Maximum Fun Summer Camps
Summer camp has come a long way since we were kids. Instead of canoeing and weaving lanyards, today’s kids are building Lego robots, dusting mock crime scenes for fingerprints, meeting professional baseball players and apprenticing with glassblowers. We’ve highlighted a sampling of The 330’s coolest camp offerings to help you find the perfect summer experience for your child’s unique interests.
Experiment with Science
Your kids might not realize it, but the toys they play with are linked to science. Whether your children have superhero figurines, a play kitchen or a barn set, they can learn about the science behind things that interest them at Akron Fossils & Science Center.
The center offers interactive science day camps that are split into morning and afternoon sessions. For the Dinosaur Adventure Camp June 18-22, children learn about fossilization and then piece together fossils. At the Space Camp July 9-13, children learn how the solar system works and then look at data from the Hubble Space Telescope and other space probes, and make space goo.
“We are so small that we are able to do hands on,” says Executive Director Jodie Brewer. “They are walking away with a lot, not a blur.”
Kindergartners through eighth-graders with myriad interests have plenty of options to explore. Mini lab techs can experiment with Mentos and Coca-Cola in the “foodology” Mad Science camp, super sleuths can dust for fingerprints at a Crime Scene Investigation camp or animal lovers can interact with a sugar glider at Creature Feature camp. And if your kid loves all school subjects, he or she can don superhero gear for a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics camp that investigates how Superman flies or how the Batmobile works.
While the interactive lessons are exciting, counselors know kids need to burn off some energy too, so kids enjoy snack time in the dino dig area and play in the 2-acre outdoor park with a mini golf course, 60-foot-long slide, helicopter swing, a merry-go-round and challenge course. Plus, youngsters over 4 feet tall can end their camp time with a high-flying ride on the 200-foot zip line.
“It’s a great balance between really digging in deep and then also having a lot of fun,” says Brewer. 2080 S. Cleveland Massillon Road, Copley, 330-665-3466, akronfossils.com
Get Your Tech On
STEM education is all the buzz these days. If your 7- to 14-year-old is fascinated by Lego robots, video games or Minecraft, the Classroom Antics Tech Camps might be the perfect addition to his or her summer.
Toby Foote, founder and program director, founded Classroom Antics in 2007 when he was downsized from his job as a Unix team leader in KeyBank’s tech group. He saw a dearth of both quality science, technology, engineering and math programs for young people and a lack of good teachers teaching them.
“Usually people that know about technology are not teaching it,” he says. “They have it as a job because it pays so well. There was an opportunity to change that model.”
The summer enrichment camps from Classroom Antics are all led by certified teachers from area schools who have a passion for technology. Each camp is three hours long, either morning or afternoon, and focuses on one tech project. Options are Lego robotics, stop-motion animation, video game design, programming, video production and Minecraft coding.
Campers can enroll in two camps to make a whole day of it; they’ll just need to bring a sack lunch. But they’ll need something else, too. “Kids do not need to bring anything except enthusiasm to learn,” Foote says. “Everybody gets their own technology to use during camp, so nobody is sharing.”
With certified teachers, each camp maxed at 12 kids and a one-to-one tech ratio, Classroom Antics gives campers all the resources they need to maximize their summer potential for creativity and prevent the dreaded summer slide.
“Instead of just being a consumer or playing video games, we’re turning consumers into creators,” Foote says. Multiple locations, 800-595-3776, classroomantics.com
Take Me Out to the Baseball Diamond
Nothing says summer like a baseball game. The crack of a bat and the aroma of hot dogs linger in the warm evening air as the boys of summer run, walk and slide through the infield.
Does your child dream of being one of those uniformed players smacking homers on the diamond? Then RubberDucks Baseball Camp is the place to be this July.
Director of Baseball Camps Roy Jacobs, who played ball for Malone College and coached the Frontier League team Washington Wild Things for three years, has amped up the camp’s format this year to accommodate requests from parents. The three-day camp for 6- to 12-year-olds will still be held June 20 through 22, focusing on fundamentals and “just getting the kids to play and develop a love for the game.”
Jacobs has added two options for kids who want to go a little deeper into specific offensive or defensive skills. These half-day camps will be on the mornings of July 13 and 20, respectively.
“We’re going to go more in depth with it than just the way to hold the bat, stand in the box, swing the bat,” Jacobs says. “We’re actually going to talk more in depth about getting your backside through the ball and driving with your hips and stuff like that.”
There will also be more players staffing the events this year, including Jacobs himself, rather than coaches or managers. “They come to the games not to watch the manager or the coaches, but to watch the players,” he says.
And you just never know who’s going to show up at Canal Park. Last year, Cleveland Indian Danny Salazar was rehabbing in Akron and signed autographs for kids at the camp.
“The advantage for the RubberDucks camps is you actually are talking to some of our top players in the Indians organization,” Jacobs says. “You’re working with some of the best in the world.” Canal Park, Akron, 330-375-1706, akronrubberducks.com
Be a Part of History
Your kids might think their history class is drab. But they’ll likely shift their perspective when they become a glassblower’s apprentice, a 19th-century farmhand or a historic actor through the InHale Day Camps. Re-enactors guide kids through crafting a broom, playing the fiddle or foraging for dye.
“They might get to feel the wetness of the clay or they can hear the click of the hammer and the anvil. They are within sight, standing side by side with the artisan and helping them do the work,” says Lisa Pettry, education and public program manager.
Nine day camps, ranging from arts to farm life to early American trades, welcome kids 7 to 14 most Fridays June 8 through Aug. 10.
These immersive, hands-on opportunities let kids grasp, in a memorable way, what it was like to live on the Western Reserve 200 years ago. At Kids on the Farm camp June 8, children observe an oxen cart driver, while a Preserving History art camp July 27 lets kids make their own intricate stenciled floor cloth.
For the truly unique Civil War Education Day Aug. 10, kids meet the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and their horses. Plus, children train and drill with soldiers and learn what it’s like to live at camp by writing letters home and trying camp food that isn’t nearly as tasty as modern offerings. Enthused campers can return with family for the Civil War Re-Enactment Aug. 11 and 12. All this activity helps teach kids that history isn’t just facts in a stuffy book — it shapes who we are.
“It’s so important to have that understanding of history — where we’ve come from, how far we’ve come — to look at today in view of the past and really reflect upon the lessons,” Pettry says. 2686 Oak Hill Road, Bath, 330-666-3711, halefarm.org