Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Summer camps?

I'm wondering what people will do with their kids for the summer. Any interesting camps?

My dd11 just got word that she was accepted for Yunasa West this summer . Now we just need to apply for financial aid to see if we can make it work economically.

In years past, we have tried a few academically focused camps that were geared specifically toward gifted kids. Those have been hit and miss -- probably more misses for my dd13. What we've found with her is that she is usually a bit more atypical than the group the GT camps are aiming to serve so they don't necessarily wind up being great fits academically and no better of a fit socially than anything else.

She's doing one academic camp this summer that is geared toward kids mostly finishing 10th & 11th grades. Since she's a 9th grader and grade skipped, she'll probably be one of the youngest so we're hoping that will fit better (she often feels more rapport with older kids) and hopefully the academics will be a good fit as well for the same reasons.

Both of my girls have also applied for a music camp. One plans to go with a theatre program there and the other orchestra b/c she plays an instrument.

How old is your ds again? We've found that the opportunities get a lot better as they get older.

Our 9 year old son has some offerings, finally! Our local university has 4 weeks of astronomy and robotics, so I signed him up for that. Then just sports camps, a cooking class, swim team... Not much for my 7 year old son- mostly sports camps!
When he was 5, I signed him up for "Fairy camp." I thought it would be a magical, Harry Potter kind of experience. My husband picked him up and said there were 20 little girls in tutus with magic wands and him! So no more Fairy Camp!

Camp of Mom for us. Nothing interesting in our area, and DD is not ready for sleep-away camp.

A few 1/2 day morning art and nature camps spread out over the weeks at two places I know that are good w/ DD, public pool or backyard sprinkler in the afternoon, enjoying the garden, local sites or festivals if they are cheap and interesting, farmers' market, ...maybe a road trip at the end of the summer. Reading all those books she won't read during the school year (such as some nice classics) because the other kids aren't reading them. No sleep-aways here yet either.

We've had a few good experiences at iD Tech Camps and their iD Teen Academies. Students can learn programming, app development, robotics, engineering and more. It all depends on age - iD Tech Camps is for 7-17 (weeklong programs) and iD Programming Academy and others are Teen-only and are 2-weeks. They are located across the country. Good luck!

We will spend our summer swimming and I think I want to do some work with my kids in writing. And we always take advantage of fun library activities and parks and rec activities. I would like to do some fun hikes too but it is too darn hot in the summer to do it when we have the time. We may take some day trips to historical sites.

Swim, tennis, sailing, eco-beach, horseback riding, back to tennis. DD goes to morning camps, a week or 2 doing this, then that. Summer is activity time and we live at the beach. Time to be a kid and take walks through the conservation area with the dog after dinner.