Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy camp - comfortable vs challenging

So I am beginning to think about summer camp options for my dd8. She would prefer a camp which does lots of academic stuff - reading, spelling, math etc. Naturally, these are things she is good at. I can certainly find those kinds of camps for her (seems like there is a camp for just about everything) but part of me feels like perhaps we should use the camp experience for her to work on things she is not so good at (i.e. anything athletic). Wondering what others think about this. I have been able to canoodle her into a few weeks of yoga in the past, and I might be able to persuade her to do something like fencing or archery... but if she had her preference, well, she would just sit around the house and read all day.

We don't think of camps as something our DD9 needs to work on skills, but we do see them as an opportunity to be exposed to something she wouldn't ordinarily encounter, to broaden her horizons.

For example, we've allowed DD to attend religious retreats. We have no religious beliefs, but we feel it's important for DD to understand the perspectives of those who have them.

You might look into Girl Scout camp, if you have one near you. She won't be able to sit around and read all day, but they generally have some down time built into the day where she would be able to read, and no one will mind if she's not good at anything - she'll still get to try stuff. It's been great for my daughter.

Yeah, we have always treated summer activities as opportunities to "explore" very different things-- some of them well outside of DD's sphere of competence, and some of them inside it, but a mix of things.

My DD is also a reading fiend and an introvert, so pretty much ANY outside activity can fulfill some of those goals. LOL.

We always looked at summer camp as an outlet for fun and a chance to learn something new, as well as a chance to meet new friends. By the time my kids were 8, they had some very definite opinions about which type of camps they wanted to go to and which they had no interest in, so we tried our best to send them where they wanted to go rather than force them into something they didn't think they would like. Sending them to a camp, particularly a sports camp, that they didn't want to go to, would have been an absolute disaster as well as a wasted week when they could have been doing something they enjoyed. OTOH, one of our dds in particular has always been hesitant to try new things, so if we felt that the lack of excitement over a specific camp was due more to that and felt like once she was there she would be interested, we did sign her up for a few camps over the years that she initially said "no" to and it worked out great - but it worked because we were sending her to a place where we knew she'd enjoy what she was doing once she was there and that her initial trepidation was all about it being a place/camp she hadn't been to before. It wouldn't ever have worked with any of my kids to send them to a camp purposely to work on things they aren't naturally good at and/or didn't want to do.

What we have done though, re sports, is to be sure our kids have at least one sport year-round (the sport can change) that they are participating in some way (participating by yourself counts as long as you're doing it regularly). Only one of my 3 is naturally in love with sports and self-motivated (for her, we have to limit what sports she wants to participate in lol). For my other two, we let them try different sports - sometimes *with* us (parents), sometimes with friends, sometimes just something they thought up themselves. The key wasn't to find a sport they would eventually be "good" at, but to find a sport they had fun with, and that they could continue having fun with through on into adulthood. It really helped when it was a sport that we parents enjoy too. I'm digressing - but what I'm getting at is, our naturally athletic dd has gone to and enjoyed sports camps. Our not-so-athletically inclined kids have enjoyed getting into sports in groups where you participate once or twice a week over the summer (fall/winter/etc) or through activities we did together as a family.

Since your dd likes academic-type camps, I'd look for something that is more of an exploratory type camp (intellectual but not academic boot camp). It could be a science-related camp, ecology, create a book/film/etc type camp, anything that will involve creative and challenging thinking. My kids have loved the camps offered through our local art & history museums.

One other thing that worked well for us was that our dds like to go to camps where they have friends attending - so we sometimes plan that together with friends.

polarbear

I am not sure if you are talking about daycamp or sleepover. G.S. has wonderful overnight camps, and so does the YMCA. For 8 year olds sleep away camps can be as short as 4 days. Camps have all sorts of themes.

We have many daycamps in my area, including ones runs by my city and others that are more "daycare". Check out your city to see what they have. I personally prefer non academic ones. One problems I have had in finding summer activities is that not all camps publish their summer information at the same time. Some camps (often the more expensive & extensive) information is already out and you need to book by the end of Feb to get a spot. And other sutff like my city's camps & the school summer program aren't available till April.

I have always signed my kids up for camps, trying to make a compromise between sleep away camps (both my kids started with a week around 8), and half-day "fun" camps, and giving them some down time to do nothing. The most academic we ever got were science themed camps.

This year my DS14 will go to the same 2 week wilderness camp he as attended the past two years. Will do the marching band camp for the last two weeks of his summer. Probably won't do the jazz camp he did the last two years, he enjoyed it but the passion/cost ratio isn't there. I was interested in finding a computer programing class for him to take, but his summer is very short and am just thinking of throwing in a family vacation.