Tips for making the right choice
With so many activities to choose from, it’s best to research and plan
When reminders begin popping up about summer camp registration, it’s a sure sign the end of the school year is approaching. And while there are many reasons why camp is an alluring option — it can boost youngsters’ skills in specific areas, provide wilderness exposure for city kids, even cover childcare for working parents — one thing is certain: sorting through the choices can be daunting.
The first key to success, Suzanne Fielden believes, is to start working on it early.
“I get emails from other mothers asking ‘What about this, what about that’ — most of them are more organized than I am,” the mother of two and co-owner of Rocky Mountain Flatbread says ruefully. “The go-to camps do get booked up pretty fast.”
There are several ways to try and decide on the best camp — or camps — for your children. One option is to sort by availability by age.
When Fielden’s son and daughter were younger, she signed them up for bike camps through Pedalheads. The company began with swimming lessons three decades ago, expanded to cycling in 1995, and for the past couple of years, has also offered Heroheads, which works on multi-sport skills like throwing, catching and navigating obstacles.
Children as young as two can be enrolled in the cycling programs, with mountain biking offered up to age 15. Pedalheads marketing manager Mike Chan says the camp format — with children returning day after day — offers some benefits over occasional or weekly instruction.
“Parents and kids can definitely go to the park and work on some of these things, like trying to get off training wheels and learning road safety,” he acknowledges. “But the camps offer structured activities, which can focus on rapid acquisition of a specific skill.”
As children get older, general camps give way to more specialized ones. Fielden stumbled on a fashion design camp for her 13-year-old daughter Jasmine by poking her head into The Cutting Room, the business next door to Fielden’s Kits restaurant.
“Jazzy has grown out of 4Cats and all of the normal art go-tos. This is an actual workshop with designers that teach her real skills. She spent a week with them last year and came out with 10 items that she had made, like a pillow, a halter dress, and a bag. I actually stole the bag because it was so cool!”
Liza Deyrmenjian, owner and operating of The Cutting Room, says the experience goes beyond sewing skills. Campers — some as young as seven — start with mood boards, to clarify their specific fashion inspirations. They progress through designing and sewing various projects. In their final presentation, the campers take people through what specific decisions they have made and why, and thus reveal what they have learned.
“I spend a lot of time with parents talking about the fashion industry here in Vancouver with Lululemon, Arcteryx, etc., and how it can really turn into a career and all of the opportunities there,” Deyrmenjian explains. “We’re a ‘work-and-teach’ studio — my professional sewers and pattern makers are right across the room producing for brands.”
There’s something else for Jasmine to potentially look forward to as she gets older: starting next year, Deyrmenjian is planning on offering a weeklong sleepaway camp for 16and 17-year-olds in New York City to get an up close look at the fashion industry there.
Another way to wade through all of the choices is to group them into streams, and to decide which area(s) to focus on this summer. If athletics is a priority — Fielden jokes her 10-year-old son Luke likes “anything with a ball” — camps can be a way to enhance existing skills in sports like soccer, rugby, tennis and basketball. They can also be a way to expose children to activities not usually offered in the school setting, like water sports (sailing, wakeboarding, scuba, surfing, rowing, kayaking), specialized athletics (cheerleading, gymnastics, circus camp, martial arts), or more individualized sports (rock climbing, horseback riding, cycling.)
Academic camps can offer an immersive experience in a specific language, increase exposure to STEM subjects, or give kids a boost in the skills of tomorrow.
In Vancouver alone, that could mean coding, 3D printing, video game programming or design, animation, app development, LEGO robotics, electronic music production, filmmaking, and digital photography at Digital Media Academy, Startup Skool, or Tomorrow’s Master of Digital Media Program.
Creative camps let kids explore art, dance, theatre, creative writing, music and movement. Sam Clinock believes he has found a unique niche by offering a creative sleep-away camp (also known as overnight camps, as opposed to day camps where children return to their own homes each night.)
Clinock, the camp director and co-owner of Parksville’s Camp Narnia, says the focus there is community and connecting around C.S. Lewis’s books.
“We’re not about adrenalin and rock climbing and high ropes … The activities are geared around story, theatre, imagination and magic. We only take 60 kids a week, so there’s really great close contact and relationships that form more strongly than they would at a huge camp.”
While there are outdoor activities, many are led by a camp counsellor in full costume. Each week, there is also a full production of one of the novels — this year is Prince Caspian — with campers divvying up on and offstage roles.
These days, traditional outdoor camps — ones that focus on things like archery, canoeing, crafts, and hotdog and marshmallow roasts over crackling fire — also highlight the teaching of ‘soft’ skills like team-building/ cooperation, self-confidence, and leadership.
In recent years, family camping has also become more popular. At places like YMCA Camp Elphinstone, Camp Hatikvah, and B.C. Family French Camp, parents and their children can enjoy activities together with other families, or separated into child and adult groups. For those who want to relive their childhood camping experiences completely kid-free, there’s always Camp No Counselors. The camp allows adults to experience all of the things they enjoyed when they went to summer camp as children, with the addition of adult elements like happy hour, gourmet meals, and a great deal more control over the structure of a day. There are no children allowed.
As for Fielden, she may joke that she is a last-minute booker, but this summer appears to be figured out already. Her son is heading to a sleep-away camp for the first time, and her daughter will likely be back at fashion design camp. This year’s final project? A jumper that’s sure to be a showstopper.