I'm really late, but how do I evaluate Summer Camps for Boys?

[3littlekeets]

My DS is 9, and really wants to go to an all boys camp. I've looked at some in NC and the cost is :eek:. But, perhaps we can send him for just one week. Honestly, though, I don't know what to look for and some of the ads are quite cool. I'm clearly worried about supervision, safety, etc...

Thanks@!

[Annie N]

My mother wanted to send my children to camp, and so these are some of the things I did:

I first tried to find one that would give them a real "camping" experience, and I wanted one that was in a totally different type of area than the area we lived in (so they ended up being very far away...). I tried to consider experiences that they might otherwise not have as well as the interests they already had. One consideration that came up was how they scheduled activities (several short "classes" or fewer but longer, how often they changed activities, etc.).

If you have any special needs, like vegetarianism or Catholicism (I wanted the camp to take them to Mass while they were there), etc. those are also important.

You might be more interested in less of a camp experience, nearer to home, of a specializing kind of camp (science, health issue, there are a lot!!!!)--you just want to figure out what you want early in the process so as to weed out a lot of camps :)

A couple of things worth looking into: 4-H has camps (look into this one quickly! Around here they are very popular), and I know someone whose children (who are younger than mine are) to go an Episcopal-sponsored camp which they are very happy with, so you might check into camps sponsored by your faith if you have one or another one that you can get along with--they are usually quite generic.

Any questions you have about supervision, safety, etc. absolutely feel free to call the camp. All the camps I called were very happy to answer my millions of questions spread out over thousands of phone calls ;) --so don't hesitate for one second about calling and asking. Each camp has its differences, but all the ones I spoke to were extremely interested in safety and supervision, because they want to keep their business going!

I don't get on here every day (or hour!), so if you have more questions, you could pm me. :)