How Much Does Summer Camp Costs? Seven Tips
When summer strikes, responsible parents know what is good for their kids- the summer camp. Every kid should have a chance to attend a summer camp, and that is why various foundations have come up with children scholarships to enable children to spend the time here. On the other hand, camps have also adopted camp activity financing to ensure that kids, despite their financial background can still get a chance to enjoy a summer camp experience. Apart from children acquiring a myriad of skills here, they also get an opportunity to make new friends, perfect their skills, and much more, which will help them in every step of their growth.
Summer Camp costs vary due to many factors. Before deciding on which one to send your kids to, it is imperative to know what factors contribute to a camp charging more for their services. These reasons will help you when scouting for the most appropriate camp for your kids without necessarily straining your pockets.
1. The type of camp
Day camps are the most affordable with some charging as little as $25 to $330 a day. The cost here typically covers for the facility to be used, snacks, staff, and meals. These centers will always make their rates known to the public, unlike the ones that charge heftily. High-end camps do not want to publicize their rates anywhere including their websites for fear of competition.
On the other hand, there are the nonprofit summer camps. These are also affordable. Examples of such camps include boys and girl scouts, churches, or YMCA branches. Here, a parent spends less depending on how early they enroll their kids among other considerations. Kids may also qualify for financial assistance for various activities based on their parents’ salary status.
Private camps are another category of summer camps, and here, your kid would deepen their skill sets for their particular interest. These are much more expensive than the above camps and can range from $30 and above per day. However, the ratio of coach to camper may also factor in. Overnight camps better known as night-away camps, on the other hand, are always overrated in price. Here, prices can range from $700 to $2000 weekly.
2. Facilities and Activities
The quality of facilities found in the camps differ hugely, and this differentiates a premium camp from a generic one. Some camps may only have simple facilities but with the ability to offer a handful of activities. Premium camps offer the kids a wide range of activities. They have high-end amenities such as pools, state of the art equipment, horses, ropes, slides, etc., which will typically cost much thus high camp rates.
3. Personnel
The staff in a camp can greatly influence the price of summer camp enrollment. The ratio of instructor to camper can make all the difference, thus in premium camps, the ratio is better. A sizable number of kids are attached to an instructor. Also, councilors in the premium camps are better trained, are more staff, and on a full-time basis.
4. Counselor training
While there is a mandatory basic safety training for the staff in the camp which would often take 2 to 3 days, the high-end camps will provide their employees with extensive orientation programs. This exercise can go up to 2 weeks making the enrolment to these camps very expensive. Lots of time, finances, and resources are spent on training their staff on how well to handle cases of homesickness, social cruelty, challenging behavior, and on how to better communicate to parents.
5. The size of the team
Camps that charge higher always to have a dedicated team that works there throughout. This is not the case with budget camps as most of their staff operate on a part-time basis. Having a round-the-clock team ensures more time for important tasks, adequate time for recruitment, better expertise and also time for staff networking, without crippling the daily camp’s activities.
6. Superior professional development
Different organizations host different camp conferences that are aimed at training staff on both narrow and broad topics such as using technology in the camps, handling adolescents, behavioral change and more. The high-end summer camps strive to send their teams to participate in such conferences throughout the year. Such costs may boil down to the hefty costs of summer camp admission. Budget camps may save cost by not sending theirs to most of such conferences, and only concentrate on what they deem most important conferences, thus little admission and operational costs.
7. Philosophical Challenge
Every child despite their financial background should attend a summer camp. A good camp should strive to create the best experience for the kids despite their economic background. They endeavor to improve their physical and personal aspects of their camp, before a camp session. Renovations are done, new facilities get purchased, staff undergoes a rigorous training and much more. While this cost may be passed down to the parent as high admission fees, the best camp will always find a good way to bridge this gap. They do this by adopting scholarship programs and other well-thought initiatives.
Conclusion
Having the above points in mind, you will understand why some camps are more expensive than others. These tips will guide you when scouting for a pocket-friendly summer camp to send your kids next summer.