US Youth Summer Camps

My daughter completed an excellent summer, 2010 Costa Rica Clasica program. 3 weeks. Excellent experience in all regards. 50% of day was Spanish education and other 50% was a mix of eco-tourism and community service. If your child is already proficient in Spanish, you really want to do the Intensiva program. Otherwise, your child will not be challenged with the Clasica beginner program.

Seems to be the most often recommended camp.
Background:
Kieve-Wavus Education is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising the aspirations of young people through summer camp programs in Maine.

Summer youth camps with residential programs at Stanford University. Stanford has first rate academic and athletic programs for children. Check out both links here. The children live right on the campus in nice dormitories and feel like they're attending school on the Farm! We have had excellent experiences at the Jazz and Golf camps.

One lead recommender attended this camp from age 12-15 and loved it.

Background:
Established in 1903, back in the days of ice houses and horse-drawn carriages, Camp Belknap today flourishes on the shore of New Hampshire's majestic Lake Winnipesaukee, not only because the concept of summer camp remains evergreen, but because its founders and succeeding generations of directors and leaders have created and continually improved on something special – a felicitous blend of place, tradition, and purpose. The aim, from early on, was to make good boys better. Camp Belknap prides itself on its home-grown leadership program and its motto of "God first, the other fellow second, and myself last."

A Paris/Seville family friend has a 15 year old son who attended this camp for last three years and loves it. Located on large, beautiful lake in New Hampshire. Recommend one month stay. Very outdoorsy, lost of activities, somewhat expensive. They offer almost
any outdoor activity you could want, except horseback riding. They have
climbing walls, tennis courts, motor boats, sailboats, canoes,
windsurfers, pottery, archery, hiking, etc.

Background:
Kabeyun is a summer camp for boys on Lake Winnipesaukee, in Alton Bay, New Hampshire, providing opportunities for learning and growth through an array of exciting, challenging, and fun activities. Boys have the chance and the responsibility every day to create their own program, choosing from a balanced menu of offerings that includes land and water sports, projects and adventure trips.

A French high school student at the college preparatory school attended this camp for two summer and highly recommended the camp. He said the camp was very good to international campers and the camp director actually travels to Europe and other countries to attract international campers.

This is a favorite summer camp for many nice families in Minneapolis, Chicago, and southern cities like Dallas, Houston, etc. You will meet Midwestern and Southern children here. Excellent recommendations from campers including French friends.
Background:
Camp Lincoln for Boys & Camp Lake Hubert for Girls in Brainerd Lakes Area, Minnesota offers traditional outdoor summer camp, summer golf camp, summer tennis camp and family camp programs.

Camp Kennolyn is very popular with San Francisco Bay Area families in the nearby Santa Cruz mountains. They have resident, day, and even family camps. Great for younger children ages 7-13 (pre high-school).

This is a very nice, and expensive camp, for boys and girls age 6-15 on a beautiful mountain lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains in eastern border of California. It's near to a Boy Scout Camp Oljato so there is a lot of youth activity on this remote mountain lake.

Gold Arrow Camp is a Traditional summer camp located on Huntington Lake. Our California summer camp has wakeboarding, rock climbing, and archery.

Another trusted recommender said his nephew spent all 10 summers before college at this camp and said it was 'the best'. This person also worked there during summer in college years.

Background:
Spend a summer at Winona Camps for Boys in Bridgton, Maine. Located on the shores of Moose Pond, overlooking Pleasant Mountain, Winona offers boys the opportunity to partake in numerous activities such as swimming, canoeing, kayaking and lacrosse as well as archery, rock climbing, hiking, horseback riding and many more. Boys from around the country and around the world come to Winona Camps to experience the traditions, such as The Bat, and hiking and canoeing trips. A summer at Winona gives boys friendships that last a lifetime.

This academic summer camp allows children to choose academic subjects of their interest on one of three campuses. Kids preparing for college actually attend and stay at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, about two hours north of New York City. Kids preparing for high school stay on campus of Wellesley College, near Boston, Massachusetts. Children ages 10-13 attend St. Mark's preparatory high school.

Located on beautiful Squam Lake, New Hampshire, this camp was founded by a former teacher and coach at Camp Kieve. Well recommended.
Background:
Camp Deerwood was founded in 1945 by Ferris and Helen Thomsen. A teacher and coach during the school year, Ferris had loved working at a few different camps as a young man. While serving at Camp Kieve in Maine in the early 1940s (Ferris was Head Counselor), the Thomsens decided they would like to start their own camp and began to look at lakefront properties in Maine and New Hampshire .

Third generation camp managers, a good sign of family commitment and tradition. Good outdoor/wilderness training.

Background:
We are located in East Orland, Maine on the shores of spring-fed Craig Pond, half way between Bangor and Bar Harbor. Flying Moose is a small boys' camp with a deep-woods trip program. Since 1921, hundreds of boys between the ages of 10 and 16 have found at Flying Moose the fun, relaxation, challenge, and companionship that spells the difference between just another summer and a long-remembered adventure.

Camp Timanous, located in Raymond, Maine, provides a boys camp life of lasting values for a healthful and happy summer.

Background:
Wekeela is located in south central Maine, nestled among forests timbered since Colonial times and near the famed mountains and lakes for which Maine is known. Our camp covers more than 150 lush acres including an expansive waterfront on Little Bear Pond, a natural lake that connects directly to Big Bear Pond.

This camp has separate, but connected boys and girls camps in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains with a nice lake.

Background:
Camp Becket for Boys was established in 1903, and has remained a leader in the field of resident camping. Henry and Ina Gibson, early directors at Camp Becket, helped to establish Chimney Corners Camp for Girls in 1931. The Gibsons ran Chimney Corners Camp for the first ten years, until the camp was purchased by Howard and Evelyn Smith, who operated Chimney Corners as a private camp until its acquisition by the YMCA in 1972. Since their founding, these camps have offered rustic four week resident camp programs that teach leadership and develop strong character in young people.

Tennis focus with other sports activities.
Background:
Windridge Tennis and Sports camps offers Vermont Tennis Camp New England Tennis Camp Residential Summer Camps Junior Tennis Camps Children’s Tennis Camp.Windridge Tennis & Sports Camps were founded in 1968 by Alden Bryan and Ted Hoehn. Alden Bryan, who died in February 2001, played tennis at Harvard and was a renowned landscape painter. Ted Hoehn, who is an active owner, played tennis for the University of North Carolina and has been nationally ranked in a number of categories.

From my own childrens' experience, Stanford Golf Camp is an EXCELLENT golf camp run by the men's and women's Stanford golf coaches. The children live on the Stanford campus in student dormitories right near theworld class 30-acre Siebel Varsity Training Complex. The coaching staff is excellent and the practice facility is incredible. Aspiring golfers come from all over the United States. They have a 'Player's Camp' for high school kids focusing on college golf too. Theyalso have an excellent parent-child golf camp.