Cutting back on summer camp for Tweens/younger teens

[niq]

I can't believe I have to think about this already, but camp registrations are already opening ...

V is in 5th grade. Up until now he's always been in all-day camp or with grandparents during the summer. We've been thinking of skipping extended day, doing some half day camps, or even just letting him make his own plans with friends for a little bit this summer.

If you have older kids and needed them in all-day camp for work, when did you start letting them be on their own, either at home or in the neighborhood? How did they do in terms of manners and rule-following? Is there anything else I should be thinking about?

[momin2013]

All I know is DS is in 5th, will be 11 in a few weeks and we’re staying with status quo of full-day camps plus a couple of weeks with Grandma & Grandpa this summer.

He’ll start taking the bus home next week and being home alone for 1/2 hour-ish after school, but I’m not ready to leave him alone for full days yet. I think we’ll revisit next year when he’s 12.

[mrsGreeko]

For my oldest, pre-covid, the last year she did all day summer camp was the summer after 6th grade. The summer after 7th she just went a couple days a week. She did a couple weeks of overnight camp and a school trip and we had a week or so of vacation also.

For my middle, the summer after 5th grade was 2020 so there was no camp and both parents were working from home. She never went back to full time summer camp. So her last summer of full time summer camp was the summer after 4th grade. She did overnight camp and an occasional specialty camp up until this past summer.

For my youngest his last full time summer camp summer was also 2019. It was the summer after 2nd for him. After that both parents and older sisters were home so he didn’t really need to be in summer camp. He does overnight camp and a fly fishing day camp for a week or two or three every summer.

For rules with my oldest being alone all day it was mainly call when you wake up, call if you are leaving, clean up your messes. That’s about it.

For the others with us being at home it’s been mostly find something besides screens to do, be quiet ish and keep your friends quiet ish and clean up your messes.

[186momx]

DD is 12 and a 7th grader. Last full year of summer care was 2nd grade. 3rd grade was COIVD and we never went back. She has done some specialty half day camps. She did 1 camp the summer of 5th grade and none last year as she wasn't interested in anything.

Now she texts when she gets up, when she leaves and comes back (walk the dog or walk to get the free lunch at the park), and when she gets to practice safely (ride from someone).

For the summer of 6th grade she wasn't allowed to leave the house and could only go out in the backyard. Also all the normal don't answer the door rules.

[waverly]

Jan 4, 2024 18:14:04 GMT -5 niq said:

I can't believe I have to think about this already, but camp registrations are already opening ...

V is in 5th grade. Up until now he's always been in all-day camp or with grandparents during the summer. We've been thinking of skipping extended day, doing some half day camps, or even just letting him make his own plans with friends for a little bit this summer.

If you have older kids and needed them in all-day camp for work, when did you start letting them be on their own, either at home or in the neighborhood? How did they do in terms of manners and rule-following? Is there anything else I should be thinking about?

Quoting so I can see the question while responding.

2022 was the first year they weren’t in daily camp. They were 10 and 12. The 10 year old did more camps because she had 3 weeks of Girl Scout camp that DS didn’t have. DH works from home but is busy the whole day except lunch so his role was lunch and emergencies. Since he works from home they weren’t technically home alone but basically equivalent to being on their own for 4 hours at a time with a check in. They did not roam the neighborhood that much. DS is terrible at initiating plans and friends were traveling. DD went to the neighbors house but was supervised there. They are worse together so splitting them up worked better I.e one at home one at camp.

Last summer DS only did one soccer camp and 2 sleepaway camps. DD did all that plus 2 weeks of GS camp.

This summer will look the same except drop the one Girl Scout camp. They doubled the prices and then shut down day camp.

So we are focusing on sports or specialty camps and sleepaway camps.

[ssmjlm]

E will be heading into 6th in the fall and is not ready for an unstructured full summer. She would be a screen way too much.

If anything I would love to increase her camps, but we have a June and July vacation planned.

She’ll do art, horseback riding (2 weeks), volleyball, and gymnastics (probably 2 weeks).

Non-camp weeks she’ll be between us and the grandparents and/or the beach house with one of us.

[pinkpeony08]

I’ve been struggling with the same thing. Added complication that her you sibling isn’t really old enough to be home all day. And sibling will say it’s not fair that she gets to stay home. We already struggled last year with getting people to and from their camps. I need to find more carpools or a college kid who wants to make some money driving them. I’m already tired thinking about it.

[Jalapeñomel]

Jan 4, 2024 19:06:57 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

E will be heading into 6th in the fall and is not ready for an unstructured full summer. She would be a screen way too much.

If anything I would love to increase her camps, but we have a June and July vacation planned.

She’ll do art, horseback riding (2 weeks), volleyball, and gymnastics (probably 2 weeks).

Non-camp weeks she’ll be between us and the grandparents and/or the beach house with one of us.

Same for my rising 6th grader.

[waverly]

Adding to this, DS was very unstructured. We did weekly horseback riding classes - his choice it was either that or golf was his 2 ideas. Since his week was so unstructured it became the cornerstone of his week.

[ny96]

DS1 is in 5th and nowhere near staying home alone. I don’t trust him to stay by himself and he does not want to stay alone, anywhere. I’m just getting comfortable with the idea of walking the dog down the street while he’s by himself. I don’t think he’d great choices with his time and he might burn the house down. Funny story, we don’t have a microwave at home and we were staying with my mom over Christmas. I was putting on makeup in the bathroom and came into the kitchen to find that he had tried putting a wooden bowl with popcorn kernels into the microwave covered by a sheet of aluminum foil. I’m hoping the aluminum foil was added as I was coming out of the bathroom because I saw no major damage to the microwave, but the bowl bubbled up. He was not allowed to use the microwave after that and collapsed in tears I. My arms when I told him he could have started a fire.

[freshsqueezed]

My fifth grader will not be doing any camps. He’s never done an all day and hates camps. I work from home so he will be here. He may have activities he signs up for or getting together with friends but he appreciates having a chill summer. We will also take a trip of some sort each month of summer so I don’t like being tied down anyway.

[Saudade]

My DS1 is in 6th now and I'm not ready for him to be home all day, every day. He would literally sit on screens all day.

He will be going to a total of 6 weeks of overnight language camp. I still have to figure out 6 weeks of care. A few of the ones he did last year he didn't like because there weren't any older kids there. So I'm not sure what I will do

[tealblue]

Ds is in 6th grade and this is when he ages out of most of the camps.

The zoo has a camp for tweens that’s once a week that I think we’ll sign him up for.

I have been WFH for years, so had just planned on keeping him here with me 2-3 days (mostly screen time though), zoo camp 1 day, and then off with DH to his work (he’s self employed) 1-2 days. He may do a week of scout camp as well. This is further complicated that I may be getting a new job that I think will be a lot of in office time. But he’ll have to be home alone all day with the dog or with DH more.

His little bro will still go to the normal summer day camp.

[ellipses84]

When DS1 was 9, I was home all summer due to Covid and the next year when he was 10 was the first year I let him skip a couple non-consecutive weeks of camp. I was WFH at that point, and DH’s schedule can be unpredictable but he often doesn’t work the same hours I do. That summer we made sure an adult was always home with him. At 11, he only did camp half the weeks of the summer and we knew if there was a short gap he could stay home alone for an hour or two (like if I had to leave for an in person meeting and DH wasn’t home from work yet). At age 12 he didn’t go to camp at all, but we traveled 4 weeks of the summer and I still work remotely.

Next summer when he’s 13, I will probably be in the office 3 days per week but DH could make sure he’s home some of those days or not gone for more than half a day, so I don’t think he’ll ever go to summer day camp again. I’d like to send him for a week of sleepaway camp. If we both worked out of the home 9-5 M-F I think age 13 is when I’d allow a kid to stay home alone and not go to camp (but I’d try to break it up with activities with friends, vacation weeks, etc). DS1 is a rule following homebody who loves to read and play video games so he was begging not to go to camp. This past summer I had him earn extra gaming time with extra chores and our house was so clean! He’d get lonely without me WFH though.

One summer we did some free half day camps and I said never again! I’d drop off, get home, have a coffee and check like 5 emails before having to go back and pickup.

[ellipses84]

To add, DS2 will still be in camp most of the time. If we’ve been really busy I occasionally let him stay home for a week or partial week but more than that is very difficult. He’s the type of kid who goes stir crazy and needs attention and direction.

DS1 has an Apple Watch and we have Alexa but no home phone. I don’t let him answer the door or go outside when an adult isn’t home.

[ilikedonuts]

My 12 year old would literally sit on her iPad and play Roblox all day long if she wasn’t in camp.

We don’t need full day care though so she does sports and specialty camps. I try to do every other week for camps.

This summer she’s doing a week of outdoor rock climbing camp, an overnight swim camp and then 2 weeks of leadership adventure based camp. Then some random single day camps sprinkled in.

[CrazyLucky]

My kids are 11 and 13. They do a lot of sleep away camps, camp Grandma, and we do a week family vacation. Which still leaves several weeks of nothing. Last year, we hired a local teenager to come over for four hours a day. She would make sure they ate lunch and take them to the pool, about a 2 mile drive. This kept them from whining about how bored they are and kept DS from turning into a complete video game zombie. Unfortunately, the teenager is heading to college this summer, so we have to figure something else out.
My kids are old enough to take care of themselves. I just don't think they would do anything that doesn't involve a screen unless they are forced to.

[shauni27]

I think for one summer when I was a kid in 6th or 7th grade we were home all day with no camps. Before that we did various day camps and multiple 2 week sleep away camps.

We had a pool and a sitter who stayed with us all day and mostly spent the day in the pool that one summer.

Starting the year after that we switched to full summer overnight camp for 8 weeks and did that until we began working at said camp.

[sadie]

This is my dilemma this year. I will have a 12yo (and 8yo). 8yo has to go to camp.

We're thinking of doing camp 4x a week for 12yo and every other week. She can bike to our pool easily and liked to meet up with friends there, so I assume that will happen this summer. She is a Roblox junkie, however, so I'd like to keep her somewhat busy. My husband WFH f/t and I WFH a couple days a week, so an adult is home regularly.

I think I'd be ok with her staying home by herself a few hours a day if needed. She's a good kid.

[luckystar2]

My dd is in 10th grade. Even now she doesn’t sit at home all summer. She would be too bored and sit on her phone all day.

I think it was summer before 5th and 6th when we cut back on an everyday type program in summer and did some camps that weren’t every single week. But she still did stuff most of the summer and I hated it. It was so much running around. A dedicated care all summer was easier. She had some Time she stayed home on her own and I just FaceTimed to check on her. But it wasn’t that often.

Summer after 6th grade was Covid so nothing and I worked from home.

The last 3 summers she’s done a camp for older kids through our town. It’s 6 weeks at one of the schools. They horse around in the gym and hang out. One day a week they go to high school to swim. And 2 days every week they go on a field trip…stuff like the zoo, mall, baseball game, amusement park, parks/hiking, etc. her friends went so it was a nice way to hang out with friends and have an opportunity to go places. I work from home and I can transport her a little but I couldn’t take her 2x a week to those kind of places. There are still some weeks in summer that she can do nothing and she didn’t go everyday.

Lol this summer before 11th grade is our first year really not doing anything. She has aged out of that camp. She will likely just work in the summer since she already has a job

She was fully capable of staying at home on her own for a long time. But she’d be so bored not being able to see friends or get to do much. She can’t walk/bike anywhere fun. We don’t have a pool. All her friends parents work so it’s hard to try to coordinate hanging out with friends.

[hermione]

C is 10 (11 by summer)and in 5th grade. She’s not comfortable being home alone all day yet so we won’t force it. She gets very bored at standard summer camps run by be city parks and rec department so I’m a sucker who is spending a fortune on camps that cater to her interests. Basketball camp, volleyball camp, lots of art camps, etc. I hope this is the last summer we need to cover everyday.

[osulori]

Kid #1 is 10 (11 in July) and is in 5th grade. He's not yet comfortable with being home by himself all day but even if he was it'd be a hard stop-he'd be on screens too much, or out and about with neighborhood friends. Some of whom are great, but others are not. So the plan for this summer is similar to previous summers, meaning a hodgepodge of half day sports camps and the full day camp he does at our gym with some weeks with grandparents thrown in. He does much better overall when he's kept somewhat busy so this works for him, but we'll revisit this time next year.

[sdlaura]

My oldest is a responsible 6th grade girl who now comes home after school at 2:30 pm 3 days a week, so we trust her at home. But I've found that my kids are so used to being busy and active all day, that they just don't do well without camps. It would require more involvement from me than I'd like, they would get too little exercise, and would eat too much junk. So we're going to stick with camps and maybe a counselor in training program this summer.

I also ran the numbers on a babysitter/summer nanny vs. camps. We have four kids, but my preschooler will stay in preschool for the summer. A babysitter for 3 kids in our area who can drive to fun activities would probably cost me $25 an hour+, so it wouldn't save me much $ vs. putting the 3 in YMCA camps. Especially because they would still want to do some camps even if we were paying a babysitter, like DD does a basketball camp with her rec coach/team and both older kids do a sleepaway camp. And it's much easier for me to have them in camps in terms of being able to work and get things done.

[simpsongal]

niq late response from me - but we have our kids home ~twice week during the summer, the other days they're at the grandparents. It's definitely easier at ages 6/9 (7/10 this summer). We kick them outside for hours. Only downside is some of their friends are in camps or away, so the number of kids for play isn't as high as the school year. But I set up play dates here and there. I try to set them up w/activities stuff too for projects.

We did half day camps and enrichment ones a couple summers ago. I just found the cost and driving more hassle and it was worth for those few hours. The kids were 'meh' on it too.

We'll do a couple weeks of a great art camp for them at the end of summer. And I'm planning to send DS (10) to a week of sleepaway camp.

[aspentosh]

I SAH so it's different, but I try to give her unstructured play with the caveat she cannot be on tech. So even though I am usually home, last summer (11.5) she was out running around the neighborhood a lot, seeing friends etc. The biggest issue we came across is we did not want friends HERE without an adult present, so it felt unfair at times because we couldn't reciprocate the hangout locations. I'm not sure I'd want her home alone all day, 5 days a week. But we regularly leave her for hours at a time.

This summer she'll likely do some camps (usually 2-3 weeks spread over the summer) and do something similar with the playing with friends.