Summer Camp

Written by Special Guest Blogger Jeanie Cullip

Summer Camps, many of us have been to them and probably even more of us send our children to them. They are sort of a tradition of summer and over the years has even morphed into an alternative to day care for working parents. The questions we struggle with every year are: Which camps are we going to do? How many can we really afford? Do we make them continue the same camps each year for tradition or do we let them switch around each summer? Day camps or over night camps? There are many more questions too but, those are our main ones.

I thought it might be easy to get a summer camp guide and read about all the camps but, WOW, there are a lot of different camps out there! I laugh because I know there are so many other pressing issues out there in the world but, for those of you with children too, you probably go through this to a degree each summer too. I am amazed and overjoyed we have so many options for our children for summer camps, everything from church camps to horse camps, foreign language camps to circus camps, 4 day camps to camps that run all summer, in our area we have so many wonderful options to choose from and that is a good problem to have.

I suggest you go to our local YMCA and get details on their day and overnight camps for ages 4 all the way up to high school. I would also suggest you search The News Tribune's Summer Camps Database they provide online. (http://wwwb.thenewstribune.com/events/summercamps/) Here you can search by theme, date, age and cost or any combination for camps to fit your families needs.

Here are some good local summer camp links:

Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church Camps (http://www.chapelhillpc.org/our-calendars-mainmenu-17/special-events-mainmenu-131/camps-2010.html)

YMCA Gig Harbor Day Camp (http://find.acacamps.org/cgi/details.cgi?id=18638)

YMCA Camp Seymour (http://www.campseymour.org/)

Have fun this summer!

Jeanie Cullip is a happily married, stay-at-home mom of 3 children of her own and 2 step-children. Finding joy, love & hope right in her own back yard and sharing it with her neighbors near and far. She is a freelance writer residing in Gig Harbor. Find out more on her website jeanie cullip, writer. http://www.soccermomngiggletown.wordpress.com