Summer Camps, or Prepare to be Overwhelmed

UPDATE: This post is from 2010, so it’s outdated. Here’s a link to the KidsOutAndAbout Summer Camps page, which is more comprehensive and is updated each year.

Okay, that berry-picking syndrome has happened again. I’ve been keeping a running list of summer camps as various organizations have emailed me, and I thought that it would be simple to just put them in some sort of nice order and pop them into a post.  But then, in the process of pulling the ones that I had together, I kept finding more.   So it took me longer, and the list kept growing.  So, I finally stopped.  There are more camps, I’m sure.  I might be adding to this list.  But I started to skip camp options that you might want to pursue.  These include:

• Town camps.  My girls have gone to town camp and enjoyed it.  In my town, it’s cheap.  You might check with your own town first.  Residency is often but not always a requirement.
• Anyplace where you can pay for a lesson, it is also likely that there’s a camp.  Some of these made it to my list, either because they’d already emailed me, or they’re popular, or whatever.  But if there’s someplace you’re interested in, check out their website or give them a call.
• Super-specialized sports camps.  If you’ve got a kid doing sports in high school and they want to train in their sport, it’s better to just ask their coach.  I started to track these a bit, but there are just so many, and I have no expertise whatsoever.  Generally I include sports camps that are 1) potentially for little kids and/or beginner/dabblers, or 2) offered with a variety of different sports and/or non-athletic programs, or 3) fun  in several different locations, since that makes life convenient for parents.
• I also skipped camps that didn’t have 2010 information on an easy-to-link-to website.  I mean, come on, people!  Show a little motivation here if you want people to shell out cash.

So, wow!  There are so many camps! And so many cool things to do!  And when I mentioned some of the many options to my 7-year-old, she was like, “”I  think with our trips I’ll be busy enough.”  This child only wants to relax and has no interest whatsoever in being enriched!  Dang!

If anyone’s had experience with one of these camps, please do share your experiences with us–I’m serious.  That would be a helpful thing.  Like, your good deed for the day.  Or if you know of another great camp, let me know.

• 4M’s Farm offers a full-day horse camp for kids 7+ years old.  5 one-week sessions.
• Afrim’s has its Multi-Sport Action Camp for 3- to 11-year-olds, or Go2Goal [soccer] Academy for 6- to 14-year-olds.
• The Albany Academies have classic camp, sports, basketball, academics, SAT prep, & Driver’s Ed.
• Albany Art Room has camps from 9 am to 2 pm for kids ages 5 and up, and they’re teaming up with Kids DanceSpace@eba to do a Creative Arts Camp for 7- to 12-year-olds.
• The Albany Jewish Community Center runs a variety of camp programs all summer for 3-year-olds up to teenagers.
• Albany Rowing Center has a morning rowing camp for students in grades 6 and above.
• Bethlehem Children’s School has camp all summer, full day, for k-8th graders.  You can sign up by the week–each has a different theme.
• The Brown School has programs for kids in nursery school up to 6th grade.
• The Campus Children’s Center funs a daycamp for school-age children.  Associated with SUNY Albany, university-affiliated families get priority registration.
• Capital Area Productions (theater) has 2 one-week full-day camps in Rensselaer.
• Capital Repertory Theatre usually does a camp.  I have a note to myself that says “ages 11-15, 7/6-8/8 from  8:30 to 4:30 at The Egg, $850 for 5 weeks”, but when I looked for a nice link for you, I couldn’t figure out where the heck I found this information.  I’ve emailed them.
• The Children’s Museum of Science & Technology in Troy has full day camp from the end of June to the beginning of September for ages 5 to 14.  You can register for a week at a time, based on schedule/theme, including some girls-only sessions.
• The Cicotti Center has full-day camp all summer for school-age kids.
• Cohoes Music Hall has an August Broadway camp.
• College of St. Rose Summer Academy has a variety of programs kids  for grades 6 to 10.  It’s full day for six weeks, with weekly themes.
• Emma Willard School has a summer camp for girls 6- to 13-years-old.
• Frozen Ropes is running baseball summer camps in many locations.
• The Girl Scouts run a variety of day and sleepaway camps nearby.  You can also spend a weekend of “family camp” or a mother-daughter overnight.  Girls don’t have to be scouts to attend.
• Hayner Brothers Sports Barn in Halfmoon has baseball, softball, & sports camps.
• HVCC has camps for ages 4 to 16 athletics, academics, theater, technology, & circus theatricks.
• JMU4Kids offers a variety of summer camps for school-age kids at Doane Stuart in Rensselaer & Academy of the Holy Names in Albany.
• Kidzart and Drama Kids are teaming together to do a one-week, full-day camp in Colonie or  Clifton Park in August.
• Kidzart has two different week-long, half-day camps at a variety of locations.
• Kindercare has a variety of themed Summer Camps, including options for preschoolers.
• Malta Montessori has a half- or full-day camp for kids ages 3 to 9.
• Mildred Elly runs a Video Game Design Camp for kids in grades 6 to 11.
• New York State Museum Time Tunnel Summer Camp has 3 consecutive sessions of 2 weeks each that have different science-oriented themes.  It’s full day.
• Proctors has summer camps in theater, art, music filmmaking and chess.
• RPI Summer Camps has a variety of interesting stuff, including Young Actors Guild for kids as young as 6, Creative Writing, Legos sessions for ages 8 to 14, a crime scene investigation program for 7th & 8th graders, and lots of challenging high school programs.  There’s also a football camp.
• Sage offers softball and basketball camps.
• The Saratoga Arts’ Council runs arts camps for kids ages 5- to 14-years-old.
• Schenectady Museum’s Summer Camp has 6 consecutive one-week sessions of full-day camp, each covering a different scientific topic.
• The Sand Lake Center for the Arts has a variety of programs including theater, art, film-making, & movement, for a range of ages, 4 to 18.
• The Schenectady County Community College has a variety of summer courses for kids & teens including SAT Prep, Babysitting, Baking, Musical Theater, Aikido, Golf, & Environmental Science.
• The Shelter Skatepark and Shop has short skateboarding and skateboarding/rec camps.
• Siena College has a variety of athletic and dance camps.
• Skidmore College has a variety of summer camps including sports, arts, music, dance, writing, academics, and traditional recreation camps.
• SKYHIGH Adventures in Averill Park offers camps that improve skills for triathlons–swimming, biking, running– for 7- 15+ kids.
• Ten Broeck Mansion has a 1-week archeology camp and a 1-week Time Travel camp, both designed for 5th/6th/7th grades.  You can see the information if you click the teensy little link at the very bottom of the page I send you to.
• The Troy Boys and Girls Club runs Camp Barker for school-age children; it’s all day.
• Tumbling Tykes offers camps for kids ages 3 to 7.
• There’s a variety of camps at Union College–robots, weight loss, Irish dancing, engineering along with a variety of Summer Sports Academies at Union College.
• Wa Wa Segowea is a smaller, private YMCA sleep away camp.
• Woodland Hills Montessori has a variety of camps.
• The YMCA offers a variety of day camps as well as not-too-far sleepaway camps.

Phew!  I mean, crazy, right?

The Albany Times Union has an online Summer Camp List as well.  You can also request a free catalog from the Capital District Child Care Council.