Find pure camp joy for your little ones in Durham this summer
By Anna-Rhesa Versola | Photography by John Michael Simpson
It’s that time of year when parents bust out the calendar, figure out summer schedules and begin registering their kids for camp. Luckily, our area has plenty of engaging options for indoor and outdoor fun. We followed Durham campers to a handful this past year, but you can click here for our guide to even more Triangle camps that are sure to suit any kid’s interest.
Cultivating Creativity
Durham Arts Council School Director Amanda Miller says the cultural camps at DAC are among its most popular in the summer. Parents of kids ages 5-12 can register for one or two weeks of camp, with each weeklong session featuring a thorough exploration of another country’s arts and customs that ends with a camp exhibition and performance.
“I’m a solo parent who works full time, so having a reliable summer camp for my 7-year-old is a must,” says Michelle Roach. “My son, [Jordan Roach], has adored his time at DAC camps, having attended performing arts camps that covered the ’70s, “Nifty Nepal” and “Great Galapagos” last summer [as well as] school break camp days. He’s an extroverted, active kid, so the performance track was perfect for him. He still sings Nepalese songs he learned there.
“Having camp that lasts two weeks is great for us as well. Summer is generally filled with a brand-new start every Monday (new kids in your group, new teachers, new topics and sometimes completely new settings), which can be overwhelming for some kids. Having two weeks with everything being the same and getting to go more in depth with what he was learning helped bring some stability into our summer. My son also loved the ‘after-camp’ program and would brag about getting to go to the Durham Farmers Market on Wednesdays. The ‘walking downtown’ field trip was one of the highlights of his week.”
Parents can choose from three track options. For younger campers, ages 5-6, “Creative Kids” is a weeklong session that includes storytelling, dance, music and fun age-appropriate art activities. For kids ages 7-12, two types of camps are offered: A visual track that features 2D and 3D art, and a performing arts track that includes dance, theater and music.
LEFT Auggie Vinson-Savery decorates a paper mask at the camp, which covers art during the 1970s.
RIGHT Lucas Aceituno works on his art piece during the 1970s mini camp at DAC.
“I was quite pleased at how engaging and inspiring the Paraguay summer theater camp was for my daughter,” says Grace Rodriguez. “Every afternoon, my daughter was singing a song or sharing cultural knowledge she had learned. The production at the end was a wonderful crescendo of what they had learned and was executed beautifully.” Freeda Rodriguez, 10, echoes her mom’s sentiments: “I loved learning about Paraguay and their native language, their songs and culture,” she says. “I loved having a performance to show off everything we had learned. The teachers taught us a lot, but in a fun way, and were so nice.”
All weekly sessions begin with 8 a.m. dropoffs, 9 a.m. class starts and 3 p.m. pickups. There is an optional add-on camp offered from 3-5:30 p.m., “Afternoon Adventures,” for rising kindergarteners through age 12, which includes field trips and visits by professional artists.
In addition to the cultural camps, summer dance intensives are offered in partnership with Triangle Youth Ballet in which beginner and intermediate dancers participate in camps centered on creative movement, improvisational exercises, intro to ballet, jazz and contemporary styles in addition to dance history and choreography. As with the cultural camps, there’s a showcase of what kids learned at the end of each week.
There are also weekly summer mini camps designed for students ages 5 to 12 that offer a flexible schedule and divides campers into age-appropriate groups that participate in both visual and performing arts activities inspired by a theme. For students ages 13-18, DAC offers weeklong art intensives that allow middle and high schoolers to explore a specific medium in depth, providing teens an opportunity to develop work that can be included in their portfolio.
Outdoor Exploration
Schoolhouse of Wonder has held its Durham camps at the 400-acre West Point on the Eno city park for 35 years. Its classic camp options for ages 5-12 are split into three age groups while older kids, ages 13-16, serve as counselors in training. Weekly sessions offer a variety of themes and skill sets, like plant identification and campfire cooking. Its promise to parents? That their kids will leave camp “dirty, tired and happy.”
This year, Schoolhouse of Wonder will pilot programs for 4-year-olds. “There’s a big need,” says Schoolhouse COO Marty Jorgensen, who adds that staff regularly check in with parents about what they want to see offered. The organization is also reviving its program that invites classrooms of young students out to the park to engage in active outdoor learning that includes adventures in science, social studies, math, music and folklore. “Pre-pandemic, we had a really strong field trip program that we’re just bringing back this spring,” she says.
Aaron Welborn says his daughter, Lydia Welborn, who turns 9 in March, started attending Schoolhouse during the pandemic.
“It was a way for her to be outside around other kids,” Aaron says. “It was kind of a lifeline for us during that time, and she loved it. She likes to get out and explore the woods; she always comes home with little treasures that she has found. That’s her idea of camp now – being outside all day.”
Another parent, Justin Faerber, says his son “has been going there for more than half his life.” Gavin Faerber, now 11, began attending Schoolhouse camps at age 5, and now goes to camps in every season. “I don’t think that Schoolhouse is for every kid, but for kids who love being outside all the time, in all weather, doing hands-on stuff, it’s perfect,” Justin says. “He’s built a lot of friendships over the years with other campers who go to different schools [and are] different ages, as well as with the counselors. He’s actually aspiring to be a counselor when he’s older and do the counselor-in-training program they have.”
Virginia Bridges says her son, Jake Harriss, 8, loves building forts and fairy houses in the woods. She says he learned to whittle this past summer and made himself a walking stick. No matter the weather, she says, Jake always wants to go back into the woods.
“I’ve sent him to that camp when it’s super hot,” Virginia says. “There have been crazy thunderstorms. [Or] it’s almost freezing. And when he comes home, he never complains about the weather. He doesn’t say, ‘I miss playing on my Switch.’ He really does come home dirty and tired and happy.”
LEFT Leigh Laizure, Avery Wall, Gabe Freyer and Jack Laizure stand proudly beside the fairy house that they built from twigs.
RIGHT Jake Harriss gets back to basics with wilderness and bushcraft skills like primitive fire building.
Immersed In Nature
Founded in 2003, the Piedmont Wildlife Center’s mission is to safeguard and preserve the survival of wild animals through education and conservation. One of the ways it seeks to fulfill this goal is through the 10 weekly summer camps it offers in Orange, Durham and Wake counties. The camps in Durham County operate out of Leigh Farm Park, an 83-acre property that has remnants of a 19th-century plantation and was once part of shared territory of eight different Native American tribal nations.
Each week features a different theme that stirs the imagination and sparks curiosity. One week, campers will hear stories about fairies, gnomes, trolls and spirits. In another week, campers will learn how to build shelters and how to make a fire to keep warm. Still another week provides an introduction to ornithology while learning how to use binoculars to see the birds around us. Campers have the chance to use nature and wildlife as inspiration to write and perform a mini play on a stage in the woods, or make clay sculptures, or create paintings and songs.
Older campers ages 13-17 can take part in adventure camps that are prerequisites for counselors in training. Teens undergo a leadership program through development of survival skills, backpacking trips, archery and other outdoor knowledge.
“Hands down, Piedmont is the camp my kid is most excited about every summer,” says one parent, Katherine H. “At the end of each camp day, [Avery] comes home muddy, happy and with a half dozen different things she’s learned or discovered out in the woods!”
Find the perfect summer camp for your child on our camp guide!
