(Editor’s Note: I am very pleased to begin a new series of posts by our clinic’s family coach and social worker, Eliza Pillard, entitled “Eliza’s Wellness Pearls,” featuring tips for child wellness and health promotion. Stay tuned for more posts in the future and please feel free to suggest topics – DR)
March is the right time to start planning your children’s summer camps and activities. There tends to be a lot of fun options in Vermont, but many will get filled up before you can say “snow’s gone”. A good place to begin your search is by talking to friends and contacting your local recreation department, there are also a number of web sites which list a variety of Vermont based camps:
http://www.vtliving.com/summercamps/index.shtml
These days the variety of camp options is mind boggling, there are acting camps, animal care camps, fantasy writer’s camps, magic camps, computer programmer camps as well as the usual arts and crafts, outdoor activity and sports camps. The more focused theme and sports camps often appeal to the older camper.
Camps vary greatly in cost, multiple week sleep away camps can cost from $400 to over $1000 a week, local day camps are generally $200-400 a week, and frequently scholarships are available and should be applied for early.
Tip: If your children are anything like mine were, they will dismiss the need for camp altogether. “Don’t sign me up for any of those camps this summer, I am just going to hang with my friends”, don’t be fooled, “hang with my friends” is slang for “keep the shades pulled down in the basement and play computer/video games all day”. Better to offer a choice of camps and stay firm that not going to camp is not an option, then walk away! Many of my best memories and the skills that I am most proud of today (wicked crawl stroke) are from the summers I spent at camp.