10 Reasons NOT to Send Your Kids to Camp {Summer Camp Guru}

This is a sponsored guest post on behalf of Summer Camp Guru.

Learn how Summer Camp Guru gives parents a centralized tool for summer camp planning. By providing key information for each camp provider and session date, Summer Camp Guru helps streamline the process and reduce the time you spend searching for camps.

by Victoria Johnson

There are countless blog posts and articles extolling the benefits of summer camp. Rather than add to the fray, I’d like to suggest why you may want to avoid sending your kids to camp this year.

You don’t need summer child care. The kids can just watch TV and play on the iPad while you ‘work from home.’
Making new friends is overrated. With social media and texting, kids don’t need to learn how to actually talk to people in person.
Your kids don’t need summer enrichment. You have your own ‘summer school’ program; if so many people home school their children, how hard can it be?
You can stop the summer brain drain by just doing a few flash cards.
You’ve collected a bunch of activities from Pinterest that you’d like to try out.
What’s wrong with an old-fashioned ‘just-play-outside’ summer?
For the cost of an overnight camp, you can rent a really nice beach house.
‘Getting in touch with nature’ can lead to poison ivy.
You already have enough alone-time with your husband.
You were bored all summer growing up, and want your kids to have the same experience.

Not convinced? If you still find yourself in the unfortunate position of having to work out a complex summer schedule, never fear! There is a new resource that will make this dreaded annual task easier.

Summer Camp Guru, will revolutionize your planning process with four easy steps to a successful summer:

1) Use up to 10 search criteria to filter by activity, age, gender, cost, dates, pick-up times and location – all at the same time.

2) View details for each session on screen, or download your results for future reference.

3) Once you know a camp meets your criteria, you can click to visit their website, learn more and register.

4) Save your favorite options to a list for each child and share with your friends.

Done!

A few examples to highlight the usefulness of this tool:

But what about that spreadsheet model that took years to perfect? Don’t worry – spreadsheets are actually the best way to collect all the information. You can download your search results to Excel and organize to your heart’s content. As a former financial analyst, this feature almost brings me to tears.

Two minutes could save you two hours: This is a collective effort! To have all the planning data we need in one place, participation from all camps is necessary. In order to convince them to take the time to post, we must demonstrate that we want this resource. That means strong user statistics on the website. Investing two minutes to sign up on the site could save you hours of research time next year. Encourage your friends to do the same! Summer Camp Guru is available for day camps in the Triangle, Triad, Charlotte, and Asheville areas, as well as NC overnight camps.