How many camps/activities do you have your child in for the summer? - Page 3

[marybethorama]

Originally Posted by nancy926

Well....I think it's one thing if kids have done scheduled stuff and not enjoyed it, and another thing if they THINK they won't enjoy it but have never done it. I think claiming not to like something you have never done is fear talking..

My kids have tried scheduled stuff and they didn't care for it.

[Katie Bugs Mama]

Kate's going to three one-week camps: one at a local art college and two at a local museum. They are full-day programs, and one over closest friends from school is also enrolled. She will also have her regular 30 minute piano lesson. (Between our travel plans and her teacher's, this will probably only boil down to once very couple of weeks -- just enough to keep her from losing what she's learned.)

Beyond that, our summer is pretty free-form. I'll do four half-days a week babysitting swapping with the mother of another one of her good friends, and we'll spend a lot of time at the pool. We'll also continue to make our regular rounds to libraries, museums, and playgrounds.

[sunny*pa*mom]

None here. My kids are 2 and 4. The 4 y/o was in preschool for 5 hrs/wk this year and I can't wait to have him home all summer. We'll do lots of family fun stuff altogether.

[Mere]

DD (6.5) proclaimed that she did not want to do any camps or classes this summer, and that she just wanted to play outside . Ds1 (4) is not into structured activities of any kind, so that is not even a temptation.

[aussiemum]

My kids don't do summer activities. Summer is for family & for travelling south. We avoid the heat that time of year.

However, after March, we do lots of week-day 'stuff' in the non-summer time. DS plays soccer & trains twice a week, DD does horse-riding once a week & trains for athletics twice a week. But all that stops about October or so.....

[pigpokey]

Originally Posted by Zach'smom

Some friends of mine think I am nuts, since I don't have him signed up for more camps and sports, etc. Am I really being selfish by planning lots of things that I can be involved in too???

Ah, what? I don't even know why anyone would think that wasn't enough or that there is some wonderful benefit to waiting around in a line for 3 hours out of a 6 hour day camp day. My kids are on swim team 6 and unders group. I would have to time it but I would estimate that 50% of practice is waiting in a line. I can only imagine what a tennis day camp would look like.

Of course some day camp is fun if the kid is psyched ...

My kids are going to swim for their pool this year which means practice 3x a week and one swim meet a week through the very beginning of July. DD, an older 4, wants to dance on Saturdays at a school that will run classes back to back with small breaks from 10-1. Seems like plenty to me ... we'll be all over the pools, woods, tennis courts, and summer concert series.

[mumm]

Originally Posted by jen in co

My DD will go to a soccer camp for one week (5 days, 9-11:30), an adventure camp (5 days, 9-2:30) and we'll be going on a family vacation to the west coast to visit family in OR at the end of July. We have a short summer this year (9 weeks), so besides that, we're just going to do swim and tennis lessons (super cheap - 8 sessions for $20) at our local neighborhood pool as we feel like it. We have memberships to the zoo and science center, so I'm sure we'll go there too.

I don't think we even have any one hour events for under $20!

We are ging into our most scheduled summer ever! 7 year old has 3 weeks of school camp (academic stuff-chemistry, physics, and drawing) and a week of arts camp. They are morning only. 5 year old has one week of nature camp at a museum and a week of the same art class as big bro. Again mornings only.

So- 4 kids X 10 weeks= 40 weeks of summer with 6 of the weeks mornings accounted for! Total cost- $1300

[veganf]

We haven't paid for everything yet, but so far we're just doing once a week soccer at the Y for the 5yo, and a 6 week, once per week camp with a teacher from preschool for the 4yo, and possibly a class at the Y for the 1yo. So that'll probably come to $300-400 total.

[phathui5]

Nothing. In fact, if we end up watching his friends over their school's summer break, we'll do even less than during the "school" year. (We homeschool)

[A&A]

we've really cut back on our summer activities this year because I just don't want to be driving that much.

[BAU3]

My 10 yo will be going to camp for 7 weeks... thats 7 weeks he's GONE...its not a day camp.. This is his 3rd year and he absoluutley loves it. It is only 5 miles from our home and run by a family who also teach at our school.

My 7 yo will play t-ball and try some of the classes offered by our art center.. they have tie dye tuesdays , wildlife wed. etc.. for 10 bucks per class. also a rainy mondays class. He's not at all like his big bro when it comes to organized activities, tho.

4 yo goes to story hour at the library on fridays. they have six week sessions of that, which we're about halfway through right now.. but other than that we go to the river and swim, take wlks and play most of the time.

i try to exposed them to whats available and let them take the lead...

[chinaKat]

My kids are going to day camp for two hours a day (10-12) M-F at the YMCA. I am STOKED. It's going to give us enough structure to our day that we get out the door in the morning, but I'll get them back in time for lunch every day. Then we have the entire afternoon to do whatever we please (the only other thing that's vaguely scheduled in is we pick up our CSA share at the farm Monday afternoons, but that's always fun). And *I* get two hours a day to myself to exercise and read. I absolutely can't wait... and the kids are looking forward to it too. WHOO HOO!

[jeca]

DS is going away to sllepaway camp again for a week, That's all he's doing this summer. oldest D will do a soccer camp, and a daycamp at the Y, youngest DD will also do a Y camp.

[Lady Madonna]

Both DD and DS will continue at their preschool two days a week over the summer.

DD will have ballet once a week, and DS will have parent/child gym once a week. DD won't have her usual gymnastics but will have two separate one-week gym camps, Mon-Wed-Fri afternoons (one in June and one in July). And DD will have a swimming lesson if I can get her enrolled.

It seems like a lot, written out like that, but it's really not compared to what some kids around here do. DD will start kindergarten in the fall, so we're taking it pretty easy this summer.

[SunRise]

My 5.5 year old son is signed up a month of swim lessons at the outdoor pool near my house. (5 days a week for 4 wks - 1/2 hour a day)

I also want to get him into this cute local french camp (singing/crafts/outdoor exploration) - 1 week; 3 hour mornings.

He may take a couple of violin lessons in July (he does this in the fall.winter)

He does soccer now, which runs to the end of June.

I may sign him up for a week of tennis, or golf or an art camp ... depending on his interest.

Other then that ... play at the park, beach and lots of biking (and some cartoons). And we are going away for 3 weeks.

[BurnsideMommy]

Well typically we sign them up for like 1 activity and then the rest we do family stuff together or just whatever.

However, Austin really likes activities. Thrives on them. He's homeschooled (1st grade in fall), so I don't have to 'worry' about him being gone all day come fall - in fact I'll get more of a 'break' this summer than I will the rest of the year. Kiki never gets to do activities cause I always have her brothers, so I'm glad for them to have some camps to go to so I can do stuff with her too.

So Kiara is signed up for soccer and gym class with me.

Hunter has swim lessons with Austin since we have access to a nice pool for free every day - this is important to me. Hunter also has gymnastics once a week - they did gym in Canada when we were up there with my mom and LOVED it. He also has a montessori arts class, and they're in theater together. He's also doing a nature class and soccer. Aside from swim & gym, they're only one week things, 2 or 3 hours a day. So we don't have too much actually going on each week even though it sounds like it.

Austin has lots to do. Something 4 days of the week from June to August. I think it'll be fun for him, but not something he could keep up with year round - but this way he gets a good feel for what he wants to sign up for come fall. I'm kinda worried about him being gone like 4 or 4.5 hours a day though. That's way more than I'm ever gone from him.

He has (not all at once mind you!)
Swim, soccer, safety town, nature class, theater, montessori arts, vacation bible school, sports camp, junior beavers, science and engineering camp, violin, gymnastics and the reading program at the library. He's just finished Awana this month, next month he finished tball. He starts soccer and football in the fall as well as awana again.

I find I'm more likely to stay home all the time - which is not great for the kids, especially since we're homeschooling. So keeping them doing something outside the house forces me to go out, otherwise they'll end up being unsocialized nerds (like their mama?!). Part of me is excited for all they want to do, the other part is sad that we have so much structure and can't just take off for the beach when we feel like it. We'll be back to more carefree come Sept though.

[nancy926]

Well, since my last post I discovered a four-day, one-hour-a-day "nature" session for preschoolers at our local school. It's run by a friend of a friend and DD said she'd be willing to give it a try. It's free, so if she just can't take being without Mom or Dad for an hour, no $ lost if she changes her mind.

She also said she would like to take swimming lessons! Go figure. Sign ups are next week and we're going to coordinate it so she and a friend of hers are in the same class. That's 30 min a day, 5 days a week for 2 weeks -- then she could take the next level class if she wanted to.