BellaOnline Forums Education Gifted Education summer programs for kids

Many colleges and universities offer special summer classes for kids. It may not be too late to sign up, so check with your local schools to see what they have to offer.

Around here, we can choose from around 20 different week long interest based courses, for kids aged 6-15. They are half-day classes, but that's enough time indoors in the summer for my children. My daughter will be taking an animal science class; my son will be studying ecosystems. The tuition is very reasonable too, under $100!

I think this whole topic is really interesting. I am just starting out with summer programs for my second son, but I have learned alot about my elder son's individual preferences in the past 5 years!

My elder PG son (age 10) has a number of very intense interests but overall I would say he likes to "gorge" sequentially at the buffet of life. He eats up a topic then is on to the next. I saw that from infancy but it always takes this mom a bit of time to translate my observations into good actions. Anyway, we have tried full and half day "interest based" summer classes with my PG boy and guess what? He prefers to have a buffet over the summer! That seems to be his general preference whether he is in traditional school or homeschool so I don't think it is a structural issue. I think it may be play based. If he is going to be with age peers he would rather be at a Camp in which he does sports and does interests in which he DOES not excel. In the interest based classes, I think he learned early that he did not find peers and that made him feel more alone.

We did try some gifted programs for him (not the really high end $ stuff) when he was younger but he came back right away and told us that the kids there were being forced to attend and none had a burning curiosity that he had.We tried drama camp and he felt that the kids were just very immature (I saw them, they were)so the instructors could not get much done.

Anyway, my point...what was it? Of course, it was that it has helped me to start having "the conversation" about the summer with my son every winter (say, Feb, when it is cold and we really need to focus on a good season). What do you see yourself doing, etc? He starts to focus, we start exploring the options, etc.We have done this since he was about 7 and it has been extremely helpful. I don't know if other boys and girls have such a crystallized view of "what I want to do" at a young age, but I have found that my kids do and just need to be heard. Next summer may be the first summer for a long time that I am not around all summer for my kids so we will have to work harder at that one but I like knowing that they are onboard.

Excellent point about fitting the programs to the individual child. I think it is very important to follow a child's lead this way.

My middle kids will each be taking a week long class with a friend. I'm pretty confident that this will go well, but I am somewhat concerned about my son's scout camp. He will be attending sleep away camp for the first time, and he has grown apart from most of the boys in his unit this past year. I am really hoping that the leaders will work hard to make the experience a positive one for all the boys.

Lorel - the animal science course your daughter is taking sounds very interesting. What does it entail, how did you find out about it and how old is she?

Hi Bonnie-

We're on the east coast, but if you're from LA, I am sure there must be tons of programs for kids in your area. Check out your local library, or search online to locate camps and summer programs for children.

My kids will be taking courses designed for kids aged 6 to about 14. They are broken down into age brackets, so my seven year old is taking a course for ages 6-8. If she'd been more interested in a class offered only for older kids, we would have looked into getting permission for that. The school has been pretty flexible, and my son was allowed to take a "CSI" class for ages 10-14 when he was 8.

hth-

Lorel