp counselor standing over with a pool noodle looking like she was going to beat her with it (which apparently was the activity, disturbing as that sounds).

The other camp was even worse. My Brownie camper watched the counselors perform a start of camp skit, watched the counselors have a camp "beauty pageant" and watched the counselors have an impromptu camp wedding (officiant, couple getting married, bridesmaids, etc). She spent so much time sitting around watching the counselors do all of this that they never got to the activities that they were actually supposed to do (obstacle course, slingshots, etc.). Complete waste of time and money.

You get what you pay for. I'd look into more traditional camps.

Anonymous wrote:My kid loved caving camp at May Flather. She's looking at May Flather again this summer.

She did not like the horse camp at Potomac Woods, which was a surprise. I think the horses being offsite just added too much travel time. But sometimes it's hard to tell whether a poor experience is really about the camp, or a bunkmate or the weather or something else.

My daughter did that caving camp and was super disappointed. They only did one wild cave and it was one she had done before. She said the group was too big so they didn't get to go in very far and missed most of the cool parts of the cave. They also didn't teach skills like reading a cave map. On her prior trip into the cave the instructor had taught them to follow a map and navigate underground. The May Flather caving experience was very basic and just an intro at best.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any input on what the cooking/baking camps are like? How much of the time do they spend on it, and do they actually learn skills/make challenging stuff or is it all pretty simplistic? (For a 3rd grader)

I would not expect challenging stuff. For that do a Sur La Table camp.

I don't mean super-challenging, but, like, some camps call making a salad or a PBJ "cooking" so I just want to make sure it's not *that* basic.

I'd be unsurprised if it was things like foil packet dinners or roasting hot dogs on a stick over the fire.

+1. It's best to think of GS camp as an outdoor camp with rustic facilities. If your theme is ropes course or hiking, you will probably do a lot of that. If your theme is cooking or theater or something generic like "water fun," you are mostly going to do general camp activities plus a couple things on theme. They care primarily about the social experience and being outdoors.

Our experience was that the specialty was once per camp, so one activity. Read the listing carefully and send an email if you want more details.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any input on what the cooking/baking camps are like? How much of the time do they spend on it, and do they actually learn skills/make challenging stuff or is it all pretty simplistic? (For a 3rd grader)

I would not expect challenging stuff. For that do a Sur La Table camp.

I don't mean super-challenging, but, like, some camps call making a salad or a PBJ "cooking" so I just want to make sure it's not *that* basic.

I'd be unsurprised if it was things like foil packet dinners or roasting hot dogs on a stick over the fire.

+1. It's best to think of GS camp as an outdoor camp with rustic facilities. If your theme is ropes course or hiking, you will probably do a lot of that. If your theme is cooking or theater or something generic like "water fun," you are mostly going to do general camp activities plus a couple things on theme. They care primarily about the social experience and being outdoors.

My kid loved caving camp at May Flather. She's looking at May Flather again this summer.

She did not like the horse camp at Potomac Woods, which was a surprise. I think the horses being offsite just added too much travel time. But sometimes it's hard to tell whether a poor experience is really about the camp, or a bunkmate or the weather or something else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any input on what the cooking/baking camps are like? How much of the time do they spend on it, and do they actually learn skills/make challenging stuff or is it all pretty simplistic? (For a 3rd grader)

I would not expect challenging stuff. For that do a Sur La Table camp.

I don't mean super-challenging, but, like, some camps call making a salad or a PBJ "cooking" so I just want to make sure it's not *that* basic.

I'd be unsurprised if it was things like foil packet dinners or roasting hot dogs on a stick over the fire.

Anonymous wrote:I had sticker shock at the prices. We usually get a summer nanny, so maybe all the camps are now this expensive and I just didn't know?

Girl Scout sleepaway camp is like $750 a week. Most other sleepaway camps are $1500-$2500 a week...

I had sticker shock at the prices. We usually get a summer nanny, so maybe all the camps are now this expensive and I just didn't know?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any input on what the cooking/baking camps are like? How much of the time do they spend on it, and do they actually learn skills/make challenging stuff or is it all pretty simplistic? (For a 3rd grader)

I would not expect challenging stuff. For that do a Sur La Table camp.

I don't mean super-challenging, but, like, some camps call making a salad or a PBJ "cooking" so I just want to make sure it's not *that* basic.

Anonymous wrote:Any input on what the cooking/baking camps are like? How much of the time do they spend on it, and do they actually learn skills/make challenging stuff or is it all pretty simplistic? (For a 3rd grader)

I would not expect challenging stuff. For that do a Sur La Table camp.