What do your young teens do in the summer?
 

My 14-yr-old daughter is wait-listed @ #30 at a favorite 3-week arts camp in Deerfield Massachusetts. (We told way too many people how great it has been over the years and now it's our turn not to get in.) So we need to start from scratch. What have your young teens done in the summer in the way of camps, volunteer work, enrichment programs, jobs, etc? (Note 14-yr olds can't legally work in Mass.) Thanks for your ideas! (Especially any in New England.)
Lydie

My niece spent all her summers at 4-H camp, graduating from camper to Counselor-in-training to counselor etc. Does the arts camp have a CIT program? She did the usual volunteer work with church, 4-H and ended up winning a college scholarship based on her community service work. Something to think about.

Our son started his own yard work business when he was 13 and ended up with a steady part-time job until he graduated from high school for a couple who raised dogs. It was dirty, dirty work but he loved it. When they vacationed he would have daily responsibilities for a week to 2 weeks. This involved a lot of parental commitment the first year but since the job was only a few miles away he could ride his bike. He learned a lot, took part in some of the dog-related events and ended up doing his senior project on the dogs. I think in NH, child labor laws don't extend to farm and family businesses.

You have my sympathies since helping young teens find things to do in summer is very difficult. (I am also in MA). Between usual concerns of legal work age plus transportation - which is disruptive to whatever YOU do during the day - and now add economy issues, it is going to be a tough summer for any teen - even those old enough to work.

Many camps in eastern MA are so over-populated with ex-campers who want to be CITs that it is worth a try, but I am not hugely optimistic for your dtr. Kids see it as a path to future empliyment and parents see it is a free activity for their kids. On the other hand, if you are in a position to pay for camp, I suspect that it may be somewhat easier to get in this summer as the time approaches - too many people just have to cross that off their budget. Same thing with yard work - I know in MA many of my neighbors will not hire an uninsured underage kid to do yard work - and many who have been paying a service have also crossed that off the financial list.

My dtr spent 3 summers as a full-time UNPAID counselor at an MSPCA camp (Methuen - do not know if any nearer you have camps). This MSPCA also had a 2 week day camp animal awareness program for young teens. Most camps for HS age kids are short and topical - like the arts camp. Is she into visual arts - I know it is a stretch, but there is a group of camps all over the US called iDTech camps that have a large computer art component, including animation. (Disclaimer - my son worked at them for 3 summers and is now finishing a degree in animation)

Summer enrichment courses at HS or college have also been parts of my kids plans - much easier in Boston area than yours - but if you are commutable to UMass Amherst - they probably have something or even a residential thing. Other colleges offer residential enrichment programs - check around and consider that as well.

If she wants to make money, people always need babysitters - although I suspect you were looking for something fun for her.

If you have the money and can stand the thought of your kid out of the country with strangers, EFTours has tours they send that age kids on. My kids did them, but only as part of a self-contained school group. The tours were great - but I had the security of knowing the teachers and kids who went along.

If she is into any sport and there is a town or club league, contact them about her being an assistant coach, helper. If you are comfortable with the adult coach, they will usually provide the transportation and are thrilled to have the help - my dtr was an adequate softball player in HS and would often help out the little kids' teams.

Help her contact local civic groups - they will likely be thrilled to have someone answer phones, file, etc - with budget cuts everywhere, it will depend on atmosphere in your community whether or not volunteering for the town to make up for layoffs is wise or not - but there are certainly private nonprofits that could use her help. These would most likely me non-client contact opportunities since charity would have to go thru all sorts of checks to allow her to do something interesting - but it is great experience.

If she is focused (my dtr was, son would rather die than do this) - she can learn something new. There are all sorts of on-line courses around if there is nothing near you.

Whatever you do, judge by your kids personality how much input from you is needed - you are likely to get all sorts of advice about kids taking responsibility for their own summer, and "when I was a kid... did not need to package kids up for the summer". But if you work, age 14 is a little young, in my opinion, to be floating around the house for 10 hours/day with no focus. My daughter even at that age could search out options with minimal help from me - my son needed to be hand carried to everything or else he would sit like a lump all summer - so ask her to be creative with you about what to do and if you get lucky you will find a combination of fun things.

And if this Massachusetts weather continues, she can go out and shovel snow this summer - there is a foot of it on my driveway, and did you hear there may be more this coming Friday?

I know that Interlochen is world famous for how great it is:

http://www.interlochen.org/

I went through this a few years back with my kids. One worked at the grocery store, one worked on the Internet and one ??? I don't remember what he did.

They also helped at summer VBS, church kids and youth groups and went to camp.

After seeing them do all these things I decided to write those ideas down in an ebook "7 Steps and 48 Ideas for Teens to Make Money" I thought that if they could do these things with the kids at church - why couldn't they hire themselves out to do these things in the neighborhood with the kids.

The more I thought about it, I was convinced that they could make more money by working for themselves since they had initiative and were creative (and wanted the money)

These ideas were like putting on parties for the neighborhood kids, teaching the kids fun things to do (like crafts, magic, songs). I also suggested that they could work for their neighbors by either running errands, painting, cleaning or whatever.

As for my online working son, he wrote a lot of articles and put them on a web site where he could generate money. I expanded this idea into many other ideas for making money on the internet.

If you are interested in reading this free report, please visit http://WaysTeensMakeMoney.com/

Hi Lydie,

I am the Director of Volunteer Services at a hospital and the minimum age for volunteers is 14, as it is at all the other hospitals in our area...I don't know if it's the same where you live.

Because we have hundreds of volunteers all year long and have clear position descriptions, they are not viewed as a threat to paid staff (and we are always very clear that a volunteer position can not be a replacement for a paid position).

It's true that they don't get the more interesting patient-contact positions, at that age. Still,they seem to enjoy it. We start them with one four-hour shift and if it's working well for both them and us and they want more hours, we give them if we have them.

Just a thought!

Hey Go Laura, Lomist, Kellie Bellie, Gail, and DFROSTNH (defrost New Hampshire?) THANKS VERY MUCH. Great ideas! Very much appreciated! I found two soup kitchens in or near town that need help, so at least we have a start . . .