Tidbits & Stuff

With over 11,000 camps available in the US alone, choosing a camp for our child can be an overwhelmming task. Camping trends over the past few years have changed the camping industry thus making it important for parents to use caution when choosing a summer camp for their children. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

CAMPS

Shorter sessions and more oversight: Many full season camps have moved to 2 shorter sessions and many camps now offer 2 week sessions to allow parents to fit in a residential camp experience around their many other activities. In addition, most longer term camps are now offering short, introductory sessions for younger kids that could last anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks. In many cases, this short term “taste of camp” is as much for the parents’ sake as for the kids. Some camps have relaxed their communication policies, allowing phone calls or on-line sites to view camper pictures. For some parents, these new approaches make the decision to send a child to camp a little easier.

Allergies and Medications: With the rise in allergies, camps have responded in a couple of ways. Some camps have moved to a peanut free environment to eliminate the risk completely. (So much for those kids who used to go away to camp and live off of peanut butter and white bread as an alternative to the hot meals!) There are even gluten-free camps for kids with Celiac disease. Many camps are relying heavier on outside companies to package camper medications in daily dosages and then send them to the camp for distribution. With so many children on “meds” these days, shoring up camp medication policies has been a focus for many camps.

A Camp within a Camp: You still want the feel of a traditional summer camp, but you want your child to improve their horsemanship, tennis backhand, or make the school basketball team in the fall. There is a movement in summer camps toward specialty camps WITHIN traditional camp settings. With so many camps in the United States and parents researching camps by search engine, camps must differentiate themselves in ways that they never have before. In addition, parents are looking for specialized programming at a younger age. To meet this demand, you can find specialties such as culinary arts, fencing, science, foreign language, horseback, tennis or golf within a traditional camp session. Circus Arts has become the “new gymnastics” and so popular that camps are spending thousands (maybe millions) of dollars erecting trapeze courses and tight ropes and indoor pavilions dedicated to this "high-flying" activity. Circus Arts gives kids a safe, “extreme” sport, while giving them impressive new abilities and teaching them an original form of creative or performing arts. Where gymnastics appeals only to girls, circus arts gives co-ed camps a leg up in attracting boys as well.

Specialty Camps: If parents weren’t campers themselves, they might not know the benefits of a long-term, traditional camp experience. In addition, many parents feel the need to fit in as much as possible during the summer, not unlike the year-round focus to shuttle kids from one after school program to another. Therefore, specialty camps have sprung up all over the place in offerings such as rock music, creative writing, aviation, sports broadcasting, skateboarding or robotics. Specialized programs in the culinary arts have also become more and more popular. And, of course, there are specialty camps for almost every sport, whether your child is trying to build an interest in a particular sport or trying to perfect a sport for a fall tryout.

Enrichment programs: For many years, there have been pre-college programs for high school kids, but more recently there has been a rise in enrichment programs for younger kids. Starting in 4th grade, a child could spend 1 – 6 weeks in an enrichment program where they would live at a boarding school or college campus in a dorm room, eat in a community dining hall, take classes of special interest, participate in recreational activities and take part in organized field trips. The type of “academics” the kids are exposed to in an enrichment program is far different from the rigor of the school year: how often does an AP track kid get to take a workshop in Lego engineering or the Science of Superheroes? Unusually these programs allow both for the child who needs remedial coursework to help with a learning deficit or a challenge course to supplement a different child’s quest for knowledge.