When it comes to summer camps for kids and teens, the YMCA summer camps are a popular option. These camps, offered all over America, provide a variety of activities and arrangements to accommodate kids of different ages. Whether you’re looking for a sleepaway camp or a day camp to keep your child entertained this summer, you’ll want to check out the list of YMCA summer camps 2018.
Here’s what you should know about the camps offered by the YMCA this year.
YMCA Camp Values
The YMCA focuses on youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility, and you’ll find those values reflected in their summer camps. Many of the camps offer stimulating, engaging, and valuable environments for kids and teens.
What Ages Do the Camps Accommodate?
YMCA camps are suitable for a wide variety of ages. You’ll find camps created specifically for younger kids, mainly those ages 7 and up, but there are also plenty of options for older children and teens. Each camp has its own particular age limits, and some even sort children by grade, so it’s best to contact any particular camp you’re considering to get the details on camper age.
What Activities Do YMCA Camps Offer?
One of the great benefits of YMCA camps is the fact that the camps are so varied and offer tons of fun activities that your kids are sure to love. Instructors often teach the specific subject year-round, which adds to the value of each class.
Available activities vary from camp to camp, but some of the more common activities include:
- Arts and crafts
- Canoeing
- Dance
- Disc golf
- Drama
- Fishing
- Horseback riding
- Ropes courses
- Sports
- Swimming
What Do the Summer Camps Cost?
The cost of each camp ranges and depends on a number of factors, including whether the camp is a day camp or an overnight camp, the length of the duration, and more. Some camps do have scholarships available to help you pay for the cost of camp. In general YMCA camps are often more affordable than typical summer camps for children and are tied into local communities year long. YMCA offers affordable annual family memberships and summer camps will be discounted for those members.
To learn the exact costs of a camp, you should visit the website or call your local Y.
Is Camp Transportation Available?
Some camps do offer a bus to and home from camp, available daily for an additional fee. Most camps and YMCAs don’t have this option, instead relying on parents to pick up and drop off kids.
If you’re worried about being available to drive your kids to and from camp each day, then consider using GoKid to set up carpools for your kids. Chances are that parents of other campers face the same transportation challenge and will be glad to set up carpools to share some of the driving.
While YMCAs don’t officially offer a carpool option (yet) you could ask the camp organizer or the instructor of your class to email all parents and see who would be interested in carpools. At that point, one of the parents should take over and organize parents by neighborhood/vicinity. Our carpool app GoKid helps to easily set up, monitor, and update carpool details, ensuring your kids get to and home from camp daily, even if your schedule doesn’t allow you to drive every day.
If you haven’t yet registered a GoKid account, now is the perfect time to do so. GoKid is now available for both iOS and Android, and chances are you’ll find many uses for carpooling this summer.
YMCA Summer Camps 2018: Your Options
Ready to get your child enrolled in a YMCA summer camp? This page offers a comprehensive listing of all of the YMCA camps available in 2018. Camps are located all over America, and you can search by the camp name or view the camps available in each state.
If you want to enroll your child in camp, act quickly, though – camps fill up and many camp sessions begin soon.
