SUMMER
Day camps in the Berkeley/Oakland/Albany/El Cerrito area
including spring and winter break camp offerings
Residential
camps in Northern California (& beyond)
plus some
internships, family camps & international programs
by Tom Lent
Introduction to the Guide
This guide covers over 140
day camps in
the Berkeley/Oakland/Albany/El Cerrito area, (concentrating on Berkeley and the
northern end of Oakland, see below for info on camps on the other side of
the hills) and more than 50 overnight
resident camps, internships and
family camps mostly from around Northern California, but with a
few from farther afield of particular unique interest to California kids,
including international programs.
I generally have not listed
programs that are an hour or less per day or run for less than two weeks
(except residential camps and spring and winter break offerings). The majority
of the camps are for primary school age children, but I have expanded to
include more middle and high school age camps as they have come to me.
A note about reviews: Reviews are based upon surveys I
did of parents at
GETTING MORE
INFORMATION: This
listing is not comprehensive. There are more camps out there, both general and
specialty (arts, music, drama, science, sports). Below are listed a number of
useful resources for your exploration:
AAUW Summer Program Information Fair
Is a way to get a wealth of information in person about these and other camps
in a few hours. Reps come from over 100 day and sleep-away programs for kids
from pre-school to high school, including special needs. It is free and held in
March each year in the Scottish Rite Center at 1547 Lakeside in
American Camping
Association
(925-933-0666 www.acanorcal.org) Check
out the Norcal section for more camps on the east
side of the hills,
Bay Area Kid Fun (http://www.bayareakidfun.com/pages/summercamps.html)
covers the greater Bay area with camps and other kid fun listed by city.
Bay Area Parent (http://sanfrancisco.parenthood.com/)
has lists of Bay area camps in its monthly magazines (one for the
CampPlanIt.net (http://www.campplanit.net/CampPlanItLocation.aspx)
covers camps in the entire Bay area and includes search tools to help parents
select camps by type and location, calendar functions to help find camp
schedules that fit into their summer schedules and online registration options
for some camps.
East Bay Regional Parks (http://www.ebparks.org/activities/daycamps)
Provides a complete listing of all the camps hosted in
the parks, plus a “campership” program to help low income families afford the
cost.
goCityKids/ParentcConnect (http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/sub-category/san-francisco-ca-usa/resources/camps)
has an online listing of day camps and other family friendly stuff by
neighborhood through out
Parent Press (http://www.parentspress.com/)
publishes extensive camp listings for the whole Bay Area in the March and April
editions of their monthly news magazine. Last I checked it was not available on
line. You will have to search out the print edition at YMCAs kids
stores and other such family friendly spots in the area.
Summer-Day Camps.com (http://www.summer-daycamps.com/) Provides
online listings of camps around the country with as search by area code.
NATIONAL: More camp listings in the Bay area and the rest of the country can be
found at www.findcamps.com and http://www.summer-daycamps.com/ and http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/choose/
High School & College: More
summer programs around the country aimed at high school and college kids can be found at http://www.enrichmentalley.com. The
Berkeley High College/Career Center website offers more summer program info at http://bhs.berkeley.net/index.php?page=home-2
- click on “Summer Programs.”
Volunteer opportunities in the Bay area are
listed at www.volunteerinfo.org
What to do the rest of the time?. How do you find cool things to do
in the Bay Area the rest of the time when they are not in camp? The Berkeley
Parent’s Network (see link above) gathers parent recommendations and
discussions and Bay Area Parent (also above) provides calendar listings. And
don’t miss Kiddie Koncierge
(www.kiddiekoncierge) another parent
labor of love with lots of recommendations for fun kid friendly activities -
and some good kid travel info and stuff for parental escapes as well.
Act early. Camps are
filling faster every year. While many camps don't publish their schedules until late February or
March, and some have room in some sessions right into the summer, others fill as
early as mid February (Kids n' Clay, LHS, the Cal Sports & Science combo
and Skateboard camp, Ha-Ha-This Away and some residential camps for example).
Act now if you want one of these programs.
Some of the fee & date information here dates back to the summers of 2002 and
2003, the last years that I
attempted the increasingly heroic task of comprehensively updating the entire
list. The list has grown and my time has shrunk for updating this site
now and I am no longer able to gather and incorporate reviews or update fee,
schedule and program information. The
parenthetic number at the end of each listing (02) will tell you when I last
updated it. Luckily most camps now have
web addresses that are linked here so you can check yourself for updates that I
may not yet have learned about or had a chance to incorporate here.
This has been a labor of
love, not a profitable enterprise, started when I was first trying to wade
through the confusion to figure out where to send my son after his kindergarten
year. Once I had gathered a bunch of information, I figured I should share it.
I do the best I can, but no guarantees about the accuracy information are made.
I have less time now to keep up with it than I used to but hope it still is
helpful to you.
Read about Day
Camps
Read about Overnight
Resident Camps
Return to Tom Lent’s Information Center
Submit Updates
& New listings
Comments? E-mail them to me: tominfo@igc.org