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Posted By: Anonymous Family Camps/Vacations - 02/20/12 10:48 PM
There are lots of great programs for older kids, but I'm looking for something for younger kids and the whole family. It doesn't have to be for gifted kids per se, but should involve people who are intellectually engaged. We don't have IQ scores so PG Retreat and Davidson Summit don't work. Ideas so far include Concordia Language Villages, Y nature/environmental ed family camps, or things from http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/family_expeditions.htm

Does anyone have a program they have done and highly recommend?

thx,
-c
Posted By: intparent Re: Family Camps/Vacations - 02/21/12 01:36 AM
Lol, my 16 year old daughter just commented today that our vacations are not like anyone else's! Not a program... but we have made sort of an art out of weeks or long weekends in various cities/parts of the country where we ferret out the art museums, science museums, aquariums, arboretums, planetariums, battlefields and historical sites, etc. We have done stuff like visit Fermilab, then go to the other end of the experiment where they are sending neutrinos through the ground to the underground (in a mine shaft) physics lab where they collect them. We visit places like Goddard Space Center, and smaller art museums in cities like DC. My older D is a foodie, so she makes sure we eat well. D16 was just complaining that we can't see the Rodin museum when we are in Philadelphia in a few weeks because it is closed -- "then we will have to go back to Phili some other time!" I recently found myself daydreaming about a family trip to Europe so we can go to CERN -- but that might be a bit much. smile

We use TripAdvisor a lot to review activities in cities and get ideas for things to do. It does take some planning, but we are all happiest when feeding our intellects, and my kids love these vacations. Sometimes we go for a planned vacation for a week, and sometimes we tack it onto something else (camp pickup, etc.).

Concordia Language Villages are a great family idea, we don't live too far away. My kids went and loved it, although we have never done a family stay there. I did parent/child space camp with my oldest several years ago, and we loved that.
Posted By: DeHe Re: Family Camps/Vacations - 02/21/12 05:34 PM
Originally Posted by intparent
We have done stuff like visit Fermilab, then go to the other end of the experiment where they are sending neutrinos through the ground to the underground (in a mine shaft) physics lab where they collect them. We visit places like Goddard Space Center, and smaller art museums in cities like DC. My older D is a foodie, so she makes sure we eat well. D16 was just complaining that we can't see the Rodin museum when we are in Philadelphia in a few weeks because it is closed -- "then we will have to go back to Phili some other time!" I recently found myself daydreaming about a family trip to Europe so we can go to CERN -- but that might be a bit much. smile

.

I am right there with you laughing - I just read your post and said, cool we can go to Fermilab, and went and looked it up!!!

DeHe
Posted By: onthegomom Re: Family Camps/Vacations - 02/21/12 06:14 PM
thank you. This is great reference. It's so cool to find a listing of books to go along with travel.
Posted By: barbarajean Re: Family Camps/Vacations - 02/21/12 07:09 PM
I believe this program has many projects throughout the year. I have not read through all this info yet, but I thought that I would pass this link about a family dinosaur dig this summer.

http://www.projectexploration.org/adventures/sereno-dinosaur-expedition.htm



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