<p>Sorry to post yet another question about summer camps, but I had trouble finding what I'm looking for in the posts so far. My son is 15 and an advanced programmer. He wants to go to the National Youth Leadership Forum on Technology (it is the only camp he knows about so...). I think it looks sort of ho-hum. I've seen digmedia's good suggestions for programming camps, but wondered if anybody has experience with their kid at NYLF Tech, or what else would they recommend (anything east coast?).</p>
<p>Digmedia recommended Digipen camp (which my son would LOVE) but it sounds really far away and without housing, transportation, 3 meals a day...it sounds a little tough to do!</p>
<p>Also, many of the camps look like they have a lot of little kids at them. My son is 6'4" and quite mature, so I'd prefer he have a chance to be with older kids.</p>
<p>How about the Camp CAEN at the University of Michigan? Camp CAEN is offered by the Computer Aided Engineering Network (CAEN) at the University of Michigan College of Engineering. Knowledgeable staff, including enthusiastic engineering student mentors, teach classes that range from Java/C++ Programming to Web Site Development and 3D Modeling and Rendering. I hope this will help.</p>
<p>Weenee, no, I don't know anyone who has gone there before. I am looking for the feedback too. However, my son and I have decided that he is going to do the CAEN camp this year. He went to another computer camp last year, but I found that the camp do not enough programming instruction. The camp just had too much free computer gaming time. If he wanted to play computer games, he could stay home to do it. Someone in this forum wrote that there were many returning kids, so I would assume that the Caen campers were happy with their experiences. I am hoping that he can learn some good coding since the School of Engineering runs it.</p>
<p>parents with kids who are "advanced programmers" should check out <a href="http://www.usaco.org%5B/url%5D">www.usaco.org</a>. Free online training program and internet contests. Free summer training camp for the top kids.</p>
<p>How advanced is your S with programming? CAEn offers morning and afternon classes. Programming classes taught at differet levels
In the evenings some played games on the virtual screen; that seemed to be a highlight</p>
<p>My son is in the EPGY distance learning C programming course now, and likes it. </p>
<p>But what I wrote above replies to a later reply in the thread. It appears that weenie's son is already looking for something a good bit more advanced than the course my son is in. Does USACO have a summer camp?</p>
<p>Earlier tonight, I wrote a long answer to this, then we lost power and I lost my answer. Let's see if we can try this again!</p>
<p>My son went to Camp CAIN last summer. But before I tell you about his experience, let me give you some of his background. Son is a sophomore this year, a very smart sophomore. But he had done virtually no programming and is just now learning DreamWeaver & Flash. We have also not allowed him to spend long periods of time playing video games. But Camp CAIN had been recommended to us, and U of M is only 50 miles down the road. So we decided to give it a try.</p>
<p>He enjoyed the classes, and learned a lot. He took C++ in the morning and Virtual Reality in the afternoon.</p>
<p>The problems occured with the free time activities. They had wonderful things planned -- Laser Tag, Capture the Flag, Ultimate Frissbee, a trip to downtown Ann Arbor to Starbucks & a video arcade. Soccer. Wonderful activities. And very few kids participated. Of the 40 kids in his session, maybe 10 would show up. The same 10. (Mine was one of the 10.) Everyone else seemed to spend every free minute playing video games. Son said it was kinda fun at first to be able to play video games as much as he wanted, but after a few days, it got boring. Besides, there were all these other fun things to do. But nobody seemed to want to do them.</p>
<p>I talked to one of the counselors afterwards regarding something else, and he agreed that most of the kids spend every free minute gaming.</p>
<p>This summer, Son plans on spending two weeks at soccer camp and two weeks at a school-sponsored German trip. He has no desire at all to go back to Camp CAIN.</p>
<p>"It appears that weenie's son is already looking for something a good bit more advanced than the course my son is in. Does USACO have a summer camp?"</p>
<br>
<p>USACO has a summer training program to prepare kids for possible int'l competition. But you can't just sign up. You have to qualify based on performance on the internet training materials and internet contests. Top 16 (with some adjustments for age) get invited. It's a great program, and totally free to all participants! The kids who get invited are already excellent programmers. The camp develops their ability to write algorithms. I am not aware of any other program at a similarly high level. My son has attended the summer program and I would be happy to answer questions about it.</p>
<p>Peggy, this is disturbing. MY son went to another computer camp last year. He spent most of his free time playing computer games. I don'y mind that he spend some spare time to do it in the camp. But I am not sure if I want him to spend another 2 week playing computer games again. Can you or anyone recommend a more structure computer camp? My son is not an advanced porgrammer, so he can't do the wonderful USACO camp. Can anyone give me some advice?</p>
<p>My S did combination at CAEN.Some gaming, but also activities) They didn't have an advanced class for him, so he met individually with a professor every evening (befoe dinner). He met some very nice boys, and his friend fit in ok.
We didn't know about USACo, and CAIN seemed more advanced than most of local computer camps.
It did give him a chance to see what a large university was like.</p>
<p>Bookworm, did your son spend a lot of time playing computer games? What else did he do in the camp? I am hoping that he will do some other activities besides computer gaming. As I said, I would not mind that he plays some computer games, but not all his free time.</p>
<p>Kathiep, Columbia U has a programming course in the session 2. I believe that it is an AP level-programming course. My son is in 8 grades now. I don't think this course is for him. He learned Visual Basic last year, so it is OK that he learns some C++ programming this summer. However, I don't think he is ready to learn structure programming now. It is one thing to learn how to use C++, but it is total different to learn the Arts of Programming. If he were still interested in computer programming in 10 grades, I would definitely enroll him to Columbia Summer Program. I hope this make sense to you.</p>
<p>Please exercise caution with NYLF. It seems very expensive ($2,400) for what students may get out of it. I live in Silicon Valley and remember seeing the them around town last summer. While there is an impressive list of hi-tech companies involved, someone (probably outside the Valley) is making major money off of naive students (mostly from out of the area) and their parents. It just doesn't take that much money per person to produce the type of summer experience that NYLF is promoting...not here in Silicon Valley!</p>
<p>t1388
I'll try to get ahold of S.
My S was one of the younger kids, and they formed a group. They were more likely to go to group activities, like lazer tag, etc. I know each weekend they had special outings. His little group met in the lab in evenings to play the games with each other. He enjoyed meeting kids that really liked computers.
As I said, my S couldn't find a programming class advanced enough for him, and they had to accommodate his needs. He wasn't the brightest, but had self-taught</p>