Chrissy Chitwood

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Follow Your Kids’ Interests through Summer Day Camps

By Performance for Everyday Life

I’m excited to have my mom, Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now, as a guest poster on my blog today! She’s writing about summer day camps, an important part of our summers when Will and I were growing up. Summer camps allowed Will and me to explore our interests and enhanced our creativity and performance abilities.

Will (6) showing his clay work at the Creative Earthworks Family Day, 1991.Without consciously trying, our family developed a tradition of having our kids involved in summer day camps. Looking back, I can see how those camps had tremendous benefits for my kids.

Some of the main benefits I saw were:

1. Summer camps are a great way for kids to explore new interests and deepen and develop skills in their areas of interest. Following the child is an essential principle of Montessori education, and summer camps are ready-made ways to follow your kids’ interests.

2. Summer camps are a great socialization experience with kids of similar interests. People often worry about homeschoolers’ socialization. I noticed that socialization wasn’t something we needed to worry about. My kids’ interests always naturally led them into numerous experiences with kids and adults of all ages.

3. Summer camps nurture kids’ creativity. Often there are creative components such as art, music, or nature exploration at summer camps, although any type of summer camp seems to engage a kid’s creative side at some level.

4. Summer day camps bypass homesickness. Overnight camps can be great for some kids, but day camps work much better for others. By being with our family at night, my kids never had to worry about homesickness. Of course, we allowed overnights at friends’ houses, but in general our kids spent their nights at home. And, yes, they still became independent adults able to live on their own.

Here are some of our family’s experiences with summer day camps:

Creative Earthworks

Christina (1) at the Creative Earthworks Family Day, 1991.

Our first experience with summer day camp was in the summer of 1991 when my husband studied at the Episcopal seminary in Sewanee, Tennessee, and our family lived there for the first of two summers. Will was 6, and Christina was 1. We heard about Creative Earthworks, a summer day camp held on the campus of a boys’ prep school. That sounded like a perfect match for Will’s interest at the time in anything involving outdoor nature activities.

Along with swimming, art projects, and group activities, campers were allowed to choose a specialty focus such as music, art, or hiking. Because Will was obsessed with hiking and exploring nature, that was his chosen focus – going on long hikes with the hiking group each day. Will participated in Creative Earthworks both summers and had a wonderful time exploring his main interest and experiencing activities in areas such as music, art, and ecology.

Family Ski Camp

Christina (6) and Will (11) with the Timberline Summer Ski Camp Mascot, 1996.
Christina (6) and Will (11) with the Timberline Summer Ski Camp Mascot, 1996.

When our kids became ski racers, we all experienced family ski camp for two summers (when Will was 10 and 11 and Christina was 5 and 6) at Mount Hood’s Timberline family ski camp. Even though it was a weeklong camp, it had the benefits of a day camp because our kids were with us at night. During the day, Terry and I went skiing with the adults, while Will and Christina went with the ski racing kids’ groups. While an activity like family ski camp improved all of our skiing skills, it also was a way to truly follow and embrace our kids’ interests.

Summer Skating School

Once our kids started figure skating (shortly after family ski camp when Will was 11 and Christina was 6), a large part of every summer included summer skating school. The World Arena, an international training center, is in Colorado Springs, so we didn’t have to travel for summer skating school.

Summer skating school was obviously a time that focused on skating skills, but it also included more time for socializing than normal. It wasn’t uncommon for the kids to stay at the rink all day, playing volleyball or just hanging out with their friends in between sessions. And there were more ways to express creativity in their skating with skating classes like choreography classes that were only offered during the summer.

Dance Intensives

Christina always loved dance of any type. Her first formal dance experience was a summer ballet class at age 5. Her love of that experience – and every dance class after that – showed that her interest in dance was something to be nurtured. One summer, Christina even decided to take a ballet intensive at the International Ballet Academy in Colorado Springs along with summer skating school. That meant that her day was scheduled with ballet and skating from early in the morning until almost 8:00 at night. And she loved it! We would never have imposed that schedule on our daughter, but her choice of it made for an incredible experience for her.

Summer Camps and Classes to Explore New Interests

Christina (3) and Will (8) ready for their summer reading club pirate party, 1993.
Christina (3) and Will (8) ready for their summer reading club pirate party, 1993.

Summer day camps and classes are also a great way to explore new interests. Will and Christina both loved reading and were often able to experience new ideas through the public library summer reading program classes and events. They had new experiences with art and group performances through vacation Bible school as well.

Terry and Will went to Dad and Lad Camp when Will was a Cub Scout, allowing Will to experience many new outdoor activities and learn new skills. Christina attended tennis classes one summer. And Christina attended a one-day Goju Ryu karate intensive in addition to her other karate training one summer. All those experiences helped our kids learn more about what was interesting and exciting for them … helped them know what they wanted to pursue further … made them more well-rounded individuals.

Does your family have experience with summer camps?

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jackie Lee says

    What a timely post. My daughter (5) just had her last day of school today. I’ve been thinking about ways to get her involved in a summer camp. We live in a rural area, and I’m wondering if you have any ideas for looking for and finding any summer camps in our area?

    • Deb Chitwood says

      Thanks for your comment, Jackie! That’s an interesting question. I tried Googling summer camps and my city’s name and had quite a few camps come up. I think there are also listings in our local newspaper. We always participated in the library’s summer reading program when my kids were younger, and I believe the librarians were aware of programs in the community. I wonder if the librarians would know what’s available in your rural area? I hope you’re able to find a great camp for your daughter! 🙂

  2. Glen says

    Such very nice information you have for fun activities for kids. The kids in the photo are so adorable and sure had a lot of good times with their activities.

    • Deb says

      Thanks so much for your kind comment, Glen … I just found it! We definitely had a lot of fun times. I always love writing posts like this where I get to go through old photos and relive fun memories! 🙂

  4. Camp Redwood says

    Summer camps are definitely a great experience for kids and can be really boost their interest in different activities and also help their socialization skills. Great post, thank you for sharing.

  6. Nicole says

    Well this is interesting, summer, I loved my summer camps growing up too, I was a girl-scout and love the different activities we did back then, well times have changed and so have I, I am planning to give my son the opportunity to enjoy and get engaged in many activities. By reading this blog it makes me think of all the different thing I got to enjoy and how much they shaped my life. thank you for reminding me of fun times and how I need to provide the same opportunities to my son

  8. Tyler says

    Sounds really cool for home-schoolers. I home-school my kids and socializing with other kids is what I always look for, as it is very important for them to grow and play with their own age group children. Thanks for sharing about the summer camp, I will surely make them join, as it will help them to improve social skills.