If hearing about your grandkids' camp plans makes you long for the days when summers were filled with swimming, braiding lanyard, and swapping stories with your bunkmates, you have a chance to fulfill that yen. You can go back to camp — with your grandkids — and there are no parents allowed on these grand-camp programs. Whether you choose a straightforward nature camp or a slightly zany circus camp, you'll find stays that vary in length from a weekend to one week. All provide a wonderful opportunity to build memories with your grandchildren. For some grandkids, it's their first time at sleepaway camp, and your introducing them to this world is priceless.
Sierra Club: Just for Grandparents and Grandkids
For a decade, folks have been trekking to Lake Tahoe, Calif., for the Sierra Club program tailored to grandparents and grandchildren, ages 6 to 13. A week at rustic Clair Tappaan, the lodge at Tahoe, includes guided hikes, swimming, and nightly activities like visits from wildlife educators accompanied by local critters. Together, the generations are required to take on easy daily chores such as food prep, setting tables, and the like. Eileen Listgarten of Foster City, Calif., participated with her grandchildren. She believes the interaction between youngsters and their grandparents makes this camp experience special. In her words: "The dynamics with the grandparents are much different, dare I say better, than [the way they are] with the parents."
Grand Camp at Great Camp Sagamore
Grand Camp at Great Camp Sagamore |
Once a vacation home to the Vanderbilts, Great Camp Sagamore is one of the last remaining wilderness estates in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York. Now in its twentieth year as host to Grand Camp, Great Camp Sagamore is a nonprofit organization focusing on environmental education and history. Grandparents and kids, ages 6 and older, fill their week with craft projects like building wooden oars and designing T-shirts, taking music classes and guided hikes, and enjoying barn dancing and talent shows. All activities are optional, so you can take it at your own pace. One week is set aside specifically for granddaughters and grandmothers. Don and Judy Applegate of Ilion, N.Y., have taken their three grandchildren to the Great Camp Sagamore Grand Camp over the years and believe the most significant aspect of the camp is the one-on-one time. Judy Applegate says, "The bond that is made during the week at camp is so strong and is what the kids will remember forever. The kids always want to come back." The Applegates point out that electronics are banned from Great Camp Sagamore; this means your grandkids won’t be playing portable video games or watching TV, and you won't be making cell calls (there's no reception). So you can concentrate on each other without the distractions of the modern world.
Grandkidsandme Grandparent Camp
Building birdhouses |
For a brief getaway with your favorite youngsters, consider heading to the Wisconsin woods for a weekend with Grandkidsandme; Don Schmitz, the founder, is a grandfather who believes in fostering close relationships between the generations. Set in YMCA Camp Icaghowan on a 40-acre island near the town of Amery, the program focuses on promoting communication between grandparents and their grandkids while they enjoy the outdoors. The schedule includes canoeing, hiking, nature scavenger hunts, storytelling, songs, and campfires. Shower and bathroom facilities are a short walk from the cabins where campers bunk together. For eight years, Grandkidsandme has played host to grandparents and grandkids, ages 4 to 12.
Greatest Show on Earth: Circus, Nature, and Sports Adventures at Calloway
If you ever dreamed of running away and joining the circus, here's your chance. The Elderhostel program for grandparents and grandchildren, ages 7 to 11, in Pine Mountain, Ga., includes a lesson in circus arts and a performance by the Florida State University Flying High Circus. Other featured activities are nature classes about butterflies and hummingbirds, introductory tennis and golf, swimming, and planting a garden in a shoe. You'll spend most of your time with your grandchildren, but some adults-only or kids-only activities are built into the schedule. Forget about cold showers and hard bunks; participants stay at Mountain Creek Inn in the Calloway Gardens, a family resort.
Grandparents Weekend at Camp Mason
This is the first year for Grandparents Weekend at the YMCA's popular Camp Mason on 600 forested acres in northwestern New Jersey, easily accessible to the New York metropolitan area. Camp Mason's heated cabins include full bathrooms, but — as at many Y camps — you'll have to bring bedding. Offered only in November, this program features traditional camp activities like archery, arts and crafts, tetherball, and campfires, along with athletic pursuits like rafting or tubing on the Delaware River, Geocaching, and scaling a climbing wall. Nothing is mandatory, so you can tailor your weekend to fit your needs.
Camp Tecumseh
Practicing archery at Camp Tecumseh |
Kids as young as 2 are welcome at the Grand Camp weekend offered in late September at Camp Tecumseh in Brookston, Ind. This YMCA outdoor center offers all the classics of a summer camp program: guided hikes, boating, and a slippery downhill sled ride through a tunnel known as the Black Hole. For an additional fee you can enjoy horseback riding with your grandkids.
Related Information
For information on other grand camping programs, visit Elder Hostel online to learn about its intergenerational programs.
Many summer camps with religious affiliations offer grandparent-grandchild programs. Such as:
• GrandCamps: Colorado-based weeklong grandparent camp that the Christian Grandparenting Network runs (offers a special free camp for military families).
• Bubbie-Zaydie Camp: This Jewish grandparent camp in Ortonville, Michigan is glatt kosher and takes place on various weekends throughout the summer.
• Luther Point Bible Camp & Retreat Center: A half-week bible camp in Grantsburg, Wisc., for children and their grandparents.
Join the discussion about how you can create your own grandparent camp at home. Sleepaway camps are at the top of the list of parental wishes. Consider a dude ranch for an exciting outdoor experience with your grandchildren.
Home
