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I can give some info on this...

-----Original Message-----
Skoshi writes:

Hello Ed and Program Folks,

We are considering having a spring break science camp this year.  I am
interested in hearing about other people's experiences:  

hours of camp,
[ours runs from from 9:00-4:00]

schedule and structure of the day, 
[each day  has some kinda theme - chemistry, astronomy, whatever - and
the kids do different activities in different time blocks. Experiments,
seeing a planetarium show, touring the museum, some kinds arts + crafts,
lunch etc]

how much was charged for the camp, 
[for the camps we run on school vacation days, $55/kid, with a $5
discount for members]

Did you have an option to sign up by the day vs. the whole week, 
[No, but we do have whole day or half-day options for the camps we run
in the summer. For those, the theme runs the entire week and kids have
to sign up for the whole week. This is nice, as it lets us do more
long-term activities]

in-house educators or hired out,
[both; our education staff, plus local college + HS kids who work as
counselors]]

collaborations, 
[none by us, though many camps do this]

how well attended and how well received, etc.
[we run them during school breaks in December, Feb and April, plus the
summer ones and a few one-day school holidays. February is definitely
the most heavily attended, possibly due to the weather here in CT (in
April, families can do stuff outside on school break... less so in
February. Generally speaking, they're pretty well attended and bring in
a decent amount of cash, though it's a lot of work and kinda crowded in
our tiny museum. We push the camps heavily, including getting permission
from nearby school districts to distribute fliers at schools.]

Any advice, suggestions or feedback would be greatly
appreciated.

[As Beryl mentioned, you probably have to get state licensing/meet
various requirements to run your camp. With popular themes, if the kids
get to assemble/take home stuff, charging extra for the materials is
easily doable. We charge extra for our summer robot week, and it's
easily our most popular; the kids assemble keep kits from OWI.]
 

Good luck,
Jonah Cohen
Outreach & Public Programs Manager
The Children's Museum

"I have seen the future. It's just like the present, only longer."

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