Maybe she shouldn't go to a sports practice,with a virus. Running or doing exercises will not give you a fever. If it is that she gets over-heated, make sure she's well hydrated. Also, having her wet her hair down before try-outs, will keep her body temp. down a little longer,also. All of the intense exercises they're doing is to get them very prepared for the sport, physically. If playing volleyball is worth it for her then,she'll adjust to the rigorous workouts, and have fun. As far as try outs go, that is a system to eliminate the kids that don't have the skills. Not all of the kids get to play. Yours does! Unfortunately, try outs for a sport, beginning as early as middle school are a life skill that can be used later for the job world. Not everybody gets the job they apply for,all the time. Lesson learned.

My daughters will HAVE to attend camp at their school, also. IF they want to just TRY OUT for volleyball. Twice my older daughter has had to do this. Both times it has been so hot and humid that after 2 days she was too sick to finish the week. She was shaky, sick to her stomach, she couldn't hardly walk for days, and was carrying a fever. I cannot believe the excercies they make them do. Last year in the evening after an intense morning workout, she had a ball game, she did like one inning and had to come in. When I felt her, she was as hot as a fire cracker, and she is very athletic. She's a picher. She did make the volleyball team,since 6th grade, but is it worth it? She will be in 9th.
As for other camps for fun. They will get to go to church camp. Those are usually awesome for the kids!

My daughter had to attend summer school at her new high school so she could play sports.I think it was really unfair that they have to go all day just to try out for a sport for fall~ anyway, my son is doing beach camp and a cool science camp where they make wacky race cars and blasters...all the while learning about physics...it keeps him busy but he is having fun.

No, not in California. We are in Ohio. My girls are lovers of music. They sing..one is in the Kettering Children's Choir...ketteringchildrenschoir.org. This is thru the school year, and they do traveling for the older groups. She's 14, and been in it since she was 7. She had a chance to travel and sing in China this year, but we couldn't afford it. The next time abroad will be in 3 years..maybe by this time we can save up the cost of the trip as it will be her last time...and then she ages out. The girls play violin, piano, and flute. If we had other instruments they'd probably play those also. They'd love a chance to attend a wonderful music camp somewhere.

No! My boys never have and this year again, they won't. We believe in having tons of fun in summer and lots of travelling. It's quite amazing how much travelling can broaden ones horizon, that a discovery camp won't! This summer, we've already been to Washington DC, Baltimore, Williamsburgh, Chicago, Toronto and South Carolina. Boys have made several trips to the Science center, Institute of Art, Planetarium, and Natural History museum, and Henry Ford Village. Visit to Shedd Aquarium to see the Beluga Whales was fantastic! We'll be travelling to Europe for two weeks in Aug and plan to take a road trip once we are there! What could be more educational than that?!

Boys do their workbooks and go onn studyisland.com everyday and that's enough studying for summer! :) Cheers.

Mom of 8: I don't know if you are in California. We have several summer camps with generous scholarship and sliding scale features. However, you need to register early in the year. If you are in CA, send me a note and I'll get some information for you.

I know how it feels to have a child with a special talent and lack of funds - or a need to distribute funds elsewhere - to support that talent.

One of the other parents on here said something about "no homework" yea! Please read "Parents" or "parenting" magazine from Feb 2009 about homework. I've raised 6 childrens already, and in the early teen years with 2 more, and I'd love to give reasons why homework is not always necessary. Read the artlicle. Plus, my daughter had one group of teachers for 6th grade this past year who did not, or rarely gave out homework. This made this past year the best I've had since 1982 when my youngest began school.
About camps....wish I could find a music camp that I could afford and my daughters could go to.

Free science summer camp at the library was wonderful! Sparked interested in science for my son. We ended up doing the experiments at home. The camp was sponsored by GSK! Now, if we can get some other academic camps free at the library that would be great too! Cary Academy camps are too expensive and "boring" my son has said when he went last year.

Yes, my daughter will be attending the Geek Squad summer camp and staying overnight on the college campus. This camp is for girls only and focuses on computers. They will develop programs using current technology; something not offered at her public school.

My daughter, a sophmore in the fall, is working on her summer project for her AP Enivironmental Science Class. My son, a seventh grader in the fall, is taking care of the school's chickens on weekends for the Environmental Science Teacher and taking care of two small chicks at our home. My son is also going on an Environmental canoe and camping trip this week. They attend a charter school that is focused on the Environment but also on College prep. I hope all of this will keep them focused and ready for school.

Debora,
That sounds like an amazing program. Glad to see your daughter is enjoying it.

Because our school district does not offer GATE education during the school year, they offer 3 1/2 weeks of GATE Summer School for grade 3 through 5 (the grade they just finished). The classes are mixed up - held at one school for the entire district. The classes (3 one hour classes each day) move along quickly. Students are not required to wait for someone to catch up. If they finish early they are trusted to work on a project, read, write, or play with the calculators to create their own math stories. All students show up on time ready to learn. No discipline problems, boredom complaints or breaking of school rules by any of the students in the program. Amazing for 140 kids jammed into 4 - 7 classrooms depending on the course.

My daughter is having the time of her life. She's working harder than she's ever worked, has learned more in the past two weeks than she learned in the last 4 months of school and jumps out of bed (literally) looking forward to going to school.

When she comes home she talks about calculating the density of the garbage going to the landfill that day based on the type and amount of garbage the school produced the previous day. She has learned poetry in the style of 10 different authors and she can explain exactly how to create, frame and take great photographs and put them on the web.

No complaints about the 32 other kids in the class. No complaints about hunting through garbage to get the data - pure joy in learning. It just doesn't get any better than that!

Summer Camp NO, Summer school yes, we need basics throughout the year and this is where we will be going, three days a week.

The boys (9th & 4th grades) will be attending Summer Science Camps (4 days) at the local College. Daughter (SENIOR) is working on SUMMER READING for her AP - Advance Placement - English Class.

The 9th grader will start 4 weeks of Summer School after the Science Camp is finished! LOL

When summer school is over with he has ONLY 2 weeks until school starts back in sesson on Aug 26th! LOL

ahhhhh the JOY of not doing his homework/class projects during LAST 2008/2009 school year! LOL Can't get through to him that HOMEWORK/PROJECTS count!

For the most part they get to ENJOY their summer off from school. Family, Fun, Camping, Swimming, Grandparents/Aunts/Uncle!

I wish they would wont to involved their self's into education camps but they would not do that.
I have a boy that wont's to be a park ranger but he
does not seem to wont to get involved in the things
that would help along with that type study.

Yes, my daughter attends the Salvation Army after school program and they have a wonderful summer day camp with lots of activities includings arts/crafts, games, music, math, reading, science and they have made a journal first day and write their daily experiences in it and they also have lots of fun and educational field trips, plus swimming one day a week and all in a good wholesome christian atmosphere and they monitor their report cards and help them in any areas they are having with tutoring and even behavior management, we are truly blessed to have found this very affordable program and my daughter just loves it since she would prefer school to be year round and it isn't this is a good 2nd choice and is keeping up her math, reading and science skills to boot

DD will be attending Ice Skate camps at 2 local rinks --more time in the cold (brrr). Plus she's already begun working 6 hours per week with her HS Color Guard team -- almost summer camp in itself.

We try to combine something athletic with something academic. Summer is a great time to explore interests without the pressure of tests and grades. Also, as a family we practically eliminated eating out at restaurants to help pay for summer camp so our daughter was included in that effort. We put the money we would have spent eating out in a jar and within two months had enough to pay for the entire summer! Here is what our daughter is doing:

SPCA camp - working with shelter animals to ready them for adoption. Includes one day with a large animal veterinarian.

Young Writers Camp - a 3 week long writers workshop with some amazing teachers. Also, we help give a great teacher a good job for the summer.

Sports Camp - this is in the afternoon following writers camp. They do 3 different sports per day as well as a daily swim lesson on a college campus. They are exposed to a large variety of sports taught by kines students. Parents get a meeting at the end where they explain the child's strengths and things to work on.

Aquarium camp - Marine biology that kids love! Our daughter has gone to this camp for 3 years and comes home so excited with a huge vocabulary and a notebook full of great drawings and writing on marine life.

Science camp - The topic is force and motion and will be at a local park. It is half day so her dad will take her bike riding afterwards.

Basketball camp - this is also on a college campus with the women's basketball team coach. They will learn exercise anatomy and weight training along with basketball.

Swim camp - this is with the head swim coach at a high school known for great sports teams - focused on stroke development and other aspects of competitive swimming.

Horsemanship camp - Her favorite. She has a horse to take care of for a week. Along with daily riding lessons a veterinarian lectures on the different breeds and horse anatomy.

She keeps up her academic skills with kumon and piano lessons. Since she is a competitive swimmer we make her away meets small vacations as well. Going to specialty camps is good socially too. She has a fairly easy time making friends and enjoys the experience.

@Healthy11- Any camp with a specific focus that would play a role in supplementing one's education.

I hope you don't mind my asking for clarification, but what do you consider a "specialty summer camp?" Are you speaking only in an academic sense, like a "foreign language immersion camp" where kids reside together for extended periods, or are you including things like "crazy science classes" that might be offered for an hour or two a day, for maybe a week at a time? Or are you talking about camps that might address needs of certain kinds of learners, like kids with ADHD, or are you talking about sports camps or ?

I have 2 kids - one in HS one in MS. Both attend camps in their area of interest - sports camps, adventure camps, and traditional overnight camp. The MS also will be tutored 2 mornings a week (not during camp weeks), to make sure he doesn't lose ground.

As much as possible, we try to focus on family and fun during the summer!