Summer Day Camps for Kids Who Don't Speak English

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Camp for visiting 10 year old boys from Shanghai?

March 2013

My friend is bringing her son and his friend for a visit in July. The boys are 10 years old and speak some English, having studied it since kindergarten. They are wonderful kids...artistic, friendly, and love animals. I live in Montclair but work in SF during the summer. Any recommendations? janis


How long will the boys be here? If long enough, I'd highly recommend Adventure Day Camp in Walnut Creek. They have a bus service and will pick up from and return the kids to your house each day. They are a quintessential ''summer camp'' with all the things offered that one thinks of when thinking of camp...sports, skits, horses, sailing, crafts, swimming, performances, silly dress up days, tie dye, an overnight camp out, etc. The sessions are 3 weeks long and the kids get really close to the other kids in their group as well as their counselor and bus drivers. My kids LOVE it and will be there for two full sessions each. Happy ACD parent


 

Summer camp for two German 10-year-old friends

May 2010

Hi: this summer a friend of mine is coming to visit from Germany with her two children (10 years old). She would like to enroll them in a summer camp in Berkeley or Oakland so that they can have fun, meet new friends and improve their English language. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks! Isabella


You might try the summer camp at Walden Center & School in central Berkeley. Their phone number is 510-841-7248. My 10-year-old will spend a couple of weeks there this summer. It's a fun, low-key camp with a few field trips to places like swimming pools. Last summer a camper from France had a good time at the Walden camp. Mary N.


 

Summer camp for visiting Italian kids

June 2007

Italian family, coming in Berkeley from 7/21 to 8/10, is looking for day camps for the boys (16, 13 and 5 yo). They really like team sports or playground sports. Any tips? Thanks.


I think you and the kids would be very happy with Cal's summer camp Check it out on line-look for Blue Cubs, Blue Bears. There are a few foreign kids that have fun and make friends at the camp. Best of luck! anon


The 5 yr old and 13 year old might like the Strawberry Canyon/ Clark Kerr sports camps run by UC Berkley Recreation Department. They run for 2 week sessions. The kids do a variety of sports each day. The 5 yr old would likely be at the camp at the Strawberry Canyon pool. The older child would be at the Clark Kerr campus. But they really are't very far apart, and doing both drop offs or pick ups is not so difficult. I'm not sure how many 13 yr olds go to the camp. You could tryp to get a feel for it from the camp director. You can look on line at the site for uc berkleey rec. department for the camps. The exact name is not so clear - Perhaps ''strawberry canyoun'' or ''golden bear''. Just check out the site. Another programrun by Cal Rec department is Cal Adventures. Those kids do kayaking, rock climbing, sailing and other stuff. More specific (and pricy and shorter) sport-specific camps are run by the Cal athletic department. You can find those on line too. Most of them do not run on Fridays. The older kid, if he has good english skills, cold be a CIT. Mom


 

Summer/language camp for 12-year-old from Turkey

April 2007

I am a faculty member at a university in Turkey and my wife and I will be visiting UCB for 9 months starting from July 1st, 2007. Our son (nearly intermediate-level speaker) of 12 will stay with us in Berkeley till the end of Sept, then return to Turkey for his school. We therefore search a summer/language/activity school for him between the dates of around first weeek of July and mid September. Our aim is to have our son improve his English as well as making him busy during the day time since we both will be working at the lab on a full time basis. Any help/recommendation/directive info would be much appreciated. Best wishes for all from Turkey !


Hello, I recommend the programs offered by UCB, Cal Youth Programs . They offer mainly sports summer camps: For 12 year olds, there is a huge variety of fun stuff like rock climbing, sailing, sea kayaking, etc. They also do mixed science in the morning and sports in the afternoon. My son (albeit 5 years old) went last year all summer and loved it, and will go again this year. The cost is reasonable (in comparison with other camps in this area) and it would be very convenient for you since it is located on the UCB campus. Check out the web site: http://calbears.berkeley.edu/insidepage.aspx?uid=0f65eaf9-fb1c-4327-b6a6-3a44ada5e072 This does not help you with the English, but perhaps just spending all day speaking English with kids and teachers would be enough? Otherwise, maybe you could hire an English tutor once or twice a week. I bet you could find a UCB student willing to do it for reasonable rates. It may be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for, as clearly, most camps are set up for kids living here who (mostly) already speak English. Good luck and I hope you have a great summer here in the beautiful Bay Area. Love CAL Camps