Summer Camp for 5 year old daughter
We're starting to look for summer camp options for my 5-year old daughter this summer. I'm looking for feedback on the City of Oakland Town Camp and City of Berkeley Summer Fun camps. I'm specifically looking for feedback on the Oakland Town Camp at Montclair Community Center and the the Art Discovery Camp at the Francis Albrier Community Center in Berkeley. Thanks!
Feb 23, 2020
Parent Replies
My active, social 7-year-old did the Arts Discovery camp most of last summer and will do it again this summer. It's somewhat no-frills, but they do go on one field trip every week and swimming sessions on Fridays. They do art and dance projects and play field games. Because they mainly stay at San Pablo Park, there's not a lot of time spent on buses. My kid made new friends and got to spend time with a few kids he knew from school. He didn't always like every single activity-- who does?-- but he had fun every day and said it was the best camp.
Since it's one of the least expensive full-day camps around, it does eventually fill up. However, there's probably still time to apply for scholarships right now.
I think the Art Camp at Francis Albrier is just okay. Your kids will be safe, but it isn't as fun as other camps. I think it would be a little for a lot of weeks, but a few weeks would be okay.
My daughter did the frances albrier camp when she was 5 last summer. They mostly stayed inside, arts programming was very limited, counselors were harsh and not warm, they watched movies that were not appropriate for 5 year olds, and did not supervise my daughter properly on a field trip to a water park. She was put in the older kids group bc she’s super tall even though I reminded the director and the staff the day before that she was only 5 and couldn’t swim. She didn’t like this camp at all - except for the day she got to go with the big kids at the water park and do whatever she wanted. This was so exciting to her that she still brings it up :)
Last year I enrolled my (then) 6-year old in the Incredibles Art Camp at Dimond Rec Center (Town Camp). I think it's perfect for children under seven because it's a smaller environment than the Dimond camp for the wider age-range. They do still intersect with the other camps at the Rec Center. My daughter took home lots of art projects. She thought it was a "little boring," but my kid is super physical so I would expect that. She did still enjoy the camp for the two weeks she was there and I felt like the counselors really enjoyed being around the kids. We're going back to Dimond this year, just in the other camp this time (she's aged out of the art camp anyway).