Summer Camp Research Tips Before You Sign Up

While many summer camps are well established with long-standing student attendance, there are some smaller and newer camps around that deserve a second look. Here are some tips to help you create your own investigation into each camp. At the end, you’ll have everything you need to make the right decision for your child.

Tip 1:  Use the internet, newspaper, magazines, family and friends to compile a list of possible camps either sleep-away or day-to-day. This will give you a good cross section of camps to choose from without being stuck with just one type of ad campaign to examine.

Tip 2:  Check to see if the camp has any accreditation, affiliation or association with any large groups or governing bodies. Then, check out the group the camp belongs to and decide whether or not their word is true.

Tip 3:  Are their parental references or quotes from children who attended? Even the smallest of start-up camps have references you can ask to check for that hands on accurate review.

Tip 4:  Does the camp have a philosophy? Every business model has one and in the case of summer camps, it is key to understanding the mentality of the people they will hire to teach and foster your children. If you don’t agree with the philosophy, forget it.

Tip 5:  What types of training is offered to the counselors? Are they given a weekend crash course or something more tangible? Are the counselors CPR certified and trained for special needs issues? Good training will generally equate to good counselors.

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These five little tips should give the curious parent all the information they need to make a sound and easy decision so that they can pick the place that is best suited for their child as well as the best place for them to attend and give you peace of mind.