Are you already planning for summer camp next year, too?

[redheadbaker]

I hate this. The summer camp DS goes to has "preferred re-enrollment" for existing campers between August and October. After October, if any spots remain, they are opened to the waiting list from this year's camp season. If any spots remain after THAT, it opens to the generic public. 

So, I have to figure out NOW how many days a week he will go and for how many weeks of the 9-week season. 

Except he also wants to do a one-week music camp that a local music school does (and we don't know what the themes/weeks will be yet next year). 

The camp has instituted a "change fee," where if you change your schedule after February 15th, there's a fee per day changed. 

[maudefindlay]

No, I've never signed up for a camp that early. It would be so hard to commit that early.

[starburst604]

Ugh, I'd hate that too. I don't know of camps around here that offer enrollment until at least after the first of the year, that's when they'll start sending out early bird discount enrollments and so forth. I immensely hate camp planning in general!

[mrsGreeko]

Yep. I only have one kid who does any camps any more, but he’s already signed up for overnight camp for next summer. And I’ve already booked our plane tickets for our summer trip. The other camp he does releases which weeks it is in January so I will just sign him up for the weeks that work around the other stuff then. I end up with everything planned no later than mid-January. It’s fine, it works out, I have been doing this for a lot of years now. I know I have to schedule things early to make sure things work and it doesn’t last forever, thank goodness. My youngest is about to be 12 so I figure I have at most one or two more years of this level of planning.

[VillainV]

I think most of the camps we send C to start enrolling in Feb or March. It sucks that they want you to commit this far out.

[waverly]

I briefly thought about it, but I don't have to enroll yet. Kids are basically done with the rec day camp. And they liked this summer, so we will do the same camps with a slightly different schedule.

DD- 1 week council GS camp and 1 week local GS camp enrolls in Feb. 2 weeks sleepaway camp enrolls in March, and 1 week soccer camp (up in the air).

DS- 2 weeks sleepaway camp, 1 week soccer camp.  Weekly horseback riding lessons. 

Both go to 5 days at my mom's.  They no longer go to my in-laws because SIL threw a fit about it, even though she doesn't live there and is in no way involved.  She decided to go the "family drama" route, but that is fine because my kids stopped liking going, so I think I am putting a hard stop to even the possibility.  Like if they ask, I will say something like thanks so much, but I think they have unfortunately outgrown this.  Even though that makes no sense since they still go to my moms.  But really in-laws are better with little kids anyway, so it kind of makes sense.  Just trying to avoid SIL as much as possible because she is angry and manipulative.   

[momin2013]

That’s crazy cakes. I need to have all signups done by Feb/Mar each year (which I think is crazy enough), but when the school year has barely started? That’s bonkers.

[redheadbaker]

Aug 25, 2023 15:59:58 GMT -5 momin2013 said:

That’s crazy cakes. I need to have all signups done by Feb/Mar each year (which I think is crazy enough), but when the school year has barely started? That’s bonkers.

Oh, our school year has not started yet. Not til September 5th. 

[momin2013]

Aug 25, 2023 16:00:27 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

Aug 25, 2023 15:59:58 GMT -5 momin2013 said:

That’s crazy cakes. I need to have all signups done by Feb/Mar each year (which I think is crazy enough), but when the school year has barely started? That’s bonkers.

Oh, our school year has not started yet. Not til September 5th. 

Neither has ours! Sept. 6 here - I can’t even imagine thinking about summer camps now!

[Susie]

Oh man, that's rough!  We don't do any fancy or sleep away camps, but most of them have spring sign ups around here.  DD (3rd grade) has been doing summer camp the last few years at the same place where she has after school care during the school year, and they open summer reg. and next school year reg. simultaneously around early May.

We still have a vacation left before school starts on 9/7 so I'm totally not in school/camp planning mode yet.

[niq]

OMG.

The camps I've heard of that do this are multi-week sleepaway camps that have extremely high demand. There are some kids who start going as early as 6 and go every summer, become camp counselors as teenagers, etc.

The Zoo camp here -- which sells out in fifteen minutes -- doesn't open enrollment this early. Everything gets started in January.

[kitty]

Yikes that’s crazy!

I thought it was bad enough that I had to set my alarm to get up at 6am on Feb 1 and book my three kids as fast as possible as its sessions start to immediately fill up lol.

[joy]

Hell yes. Center City Philly, full time job, I need my kid’s care lined up.

[ilikedonuts]

No. I won’t schedule anything until January. I think the overnight camps my friends use they sign up in December.

[macmars45]

The lego camp I send DS(7) to doesn't enroll until May for July & August camps (that's all they offer). I see all the posts here about summer camp enrollment in winter/early spring and I get antsy. :-p

[goldengirlz]

We have to sign up for sleepaway camp here in mid-November. It was drama this year because we paid a shit-ton of (non-refundable) money and then DC got cold feet and decided they didn’t want to go. (We made them and they loved it, but I felt guilty until I got the first happy letter.)

Day camps start enrolling in January. I believe you can cancel through May, but even after that, they’re pretty accommodating if you need to change weeks. A less flexible cancellation policy would annoy me.

[sillygoosegirl]

Wow, that's so annoying! I'm only planning next summer's camps in the sense of interviewing DD about which ones she liked best while it's still fresh in her mind. We just do camps with the local parks department, and their registration is blessedly not until like mid April or so, with a generous refund policy even after that. And while some of the "special" camps fill up quick (STEAM camp filled in like 2 minutes), they are pretty much able to hire enough counselors to meet demand on the "daycare" camps, so even if you are late to sign up, there's basically always an option. (And DD has really liked the daycare camp weeks too.)

[krystee]

Our sleepaway camp is January and rec camp is February. Even that feels early for planning to me!

[sent]

What kind of camp is this?

[devonpow]

Yes - the camp my 11 year old likes has sign ups October 1, and if you aren’t ready on that computer at 8AM you miss out. We usually spent September doing a general summer plan (big family trip these weeks, need to be in town these weeks) and then sign up for camps early October. It’s crazy but it is what it is.

Even now with my almost 17 year old we have to plan next summer early for his work, the sport camp his coach wants him to travel to, etc. I can’t imagine waiting until spring, is think after this long doing crazy camp sign ups I wouldn’t be able to handle waiting that long at all!

[ellipses84]

Our summer day camp sign ups are in early March and the most in demand specialty camps fill up the first day (usually there’s still spots in the basic summer camp at the same site). It’s definitely early so I try to map out our whole summer schedule with vacation, holidays, out of town visitors, etc. so I can sign up for the weeks we definitely need. When the kids were younger I would put a $50/week deposit for weeks I wasn’t sure about because I was willing to lose the deposit to hold the spot. That’s definitely harder to do in the fall when some plans that involve extended family and friends aren’t established yet. This past summer I only had my 7 year old in camp and I didn’t reserve the “maybe” weeks since I have some flexibility to work from home. I regretted it and I think the whole household would have been happier if he’d gone to camp those weeks but we couldn’t get a last minute spot 🫠

[ellipses84]

What is the deposit $?

[sdlaura]

The ymca sleepaway camp my kids have gone to the last two summers gives a $150 per kid discount if you register for next summer by Sept 1. They only go for one week and I have no idea what week we’ll want next summer. However I think they usually let you switch weeks pretty easily, so I’ll just randomly pick one to get the discount and figure out the specifics later.

Most of our camps do registration in March, so that’s when I put together the big spreadsheet.

[hbomdiggity]

That’s nuts.

I refuse to book anything before jan 1, but will likely start getting preference/discount emails in October.

I am mentally starting to map out next summer though. We have one trip planned and another pencilled and he definitely wants to repeat certain camps. So many logistics.

[tiki]

Oh good lord. Our last day of summer camp was yesterday so I'm definitely not ready to think about next year yet.

Reminds me of our total jerk old landlord who required us to sign a new 12 mo lease every time our existing lease had 6 months left or he'd start showing the property.

[sunshineandpinot]

Yup. Deposit paid to hold her spot in her preferred session. Reenrollment is usually in November; this is the first year they did it this way. It's crazy. (This is a 2 week sleep away camp.) In fact, 4 of her camp friends are at our house now; they came in from out of town to celebrate dd's bday. I would be in big trouble if I didn't enroll her in the right session.

[icedcoffee]

No but I could commit if I needed to. I already know what both kids will do and when. Some of my camps start registration Black Friday and I always take advantage.

[notsopicky]

Sort of. E told me that he wants to go to sleepaway camp for 2 weeks next year (he'll be going into 8th grade, it's a prime age for this camp). It's $4000. So while it's good that I know now and can start saving for it, I'm also bummed that it'll basically be 1/4 of our summer time together (I work in a school). We don't have to pick the 2 week session until January I think. This camp slays, though, so I am excited (for him) that he wants to go for longer next year.

He also is on the fence about going to his martial arts day camp. He's about to age out (13 is the oldest they can be to go) and most of the kids are really young. I wish that he could be a student helper, but he has to wait until he's 14 (he is really looking forward to doing that). I suggested that maybe we pick some county-camps, or a STEM class at the local univ geared towards middle school students.

Luckily we don't have to figure it all out now, but we'll have to stay on top of it. Times they are a-changing, most days I can't even believe he's in 7th grade. Seems like just yesterday he was starting ES.

[lilac05]

Summer planning is quite possibly my #1 least favorite part of parenting. It stresses me out to the point that I just really don't sign them up for much. I'm mostly home, so it works...but then I feel guilty that they're missing out on opportunities for fun/enrichment.

In my dream world, ALL Summer opportunity emails WITH SPECIFIC DATES AND TIMES need to be available by Jan 1, with registrations due by a specified date. Inevitably, what happens for us is that we sign up for a completely fun camp/activity, and then find out band starts that week and is scheduled right in the middle of the camp that we've already paid for. I want to be able to sign them up according to our priorities rather than who happens to publish things first.

[thebreakfastclub]

My son does community rec camp. We get the program guide in December, and registration is in February. I leave a couple of weeks open around 7/4 and a week in August for vacation. I don't pursue any other camps, so it's either this rec camp or he's just home.