My son goes to Boy Scout camp every year, sometimes twice a year. It's $235 this year, but I kind of like the way they do it. - The troop pays for everyone as soon as registration opens, then the boys do a lot of car washes, popcorn sales, scrap drives, etc. until they've earned enough to repay the troop for their fee. Last year, they even found some farmers willing to pay for help cleaning up their property.

Parents can add money to their accounts, but nobody gets left out if their account isn't paid off by the time camp starts. I went ahead & paid my son's fee at tax refund time, but he knows that he's still expected to do the fundraisers until everyone is paid for.

My kids each do church camp, and are gone from Monday thru Saturday. It is overnight, but has been such a positive experience for each of them. My oldest dd has gone back as a counselor now that she's graduated high school. It is $215 each. It's also a vacation for dh and I, a week without the kiddos.

My ds does Boy Scout camp, which he pays for by selling popcorn.

Blessings, Christine

We all do Suzuki strings camp every year which is hugely expensive but I justify it because it is such a HUGE motivator for them to practice diligently year round, it gives them an opportunity to be around music loving kids and its an opportunity for them to play in orchestras and chamber ensembles.
My dd 11 is going away for a week long church camp this year as well. I feel that the right overnight camp is especially important for my kids because as homeschoolers, they get little chance to spread their wings and be in an semi independent situation. They are very attached to me and my dh(which is wonderful) but they do need to be able to feel increasingly confident as they grow older that they can handle time away from us as well.-------

We always do different camps depending on where we live (military family). This summer our "big" camp is for my oldest son, who will be turning 14yo. He is attending a swim camp at the University of Missouri for 4 days and it cost $550.
My youngest son will be attending a 5-day zoo camp for the mornings - $95 per week.
Both boys will likely be attending an art camp for the week in the mornings - $65 for the week.
They will also be attending an Operation Purple Camp ( for military families) for 6 days.

We usually do a church camp for a week, but have recently moved and still trying to find our "home" church.

DD11 does 8 weeks of theater camp every summer which is about $1000. She loves it, and fights her dad every year to do theater camp instead of a snazzy science camp that he wants for her. She always wins.

So be it. I just write the checks.

DS31 used to do a soccer camp and piano camp before he became an adult. Prices were a lot cheaper in the "good ole days."

Mine goes to the Vocation High School my oldest daughter graduated from. They offer all the shops to middle school kids. My youngest will be taking cosmetology again this year for a week. It is $85.00 for the week, 9-3, including lunch

Our church's boys group does 4 camps throughout the year that are more weekend camps then they have the big district camp in the summer that lasts Wed-Sat. The smaller camps cost about $20-$30 per child and the summer camp costs around $80-$100 per child. Our younger son is the only one that has gone so far to any of them, this year our older son went to spring camp and he'll probably keep going to the smaller camps but he won't go to the summer camp (too many people and he doesn't tolerate large noisy crowds well). We have worked to get the money together to let ds #2 go to summer camp as he has such a good time and loves it. Last year we didn't have to pay as someone in the church gave the group enough money to pay for all the boys to go, it was such a blessing. :)

We have talked about doing some of the local daycamps (ds #2 wants to do an art daycamp really bad) but they can get pretty pricey, even the ones through parks and rec. There was a Lego week-long daycamp last summer through parks and rec that ds #2 wanted to do but they wanted over $300 for it. Yikes!

We don't do any overnight type camps, but enjoy
fun classes.

Michelle32