I hope you didn’t miss not having an article last week. We were traveling and I just didn’t feel like stopping to write an article. I’ll talk more about travel in next week’s monthly update.
We’ve reached the unofficial end of summer. Boo. Hiss. It goes by twice as fast every year. As usual, my kids are the last ones to return to school. Their first day is today.
We technically have a couple of weeks left of summer, so it’s not too late to reflect on my kids’ summer camps and how much they cost. I have been writing articles like this every year for several years now. You can go back and read 2022’s edition,2023’s edition, 2024’s edition.
In 2022, it cost $4,500 for my two kids to spend 7 weeks in summer camp. In 2023, it was $5,400, but that was 8 weeks of camp. In 2024, it was 5,794 for another 8 weeks of camp. It’s steadily going up, but that’s to be expected with inflation.
When the kids were younger, we did a variety of camps. The idea was to expose them to as many things as possible. Maybe it’s just where we live, but I feel like there are so many more options today than when I was a kid. Back then, there were about three local camps, and they were dirt cheap. I’m forever scarred a better person for having survived Prospect Hill’s morning ice-cold swim lessons that were necessary to get into the afternoon free swim in 200-degree heat*. (Hi Mom!)
Also, when our kids were younger, they wouldn’t get along at all. Many times, it was better to have them in different camps. That meant a lot of coordination with driving because they all started and ended around the same time.
Nowadays, they know which camps they like. They also get along a lot better. Things are a lot more stable. With all this infrastructure put into place, we only have a little flexibility for a week or two to switch things up each year.
Kid 1: Twelve-Year-Old
This year, Kid 1 continued to build on his love for theater. He did five weeks, which consisted of three weeks of musical camp and two weeks of Shakespeare camp. In the musical camp, the kids create their own musical with a good deal of help from the camp staff. New parents to the camp are always amazed at how good it is. Now that’s his fourth time doing it, I’m realizing that the counselors have about twenty songs that can apply to almost anything. These were the same camps as last year.
Over the last several years, this has gone from $1750 to $1850 to $1975. It sells out, so I’m not surprised.
For his sixth week, he did a CyberCamp by the Air and Space Force. From that page, it seems like it costs $1200 for the week. It was free! I think it might be from a state or federal grant. I didn’t ask questions. I was just happy that he was learning about MD5 hashes. That’s every father’s dream for his son, right? He rated a 6 out of 10 because there was a lot of learning, but he liked the counselors, and the scavenger hunt on the last day was a lot of fun. I know it’s not a typical summer camp, but we don’t have any computer skills classes around us, so I’ll settle for that.
In the 7th week, he did a cooking camp. This was his fifth year of cooking camp. The food they make there is really great. It is expensive at $390 for only three hours. There were times when I didn’t even get to touch my computer before I had to turn around and pick him up. Despite that, I’m a huge fan of kids learning cooking – it’s a lifelong skill that will save them a lot of money. The last day ends with a cooking competition like those TV shows with the judges. This year, my son was the captain of the team that won.
With the 8th and final week of camp, we opted for a golf camp. He liked it well enough to join the golf club at school this fall. That was a little expensive at $249 for only three hours a day. I wish we could have somehow combined these camps that only go from 9-12.
The only downside of the summer camp season is that we couldn’t fit in the Boy Scout overnight camp this year. The troop went earlier during one of the theater camps, so he couldn’t do that like last year. Hopefully, it works out better next year.
Kid 2: Eleven-Year-Old
Last year, my younger son loved the same musical camp as his brother. However, he was in the stage crew, building the sets and running the lighting for the play. He loves art and building stuff. This year, he expanded to do it for both the musical and Shakespeare camp. That was five weeks where I didn’t have to drive them to different places. Phew, what a relief!
After the musical camp, he literally went to another art camp for a week. For the second year in a row, he was surprised that one of his friends was in the camp, too. We are members of the local art museum, so the price was $356.
Finally, he did one stint (two weeks) of sailing camp. We had planned this with his best friend and their parents. That worked out great because we could carpool. The other mother works about a block from the camp, so she stopped by and picked up our son every day. Our house is on the way, so it was minimal extra work for her. Even when their own son was sick, she picked up our kid and brought him to camp. They almost always walked to her work, and she drove them home. It was great!
Sailing camp stayed at $550 for two weeks – the same price as last year. That’s a great price. It must be subsidized, because sailing at a yacht club should be one of our most expensive camps.
The Cost of Summer Camp
Summer camp has become a big business. There will always be people who will pay for the education of their kids. Also the
Last year, each kid also spent eight weeks at camp. Kid 1’s camps came to $3,325, and Kid 2’s came to $2,469. That’s $416/week for Kid 1 and $309/week for Kid 2. Overall, it was $5,794.
This year, Kid 1’s camps came to $2,614. We saved a lot by not having a “maker camp” and Scout overnight camp. The free Cybercamp also played a huge role. Kid 2’s camps came to $2,881. His second theater camp was more expensive, and the art camp went up. Overall, we spent $5,495, so we saved a little money.
We were able to save some money this year as my wife got a plan at work to put away money pre-tax for some child care purposes.
I know a lot of families that don’t have nearly as much camp. They obviously save a lot of money. I don’t know how they survive with their kids around all the time. It drives me crazy, and they’ll watch endless hours of YouTube. If I take away their devices, they just beat each other up. That’s what boys at that age do, right?
I also know a lot of families who have kids who spend more time with nannies and many weeks at overnight camps. That’s a lot more expensive. I instinctively felt we were a little above average in our spending. Then I got a little curious and did a little research. It seems thata Nerdwallet survey says that 25% of parents expect to spend over $2,000 per child. So maybe we’re in the 15-20% range.
If we didn’t do this much summer camp, we’d probably fill the time with travel. That’s much more expensive than camp, but you make lifelong memories. We are limited in how much we travel due to the amount of military leave my wife gets. She doesn’t have the option to take a sabbatical or unpaid leave. We would travel more if she could. In the meantime, summer is the best time for my dog boarding business.
Final Thoughts
I have a very selfish reason for writing this article every year. I get to look back at the previous camps and read what I wrote. In the 2022 article, I went on for a full paragraph about the sailing camp, which I expected to be the highlight. The camp that I was most worried about was the theater camp. Sailing camp turned out to be a ginormous bust for Kid 1**. The drop-off for theater camp was terrible, but it turned out to be a great first day. Every day has gotten better since then, and now he’s taking as many theater programs as possible.
This reminds me just how valuable summer camps can be.
It’s not just something that could grow into a lifelong passion, but it gives you familiarity for whenever it might come up again in your life. Maybe Kid 1 won’t ever use an MD5 hash or go sailing with friends. However, it’s quite possible that he’s asked to go golfing. I’ve been asked a few times, and I’ve had to turn it down. I’ve only been to the driving range a couple of times and nothing more than that.
* I’m convinced that summers in the Boston suburbs were 200 degrees when I was a kid compared to nowadays. Maybe it was the lack of air conditioning back then or the fact that I live near the coast with ocean breezes now.
** It’s not like the sailing camp was bad. Kid 2 loved it the following year when he was old enough. As you can see from above, he loved it and still goes.
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