I always did as a kid, starting at the age of 8. But I went to camp in my dad’s hometown so family was nearby in case of emergency, and my dad grew up in rural PA where camps were significantly cheaper than the ones all my other NYC friends went to.
Now that I’m raising two more NYC kids, I totally get why my parents sent me away to camp there. Currently sending my oldest to the cheapest local day camp I can find (through his school) and it’s still not that cheap.
Yes. I LOVED camp. I went to several week-long sessions every summer at a church camp from late elementary through early high school. I wish my camp had full summer sessions- i would have been there in a heartbeat. This was also upstate ny/adirondacks and a church camp, so probably less expensive than other overnight fancy camps.
I’d love for my kids to go to camp too,but idk how many there are around here or if other kids do it. Plus hcol-not sure if it would even be feasible for us (MD/DC area). My older would probably be nervous at first but love it once he let himself have fun. Younger would jump right in.
No, my mom was a teacher and she was off in the summers. She would take us to the beach club to play with our friends. We had a pool, ocean, game room and snack bar. We basically played all day while our moms hung out lol. I didn’t know anyone who did sleep away camp either.
DS goes to daycare but they do a summer camp program where he has a field trip once a week and they have special events each week - special visitors, Italian ice truck comes to the school, etc. he’s 5 and that’s about what i am comfortable and with at his age.
Post by goldengirlz on Jul 7, 2019 12:12:03 GMT -5
Sleepaway camp was huge where I grew up — Northeast Jews, as mentioned above (my siblings and most of my classmates went every year) — but neither H nor I had any interest in it and we both adjusted to college just fine.
DD wants to go and I think we may try it next year. It doesn’t seem as big out here so I don’t feel compelled to do it, but I think it would be good for her. It’s SO expensive here though, and of course she wants the most expensive one.
I went every summer from like 5th grade to end of HS. A typical camp at a lake that was centered around horses (one summer did that for 40 days), running camps at U of O, rowing camp in Portland, church camp. So so so much fun.
I do not think they are necessary for kids, but they are definitely great for helping independence.
like the rest of the northeastern Jews, I started going to short sleep away camp in 3rd grade and by 5th grade was going 4 weeks at a time. During that period it was free because my mom was the camp nurse. However, then we switched to a Jewish summer camp that was between 4-7 weeks long and it was REALLY expensive. My grandmother paid for it because it was important to her that we went--we were third generation campers.
We became camp counselors there after we were campers. It has been 15 years since I was working at that camp and I am still close with those camp friends. I hope my son will go in the future, but I have no idea how we will afford it.
I went to Girl Scout camp one summer when I was 8 or 9. I remember being homesick at first but settled in pretty quickly. I only remember good things from it and I definitely made friends fast. However, I only went one year so maybe I didn't really like it that much at the time or perhaps it was the cost that kept me from going back. I have no idea.
I don't see DD ever wanting to go to camp. Even if she wanted to I'm not sure I would send her. They are expensive and she does very poorly in the heat. I think she would be absolutely miserable. We would also rather use that money and spend it on a yearly family trip. Never say never of course but I don't see it happening here.
DD has a few friends that go every year. They go to super religious camps though so hard pass on that.
Never. I guess it would have been fun, but my parents could not afford it.
I was pretty independent as a teenager. Got a job at 15 and worked most of my high school career. I was 100% ready to move out when I went to college and never really homesick when I went away for college at all.
I will add that part of it is that Florida sucks in the summer. So getting them out of the state and into somewhere with nice summers means they play out doors and enjoy themselves more.
I grew up in the Northeast but nobody in my social circle went to summer camp. I only really knew about them because of TV sitcoms. Then I went to a college with a big Jewish population and at that point I found out how popular camps were. They joked that their intro line when meeting someone is “so what camp did you go to?”.
I think it would be cool to send my girls to one, but not sure if they are popular in the south, as I never hear anyone talking about them here.
A lot of DS' friends went to sleepaway camp this summer. I looked at a few, and I don't think we'll ever be able to afford it. We struggle to pay for 3 days a week of day camp (he goes to my mom's the other two days a week). Neither H nor I ever went as kids.
I heard a radio segment about it, all the benefits, helping kids become independent, less likely to be homesick if/when they go away to college (homesickness hit me HARD), etc.
Just wondering if I'm scarring my child for life for not sending him, LOL.
I never did it as a kid because I hate everything about "camping."
But we started sending my boys last year.
Most of the sleep away camps near us are $$$, but we found one through a local boys and girls club that's crazy affordable.
We're members, so as members it's $175 for 10 days. If you're not a member, it's $350 for 10 days, so still super affordable. Our local YMCA also does a fairly affordable week-long camp for around $500. Maybe look into those options if you decide you want to try it for next summer.
I did not, but I totally wanted to. But all of my parent's extra money went into the family cabin that we had when I was a kid, so I can't fault them for not sending us.
My parents actually met each other at summer camp! They both went to and worked at a camp when they were teenagers, but my mom told me that the only reason she was able to go to the camp was that it only cost her parents ONE DOLLAR to send her.
We're looking into sending the kids to a YMCA camp for a week or two in future summers, with some friend's kids that would also like to go. I would really love for them to have the experience if we can afford to do it.
I grew up in the Northeast but nobody in my social circle went to summer camp. I only really knew about them because of TV sitcoms. Then I went to a college with a big Jewish population and at that point I found out how popular camps were. They joked that their intro line when meeting someone is “so what camp did you go to?”.
I think it would be cool to send my girls to one, but not sure if they are popular in the south, as I never hear anyone talking about them here.
There are a ton in North Carolina!
I went to one in NC and most of my friends send their kids to NC, although my kids go to one in Michigan.
I went to various day camps, but had no interest in sleepaway camp. I'd say about half the people I knew went to sleepaway camp. the ones who went loved it, but it was not my thing.
I did some sleep away camps, though apparently I told me parents I didn't like them (I don't recall this). My older one is very excited to go and my younger one is on the fence. I will say that all the camps we looked at offered aid to families. Camp is very expensive there are certainly families that have more modest backgrounds. We looked at one camp that was only $1000 more than our daycamp for the whole summer which is less than 150 extra per week of summer. For us it would have been close to the same as daycamp once we figured food and other activities my kid wasn't doing.
No camp for me because there was no money for summer activities. As children of first generation Asian immigrants in the NE, the only people I knew who went to any kind of overnight "camp" were the ones who lived in NJ and got into Governor's School which was the right price of free. We had moved to WNY by the time I would have been eligible but I probably wouldn't have been accepted anyways.
A few months ago, my husband's friends from Westchester (NY) came over. The wife grew up in the same town in WNY as me. She was talking about summer activities for her 7 year old and her conversation went like this "Camp, camp, camp, money, budget, when I was a kid and went to camp, money, etc." And I was like "we went to high school in the same town and I did not know anyone who went to camp. I still don't really know any MOOKs who send their kids to camp." That's when she explained it was a Jewish thing and I was like oooooh. Now it makes sense why I'm seeing grad-school & professional colleagues on FB who are Jewish and don't know each other dropping their kids off at the same camps. I looked up one of the camps and it is $12K for the summer. Not sure if I will want to spend that. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
I think there's a difference between sleepaway camp and some of the other camp options. I went to a church camp, and there was a middle school camp week at my school, in high school I went to a summer honors music camp that was several weeks, and was selected for a leadership camp - but I never went to a "summer camp" in the sense of a weeks long stay in a compound in the woods with color wars or camp fire singalongs.
I grew up in NorCal and it was not a common activity. We did science camp in 6th grade that was the closest thing to it (away for 3 days or something).
Yes. And that’s day camp, per child. But we need full-day 8-6 care. We budget about $8000 for the summer. But we were paying significantly more for year-round daycare before this.
In a weird way, this actually makes me feel really good. lol
When DS1 goes to K next year, I was planning on setting aside the first 3 months of daycare tuition for summer. That will give us $4500 for just him. To know that we can reasonably just do that going forward for each kid and ensure we have the right amount for them to be cared for *and* get to do some fun activities and camps is great.
In a weird way, this actually makes me feel really good. lol
When DS1 goes to K next year, I was planning on setting aside the first 3 months of daycare tuition for summer. That will give us $4500 for just him. To know that we can reasonably just do that going forward for each kid and ensure we have the right amount for them to be cared for *and* get to do some fun activities and camps is great.
Not knowing the COL where you are, that sounds right to me. In-school childcare hasn’t been quite the windfall I expected with aftercare and summer. But summer is fun and as they get older I’ve learned ways to be creative so that not every week is on the high end.
I'm in Denver, so, I don't know, M-HCOL? I just looked up some camp options just to see and there's one through our locals parks and rec department that would be about $2700 for 12 weeks of full time care (7a-6p). The overnight camp that a friend sends his kid to is a little over $500 for a week. So I feel like we can pretty easily do summer care for them for around $3k per summer per kid, including a week of overnight camp. Compared to the over $40k a year we spend on child care now, $6k feels pretty good to me.
I did go to sleep away camp growing up for two weeks every summer and it was really great. I’m planning on sending my kids for a week next year but my Dad has offered to pay for it!
isabel not sure which district you are in but we are in CCSD and the summer camp at their school runs $32-40 or so a day. Higher price is when they go on a field trip. My kids love it.
Post by estrellita on Jul 10, 2019 20:23:34 GMT -5
I never went. I did partial day camp type things during the summers while my mom worked part time and one of them had one night in a tent but that was it. But my sister is also 8.5 years older than me so she babysat me a lot during the summer! Oh, I did go to a church camp thing in high school if that counts. It was at a college campus and less than a week I think.
I will say I felt a little lost when I went to college and there were some parts that were tough, but I was excited for the independence. I think living in the dorms was a good transition, as much as it sucked to have a roommate in such a small room!
I did go to sleep away camp growing up for two weeks every summer and it was really great. I’m planning on sending my kids for a week next year but my Dad has offered to pay for it!
isabel not sure which district you are in but we are in CCSD and the summer camp at their school runs $32-40 or so a day. Higher price is when they go on a field trip. My kids love it.
This is through South Suburban Parks & Rec. We're in Littleton. I'm not sure what camps cost through the school, but that's actually a little cheaper than the SSPR camp that I was looking at. I've got some time; DS1 doesn't get out of K until May 2021. But I'm really happy to know that there are affordable options. I'm glad you guys have had a good experience with the school camp, that's encouraging.
Post by Shreddingbetty on Jul 11, 2019 23:37:25 GMT -5
Yes I did. All XH kids went to camps as did he and his mom and his nieces. My kid is on her second year of sleep away camp in France this year. And yes I feel fortunate that we can do this and I absolutely feel that it is a good experience for her but I also don’t think that if you kid doesn’t that he or she will be scarred for life. I have a young friend who never went to sleep away camp (which is very common in France that kids go to camp from a young age) and she is a very well rounded young lady who now in her 20s has traveled all over the world and has had lots of cool experiences and it is all on her own dime (work travel visas and now that she is in the process of doing a masters in teaching French as a foreign language and she is doing internships in the Ukraine and Thailand and who knows where she will end up. And there are also kids who had a privileged life with fancy camps and are spoiled little jerks. Do you have a YMCA camp near you. We have one here and I know they have scholarships available for those who cannot afford it. A few of DD’s friends have gone and loved it. It is a really good mix of kids of all backgrounds