<p>Thanks all! Some great suggestions here. My son likes the looks of the CAEN camp. So, we'll see. I too do not want to see him sitting for 2 weeks playing computer games. Then again, if it were up to me he'd be at Outward Bound or backpacking or something outdoorsy in the summer! But, this is his passion I guess, and my other son has spent every summer fly-fishing in remote places with his grandfather, so I feel like this year we should arrange for youngest son to do something special that he likes.</p>
<p>Digipen looked very interesting, but the logisitics look just too hard. Columbia looked a little dry (?) maybe. Like too much coursework and not enough camp element? I don't know.</p>
<p>About the USACO site. I looked it over quickly...Do all kids start as novices and progress up through the ranks? Maybe I should have looked at it closer...</p>
<p>"About the USACO site. I looked it over quickly...Do all kids start as novices and progress up through the ranks? Maybe I should have looked at it closer..."</p>
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<p>The first internet competition of the year sorts people into levels and they move up from there in subsequent rounds. Some kids started off competing in the top level. Kids have to be competing at the top level to have a shot at the camp.</p>
<p>The training material assumes that people already know how to program. Everyone starts at level 1 off with simple algorithms, and works sequentially through the levels up to extremely advanced algorithms. BTW - the training materials now support Java in addition to C/C++, and I think Pascal.</p>
<p>I can't really recommend another camp simply because Son isn't interested in another computer camp. This summer is Soccer camp. You see, we have the age old problem. Even though he is extremely smart (only Soph taking Eng 11 and Pre-Calc, and getting A's in both), he doesn't want to be known as "the smart kid". He wants to be a Jock. He will (probably, almost likely) be starting goalie on the Varsity soccer team next year. He has no interest in taking an on-line computer programming class that we suggested. He has no interest in learning advanced web design. No, he wants to stay after school every day for soccer practice. And at 16-years-old, I have more exciting things to argue with him about :)</p>
<p>Peggy, you sound like you are describing my freshman. Any tips on how to get him into something academic as an interest are welcome. He found a touch football camp he wanted this summer. His brother (very good football player) nearly choked when he heard that one. Although he does a great job on everything he does, he does not want to take the next step at anything. He would rather just sit on the couch, watch TV and play video/computer games all summer, which I am not going to permit. Too young to really work yet and not interested enough in anything for volunteer type work . I'm looking for a spark of interest in something, anything (other than touch football). He's considering a one week swim camp, but that is only one week out 3 months. The computer camp is one that I am considering but the full time video gaming makes me hesitate, though that would be the selling point for him.</p>
<p>We're facing a similar problem with our freshman S who is a very strong student and essentially plays soccer year round (h.s. soccer in the fall but starts practice in early August; travel soccer in the spring but starts practice in late fall; and Super Y in the summer but starts practice in the spring), and loves every second of it. He's actually willing to attend something more academic and has expressed a strong interest in film (we're now thinking about the Duke TIP program at Kansas, which offers a course in film criticism), but he's extremely reluctant to take three weeks off from soccer for fear of losing playing time or not making the team the next year, even though he's a strong player. Yes, some coaches are retaliatory like that. Since the Duke TIP application is due in a week or so, and the soccer schedule for the summer won't be available for several months (and is always "subject to change"), we have to make a decision without having all of the details about what the conflicts may be. I hate for him to feel so torn between the two interests. If he doesn't do anything non-soccer related this summer, he's likely to spend way too much time hanging out at the beach or playing video games. We will have a 13-week summer, because the state is adjusting the school calendar, and I think even he will feel that he should have done something else once he gets halfway through the summer, except that at that point, it will be too late to enroll in any of the things he wants to do.</p>
<p>"Does that mean they have to start at the beginning? Is that in November?"</p>
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<p>No, they don't have to start in November. 2 years ago there was someone who didn't even know the contest existed until around spring break. He burned through the training materials in about a month and caught the final internet competition of the year (which is the most important) in April. He did well enough on that one round to make it to camp, where he then did well enough to go all the way to the int'l competition where he won a silver medal. I'm not sure exactly how they would handle someone coming in midyear now (the sorting round in Nov. is new this year), But I can guarantee they won't risk losing a superstar who happens to find out about USACO late in the year. Just contact and ask them about which division to enter.</p>
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<li><p>I think if we could figure out how to get a teenage boy interested in anything besides video games and girls, we'd be rich!</p></li>
<li><p>If you need the name of a good soccer camp, check out <a href="http://www.vogelsingersoccer.com%5B/url%5D">www.vogelsingersoccer.com</a> . That's where Son went last summer, and will go again this summer. </p></li>
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<p>After all I wrote about Camp CAIN, I feel obligated to add a disclaimer. Camp CAIN has been around for a long time. This says to me that it does have a good following, and you must learn something. And maybe some of the different sessions have a better attendance to the extra activities.</p>
<p>Son did enjoy living in the dorm and experiencing two weeks of independence. I just wasn't what he wanted.</p>
<p>Nceph, I would not have a problem with my son doing a sport during the summer if he were so good at it, and/or really enjoyed it. My son is not a top athlete--doubt he'll make varsity anything next year (maybe the swimming), but is better than average. He has no passion for any of the sports; likes them, doesn't love them, and does not want to do more than a week of any sports camp or really any camp. This is the first time I have been faced with this issue as the other kids always had more ideas on what they wanted to do during the summers than they had time, and it was a matter of culling and scheduling.</p>
<p>I guess I'd be thrilled (but totally surprised) if my kid wanted to go to a sport camp (especially this son). At least he'd be getting some exercise. They will sit in front of a computer enough in their lifetimes. They don't see that now - but at some point they'll look out an office window and wonder why they didn't play outside when they had the chance! Oh well.</p>
<p>My friend enjoyed CTY last summer--it sounded like a good mix of tech and liberal arts kids. Lots of class time but definitely down time too--no computer games and I don't think there was TV either. Nice location in St. Mary's MD</p>
<p>Oh, I shouldn't have sounded so much like I was complaining about my son only wanting to play soccer. I just hate that he feels compelled to forego other interests because of what amounts to six hours of practice a week during the summer plus a game each weekend. That's not a big time commitment, but it precludes doing other things. I'm pleased that he's passionate about soccer, but I'm also wary. I've seen too many kids have a career ending injury, so I feel it's important for him to pursue any other interest he may have. Figuring out what that other interest may be and then convincing him to apply are two different issues, and we're nowhere near through with the second.</p>
<p>nceph:
I know what you mean about kids wanting to do only one thing - and also the injury problem. My husband has a knee injury from HS Basketball. (He was never a great basketball player.) For most of his adult life it has limited what he can do. And that is a bummer. Also, I worry about intense committments for kids that aren't really life long things they can participate in (pretty hard to get together a soccer team at 30 yr old). I have a friend who spent her entire childhood doing gymnastics. Then, when she developed a mature body, she wasn't competitive anymore. So, by 17 she really felt like she had nothing to do! Needless to say, she tracked her own kids into music. She is a little bitter about her childhood.</p>