Shelly Cartwright asked:


Hopefully your child will be among the 12 million other kids going to camp this summer. The positive benefits kids gain from a camp experience – such as learning to take responsibility for themselves, making new friends, and building self-confidence and esteem – are well-documented and indisputable.

You don’t want to make a mistake when picking a camp, so here are the top 7 things to consider before you sign on the dotted line.

Make sure your child is ready for camp

Kids develop at certain rates. Some kids are ready for camp before others. If your child is mature, gets along well with others, and is comfortable being separated from you, he or she is probably ready for a camp experience. Otherwise, you might consider waiting a year or two.

Include your child in the decision-making process

It’s been proven time and again: The kids who enjoy camp the most are those who’ve been involved in choosing their own camp. When parents pick a camp without consulting their kids, their kids usually don’t like camp as much.

Check references

One of the biggest mistakes parents make when signing up for camp is not checking references. Always ask the camp director for at least three references, and be sure to follow through on making your calls. If you don’t hear glowing reports from the references, look into other camps.

Only pick a camp with activities your child likes

This one’s easy. If your son wants to learn to surf, send him to a surf camp. If your daughter wants to polish her gymnastics skills, look into a gymnastics camp. Don’t send your surfer kid to cooking camp. Don’t send your daughter who’s obsessed with gymnastics to an archery camp.

Meet the director ahead of time

It’s not a good idea to register for camp sight-unseen. There’s too much potential for something bad to happen. The camp might not be as safe as you thought, the counselors might not be as nice, the director might not be as qualified, and the facilities might not be as clean. So meet the director ahead of time, and/or take a tour of the camp, if possible, before the summer starts. You wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive, so don’t sign up for camp without a test-drive, either.

Choose an ACA Accredited camp

Most parents would not send their kids to a non-accredited school, so why would you send them to a non-accredited camp? Picking a summer camp that’s accredited by the American Camp Association is the ONLY way you can be sure the camp meets or exceeds up to 300 best-practice industry standards relating to child safety and program quality, among others. If you don’t choose an accredited camp, watch out.

Find out the camp’s refund policy

What if your child doesn’t like camp? What if they break their arm before camp starts, or even during camp? What if something unexpected happens and you need to drop out? While many camps have no-refund policies, others are more lenient. Make sure you understand the camp’s refund policy in advance and get it in writing. You don’t want to make a finical mistake, especially in this awful economy.

These are the top 7 things to remember when choosing a camp for your child. Summer camp can be one of the most rewarding experiences of a child’s life when you pick the right program.



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Mari milian asked:

Summer is here. What better way to enjoy the summer than go on a camp. Students of all ages, from seven to eighteen or nineteen, love going to camps.  They learn to live away from their families, staying with their people of their age group. They also learn to be independent. This in turn helps in developing their personality. There separate camps for boys and girls, and also coed camps. In a real life situation, a person has to interact with men and women. So, it is a good exposure to send children to coed camps.

Camps have to be chosen according to individual tastes. Some might like academic camps, while some may be interested in fine arts. Still others might be interested in sports. Different camps cater to individual needs according to their age and interests.  When it is a coed camp, some points must be taken into consideration. First, the policies formed by the camp. The type of projects that would they would take up and whether they would work in groups in the various projects. The living quarters should be clean. The amount of interaction between the boys and girls and the length of stay should be taken into account. Care should be given to the security arrangements and the supervision that they get. The number of counselors in ratio to the number of students, hours of curfew and the number of visits allowed by outside persons, should also be known. The safety factor should be given importance. There should trained people knowing first aid and CPR. There should also be hospital nearby.

After all these factors are considered, the type of camp according to individual interest should be chosen. Camp life makes a person more mature and helps them learn to handle difficult situations.

There are different kinds of camps to choose from. There are Academic camps which lay emphasis on educational development. One such camp is Seacamp Association, Inc. Florida.  Sports camps are also popular. One such is ‘Trapeze School New York – Bean Town’, Massachusetts. The participants can learn juggling, fly on the trapeze and other tricks from the circus that comes to town. There are also sports camps giving them coaching in soccer and basketball. There is also one at Pennsylvania, “Sixers”. There is traditional vamp at California called, ‘Camp Ocean Pines’. There is camp for Performing and Fine Arts located at ‘Long Lake Camp for Arts, New York. There is another camp for Performing and Fine Arts at Berkley.

There are also tours for teens with travel such as the iD Tech camps, where there is study abroad program with film making in Spain. This involves staying with a host family. They are exposed to the Spanish language and culture. There are also adventure camps; one such is Sea Trek BVI, British Virgin Islands. There are also cyber camps, where they are taught about computers, computer gaming, web Page Designing. They are located in California, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington.

Some of the camps are Camp Walt Whitman for boys and girls. This is a coed camp in New Hampshire. There is ‘Camp Friendship’ in Central Virginia. They have coed traditional camps and also adventure camps. They have more than fifty activities.

Coed camps are healthy and prepare on to handle real life situations, in addition to enjoyment and socializing. Children and teenagers should be ready to go to camps, especially coed camps. So, why don’t you start now and join a camp today.

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