Teen Non Video Game Centered Activities Sought
Greetings,
I am new to the network and am looking for fun, especially outdoor activities, my 15 year old stepson can participate in for the summer while he is here. He lives out of state and will be visiting for a month.
In the home he lives in most of the year, he is glued to video games, even on the weekends.
During his visit, when his dad and I are not working, we'll be camping, dirt biking, and swimming. We love the outdoors and our teen does, too, when given the opportunity. We want to ensure that our teen has some great activities to do during the week, especially since he will be fasting from video games.
May 6, 2017
Parent Replies
Your stepson is old for many day camps, but Cal Adventures offers camps focusing on activities like sailing, sea kayaking, and rock climbing that include teens. We used to sign my visiting nephews up for these, and they enjoyed them. I think Cal also has Archery camps for teens. Alternately, maybe he could be a junior counselor at an outdoor camp like Sarah Science.
Hi, we haven't done camps in some years but when my son was that age, he enjoyed the week-long Cal Camps that played basketball, I believe, but there are different sports available. He also did a tennis camp. I think that you can find information about these in the archives. For a different side of the brain, we also did BandWorks, a school of rock and roll which is in Oakland which caters to complete beginners and up. It's a lot of fun. I am sure that there are now rock-climbing camps in Berkeley as well if that interests him. These camps are not inexpensive, however. I'd also look into the Y for summer activities. good luck!
My advice is for the parents to put the boy's computer in the living room and remove all schoolday/night access he has to phones and video game consoles.
Teens resist when there are limitations placed on there video game playing, but eventually, these limits benefit everyone. The teen most of all!