Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Epsilon Math Camp - experiences?

Hi all,

I have heard about the Epsilon Math Camp for younger kids and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it? If so, would you share your thoughts?

DS will be 10 and is strong in math and science. I am looking at various options, but he isn't ready to be away from home for 3 weeks on his own yet. The Davidson program would have been a nice fit, since it is short, but our schools do not let out until late June.

Any other options we should consider. I am looking at some of the SIG/CTY day camps as well. My only concern is that in our experience, the GT program at the local college really was not very challenging. He enjoyed it somewhat, but felt like he had already covered much of the material, and I fear the CTY programs would be similar (although one option would be to encourage him to take a class that isn't in math/science). All thoughts appreciated.

Cat

I'm not familiar with the Epsilon camp. We've had some challenges with our ds and summer camps -we don't have any gifted-specific camps for kids here until they reach middle-high school, and we're far away from any of the Davidson/CTY/etc camp locations (with a ds who has no desire to do an away-overnight-etc experience). What's worked best for our ds is to find him camps that are outside the traditional school academic subjects, so that he's exposed to new, creative, different ideas. Not necessarily intellectually challenging, but the newness of the material spurs his creative brain to new ideas which keeps him happy and occupied

He's also been doing a bit of online college-course video viewing after school this fall and enjoying that too.

polarbear

DS8 attended Epsilon Camp last summer and we plan to have him attend again this summer as a 9 year old. He absolutely loved it. The math was almost all new to him (Euclidean geometry and proofs) which he thought was great! The camp is 2 weeks and parents have to stay overnight with the kids...it is not a sleep-away camp. DS's comment was that he learned more in a day than he learned all year in school.

He also attended SIG last year and the year before (day camp) and he liked it, but it was not challenging the way epsilon was.

Kate

Epsilon was a fabulous experience for kids who really love math. It would not be a good fit for a child who is not REALLY passionate about math. It would also not be a good fit for a child who is not ready to sit through 5+ hours of math a day in a lecture hall. Kids really need to have the emotional maturity/self control to be able to sit through five college-style classes a day. The instructors are university professors; they are not elementary/secondary teachers, and they do not have the classroom management skills of a schoolteacher. Kids who aren't able to self regulate in that environment are probably not great candidates for it.

It was a very intense camp, and I think most of the kids who went had an incredible experience. I do think it's important to recognize that there is not a lot of free time. The schedule last year was lectures 9-12, lunch 12:30-1, free time (or supervised lawn time) 1-3, lectures 3-5, dinner 5:30-6, and professor "office hours" and homework help (there were about 5 homework assignments) 6:15-7. Many evenings there was a 7:00 math activity (e.g. movie or origami). The amount and intensity of the activities was really invigorating for most of the kids, but it was also very tiring!

With all of those caveats, though, for kids who really love math, it's an incomparable experience for that age group. We've never found anything else that's even close to it.

Can some one tell me about the accommodations, location, and whether any younger siblings were present? I am considering it seriously, but it would be our family vacation as well. Add that to the cost and I would want to be sure it is a good fit for my son and our family.

DS9 (will be 10 by camp) is in 4th in public school. He goes up to 7th grade honors level math (in our district it is pre-algebra and beginning algebra). He is still getting an A+, but is now seeing new material, so is generally happy (and has a fantastic teacher). He doesn't have a problem meeting Epsilon's eligibility requirements. He has no problem paying attention (as long as he is interested) and has no behavior problems - gets along fine with the older kids as well as kids his age.

On the other hand, while he does loves math (devours Life of Fred and Murderous Maths books and does Alcumus for fun), he doesn't live and breath it either -- he has a lot of other interests as well - including some deep interests in science (and Minecraft ). He likes learning new things, but also likes his down time. Also, since he is in school all day, I try to encourage him to do non-academic things when he is out of school - sports, games, art, etc. to the extent he wishes.

Hmmm...

The web page http://www.epsiloncamp.org is currently giving me a This Account Has Been Suspended message, and apart from your (I assume) question, there'd been no activity on the FB page since March. I have to wonder whether this camp still exists...?

[ETA it's up again the next day. Looks good, although there's very little mathematical info and I'd have liked enough to assure myself that they'll be taught by people who know their stuff! I was tempted to wonder whether we should apply next year, until I noticed that they require a full IQ test report. (Both cost and not wanting such a label-number puts me off doing that; DS should surely qualify but I'd resent having to ask the q...although I understand their PoV. Hmm.)]

It worked for me last night, but you're right, it's not working now.

I think most of the kids at camp have a lot of other interests, too. But, like Nan said above, it is all day of sitting in a college lecture hall. The breaks are pretty short: the kids would play a little soccer, throw paper airplanes around, play chess, or read during them. They eat lunch and dinner together. After dinner there are "office hours" where there is more math. Electronic games/computers (ie: minecraft) are prohibited even in the dorm during free time (what little free time there is.)

We went expecting to make it a family vacation, too, but didn't have time for anything other than camp. This year, the in between weekend will be open, so we plan to go to Rocky Mountain Natl Park for the weekend...we had tried driving there for a day trip last summer and it was too much from Colo Spgs.

We do not have a second child, but the people who did utilized the day care so that a parent could attend the parent classes.

If you have other questions, let me know! Kate

The camp is taught by college professors who definitely know their stuff. They are EXTREMELY enthusiastic about teaching the young kids. Every time I thanked one of them for doing the camp, they replied that it was their honor or privilege to be able to interact with the young math minds. The down side of having college professors teach is that they are used to college kids sitting still in a lecture hall. They had a bit of a problem, especially the first few days, of keeping the kids in line. There was some chanting, some boys-against-girls chatter, some call-outs, etc that I don't think the professors knew what to do about. As parents, we recommended more aides in the classroom to deal with those, so hopefully the camp will provide those this summer. So even if a child is normally well-behaved, s/he might join in with the silliness that someone else started, making the class a bit chaotic!

It's good to hear that that was your experience. Before laying out thousands of dollars on going to such a thing, though, I'd want names, personally. Not all college professors are equal, and not all are reliable guides to the subject*; sometimes, organisers of events for children put enthusiasm so far above expertise that accuracy suffers.

*I am one, that's how I know ;-)