Top 10 Tips for Choosing a Summer Camp

It's the middle of February, and most summer camps already have their glossy brochures in the mail and interactive web sites on line. If you're like many parents these days, your preschool-age or older child may never have known a summer without at least one camp to add some interest to and help break up the long 10- to 12-week break.

Camps have responded to this trend with an ever-increasing variety of offerings. If you live in a major metropolitan area, the sheer number of choices can seem overwhelming. So here are 10 tips to help you navigate the daunting process of choosing a camp—or, more likely, series of camps—for your child this summer.

1. Ask yourself whether your child really wants or needs to go to camp. This may sound obvious, but with today's rushed and overscheduled lives, sometimes we're on autopilot when it comes to activity scheduling. Some kids may have no desire to attend camp and be perfectly capable of entertaining themselves for the entire summer.


2. Think about your goals for camp. Are you just looking for a fun way to keep your child occupied over the summer, or are there specific things you'd like a camp to accomplish? These could include, for instance, more training in writing, further practice in a particular sport, exposure to a subject not offered during the regular school year, or a structured time for interaction with kids from the neighborhood or your child's school.


3. Figure out how much you want to spend. If you have a limit in place before starting the planning process, you'll be less likely to get carried away by all the great offerings and go overboard.


4. See what's out there. In some geographical areas, there may literally be hundreds of possible courses and activities, so if you have the time, familiarize yourself with what's available. Attending a camp fair is a convenient way to do this, but since some camps won't be there, check on line at places like MySummerCamps.com and with nearby organizations and schools as well. Most local parenting magazines put out summer camp issues, so keep an eye out for those, too.


5. Go through brochures and web sites with your child. School-age children are old enough to have preferences—and a say—in their summer activities. Though you may not be able or want to accommodate every choice your child makes, try to schedule at least one camp he or she is really excited about.


6. Have your child rate all the options. Although the prospect of reading through a huge stack of brochures can be intimidating, spreading the task out over a week or two can make it more manageable. Recycle the brochures of any camps neither of you is interested in, then have your child rate all the "keepers" on a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high).


7. Plot out the options onto a calendar or into a spreadsheet. After you've narrowed down the choices to those either you or your child feels most strongly about, putting them onto a calendar or into a spreadsheet can help you visualize how they stack up and what sorts of compromises you may have to make. A good way to do the former is by jotting down the details of each camp—name, dates, times, cost—on a Post-It(R) and sticking it to the camp's starting date. As you eliminate camps, simply discard the yellow stickies.


8. Talk with other parents. See if their kids have ever gone to the camps you're considering—or, if your child is friends with theirs, explore the possibility of the kids attending a particular camp together.


9. Look for camp reviews on line. In addition to getting input from other parents, check out reviews on line at places like CampRatingz and Epinions.com to see how others have liked the camp.


10. Check for early-bird discounts and cancellation penalties. Many camps offer incentives for signing up early, so if you're able to register far enough in advance to take advantage of these discounts, be sure you don't miss the deadlines. Also, before signing up for a camp, take a close look at any cancellation penalties. For day and enrichment-type camps, these are usually nominal, but be aware that some camps offer no refunds or charge stiff penalties for any changes.

No matter what you decide, keep in mind that when it comes to finding good camps, there's always a big element of luck. Sometimes the best-sounding camp with great reviews turns out to be a dud, while the one that seemed iffy ends up being terrific. A lot depends on the staff, and there's usually no way of knowing in advance who will be there or whether your child will end up with that perfect counselor or teacher.

Ultimately, the best we can do is to choose a camp that sounds good, interests our kids, fits in with our schedules and budgets, and, last but not least, has an acceptable daily commute. By taking the time to think through your goals and research your options, you'll have done what you can to maximize the odds of your child having a fun and rewarding summer camp experience.

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Why Extracurricular Actitivities in Middle School Are Important

Middle school didn't used to be an important time in the extracurricular lives of kids. Even just a generation ago, the focus in middle school was on developing academic and study skills in preparation for high school. And, with all the social and developmental challenges of the middle school years, that was more than enough to keep most kids busy.

Nowadays, though, many children begin serious extracurricular activities in elementary school—or even before. Parents, keenly aware of the competition for college admissions down the road—and often also wanting something to keep their kids "too busy to get into trouble"—start early, filling their children's lives with piano lessons, chess, and (not or) soccer, to name just a few common choices.

Parents' thinly veiled hopes are that their children will, over time, excel at one or more of these activities—or, at the very least, improve their brains and physical condition, making future achievement more likely.

But there is another, much better reason for exposing kids to extracurriculars early: so they can try out a wide variety of activities and see which ones appeal to them. Such experimentation is particularly valuable in middle school because by then, children's mature interests and predilections are beginning to become apparent. Academic pressure is also much less in middle school than it will be later on, so using one's free time to check out the drama club, yearbook, or whatever else is available is considerably easier.

Middle schools vary widely in the quantity and quality of their extracurricular activities, so, if at all possible, parents should closely examine a potential school's offerings when deciding where to enroll their children. Ideally a middle school will offer a broad array of well-structured extracurriculars so that, during these final years before high school, students can try out as many different kinds of activities as possible. This sort of experimentation will provide students with a better sense of what they like and don't like and, ultimately, of who they are as people.