This is a 5 year old thread and in some ways very weird.

Valley Mill has 2 week sessions and a final 1 week session at the end. Its not just 6 or 3. Your kid can also do 9 weeks in a row, 10 even.

Look on the website. Go for an open day. Its been running since the 1950s and its mostly fantastic. Both my kids are very happy there and the boys / girls division works well from age 7 up.

Valley Mill segregates the genders; Calleva does not. I've heard great things about Valley Mill, though I also had a friend with kids there who said she found it weird that the Valley Mill girls' camp did things like synchronized swimming and art, whereas the boys' side of the camp did not do those things. Valley Mill also does sessions that are several weeks long, whereas Calleva does week-to-week.

Our kids have gone to Calleva for several summers in a row now. We usually do a couple of weeks at Calleva at least and we like the flexibility of only having to do a week here and a week there if we want to. My kids beg to go back to Calleva every summer and they come back from camp every night completely filthy, happy, exhausted, and singing songs the campers all sing on the bus rides. They've done tubing, canoeing, kayaking, day-hiking, climbing, you name it. I love that they're outside all day, no matter the weather. I've also been very happy with the responsiveness of the camp employees when I've had to call or email with them on occasion about medications, questions, etc. They consistently get back to me very quickly with helpful responses.

We toe-dipped with Valley Mill last fall (they do school day out camps on MCPS and DCPS holidays) and he LOVED it. So, we signed up for a month at VM this summer. First, it is NOT cheap. But, my god, does my kid love it. Swimming every day, kayaking, capture the flag, rock climbing, soccer, etc etc. He comes home everyday excited for the next. There are only 2 real downsides, 1)he's so tired from his adventures that he's in bed by 7 and sleeps in so we have only 2 active hours with him everyday. 2) We don't use our pool membership as much since he is wiped out from being there (only on the weekends, where with other camps we'd go in the mid-week evenings).

I cannot speak for the others (I'm sure they're great!) but VM is gold star winner. We'll likely do it every year for at least a month.

I think camp sonshine is by far the best! I sent my 10 year old son there and he loved it! He has gone there ever since. I highly recommend camp sonshine.

Valley Mill is the best camp around. Competent staff. Trained staff, Calleva not so much. Too much time spent on buses at Calleva. Supervision not the greatest. I sent 3 kids to Valley Mill all became campers. All three did other camps, but again nothing came close to the professionalism at Valley Mill!

Anyone has other experiences?

New Poster:

I find it disingenuous that OP would ask for comments on the above camps and then when she gets a lot of positive posts about Camp Sonshine call it "sock puppeting." To all other posters reading this thread: I have sent my DS to Camp Sonshine every year since 5. It is the only camp that he requests to go back to every year. To me it is like sleep away camp without the sleep away. Always tired, dirty and excited about the activities. I also really loved it when a couple of the camp counselors have sent him Christmas cards. He has attended many camps but we always fit in 2-3 weeks for Camp Sonshine.

Question for Camp Sonshine parents of boys that have done the overnighters or wilderness camps. How did they like them? Considering it this year for my DS who will be 10.

The only camp of those 4 with which I have personal experience is Calleva and my son, who is the same age as, and has similar interests to, OP's son, loved 1 week of Calleva last summer. I do agree with a poster who said that the kids spend all day on one activity, so I think that more than one week would get repetitive. As this young age, each day is spent on a different activity- when the kids are older, the whole week is spent on one activity of camper's choice. My son loved the camaraderie, the counselors, the outdoor fun, and getting dirty each day! It is expensive, though.
Also, I am bowled over by the comments about Camp Sonshine - I had never heard of it, by after the positive parent reviews, and nice comments from the director, I will surely check it out for next summer (our summer 2012 camp plans have been established since Jan- crazy!).

Check with Valley Mill; they are sometimes very flexible about the sessions and may break up the 6- or 3-weeks if they are not already full. My 2 sons started as campers and are now counselors and still love it!

Hi all,
My name is Nathean Meadows (director of Camp Sonshine). I came across this forum and thought it was interesting and just wanted to give my thoughts I've never heard the term "sock puppeting" but after reading about it I could certainly see how that might be perceived from the comments. I do want to assure you that the idea of sock puppeting is rightfully abhorrent to you (and to me). In all honesty, when I saw the original question I thought it was great. I personally asked 4 camp sonshine families that I know (real parents with real children that attend Camp Sonshine) to offer their perspective on the conversation as helpful tool in the OP making a decision (thought it would be better coming from real parents than from me. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the number of comments on here regarding Camp Sonshine that came completely outside of any request by me. It appears that some decided to go a little far and start promoting our year-round events too (i guess they were excited about them or something) which was certainly not solicited in any way shape or form. This probably made it seem like some kind of fake marketing pitch; i'm genuinely sorry if any parent comment turned it into that (we certainly would never try to drum up "fake" support for our program)

To the OP ------- I'm very familiar with Barrie Camp and it's director (Peter) and Valley Mill camp also (not much experience with Calleva) and I don't have anything negative to say about either program. Barrie camp is ACA accredited and a well run program. Valley Mill has a lot of good activities also. I don't think you would go far wrong with any of the 4 programs you mentioned (of course I would love it to be us but i'm biased)

If you have any questions or would like to speak with me or any of my staff personally feel free to give me a call at (301) 989-2267 or email at nmeadows@campsonshine.org, I would love to speak with you. We have nothing to hide and are very proud of our program. Integrity is one or our most dearly held values and sharing "lies" from "fake" people would absolutely be contrary to our values.
Have a wonderful weekend and if there is anything we can do for you please let me know.

I'm the first Camp Sonshine poster, and I can assure you that I'm a real parent of a real Camp Sonshine camper. My guess is that all the other posters here are as well. It's a great camp that doesn't need sock puppeting, but if you're that paranoid, then by all means, don't sign your child up.