Which summer program would you choose?

Parents Forum
41

I was just offering ideas.

Seriously, look for some one week or two week things to do. Some of the tennis clubs have two week intro lessons during the summers. Ditto some of the marshall arts studios. Look at your community colleges…some around here also have short courses…not college but more like continuing education.

Maybe your son could volunteer at the local library, or someplace else.

Maybe he could play some of his music locally…at a senior center, or skilled care facility?

What about swimming? Maybe there is a jr lifesaving course he could take at the local Y.

Does he like to bike ride or hike? Could you do that with him?

What about cooking classes?

42

Thank you, Thumper.

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@Compmom, Why do you say that Tanglewood will not be relaxing? He found it relaxing last year though.

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My son was a counselor-in-training for some younger kid day camps the summer after 8th grade. Mostly for a Mindstorms camp. He had fun with that, and it counted for the community service hours his high school requires. Just an idea.

45

Rondo…will your son be gone from July 5 to August 15? Or so? If so, he will have a couple of weeks of “down time” at the beginning of the summer…and a couple of weeks at the end. Not four weeks in a row.

He might enjoy that down time. Will he have a summer reading list for HS? He could work on that during this time.

46

Thank you, Thumper.

47

Interesting, son did many of the activities on Thumper’s list. He’d be away 3 weeks, and then do tennis camp at nearby park for 2 weeks, volunteer stuff, etc. it’s a really good list.

48

Hi Rondo, your son seems unusual in finding serious musical or math-related activities very easy and “fun.” That’s great. If he has already attended Tanglewood and found it “relaxing,” then he should have the same experience.

For some, even those who are totally passionately involved in music, these experiences can involve hard work and even some stress.

Walden is 6 weeks- he could probably still get in there!! I am sure he is fine with BUTI again, but if he does need to be busy, Walden is longer. Walden has daily classes in theory, electronics, certain topics on music history, contemporary notation, all kinds of things. Private composition lessons. Dinner sitting next to world class musicians (ICE for instance), and festival weeks for performance of new works. It is a sort of holistic musical experience. And then fun activities as well, weekly hiking in the NH mountains, nightly group singing, July 4th, dances and so on.

Yellow Barn is another incredible high school program for both musicians and composers, but is as I remember, two weeks.

i forget: is your son going to be a sophomore this fall? He has two more summers before applying to college so plenty of time. I will say that Walden was life-changing for my daughter. Could have been another program like BUTI perhaps. She went between junior and senior year. She is now in a PhD composition program.

Your son must be talented since he gets into programs like Tanglewood, but it sounds like he does not want to pursue music. He is young. Again, how would you feel if he went to a summer program and instead of relaxing, he came home all fired up about music and said he wanted to get really serious about it?

I have gone way beyond what you asked for and apologize. How many weeks before and after BUTI do you have to fill? I am a big believer in down time and your son has things he can do on his own, like composing. I guess he is too old for a sitter, but you could hire a grad student to spend time with him at home, on his music, or on math, someone who could hang around while he has a chance to do nothing for a bit, if he does not like to be alone.

We naturally all go by what our own kids needed or did. Mine were like fish out of water without some down time. Their summers growing up consisted of one tennis lesson in the morning a few times a week, relaxing in the middle of the day, scribbling or reading or playing, then beach at 3 or 4- that’s it! Once they got to high school it switched into higher gear with jobs and sometimes programs, but they still needed that down time every day. Your son sounds different though…

49

I didn’t encourage my kids to do anything academic in the summer because I thought it was important for them to spend more time to pursue other interests over the long break. They usually went to a ballet summer intensive (4-6 weeks), family vacation, and more music lessons/practice when they were home. I personally think there are a lot more things to be learned outside of our usual academic curriculum.

If my kid couldn’t decide, I would tell her to go to the music camp. How amazing to be surrounded by so much talent in one place.

I bet you every kid at the music camp is there because he/she wants to be there, but not so much for the math camp.

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Compmom, He is going to be in 9th grade this Fall. Someone else mentioned Yellow Barn, and we will look at that as well sometime as well as Walden, perhaps next year. BUTI is something his piano teacher wanted us to consider, that’s why he applied there. There is also Interlochen. Ultimately he will decide and we will support no matter what even if that includes us flying down every weekend with a fresh set of clothes as he is petrified about doing his own laundry. :slight_smile:

Similarly, if he wants to be a musician, we will support him. But he doesn’t want to be one, and I think I know the reason. It is one of role modeling. So far, all adult musicians that he has seen are teachers and he is absolutely not interested in teaching. If however he could see some that are concert players or professional composers then his attitude might change. I say might as there is another factor here. He knows that he is not at the top of the heap when it comes to music (or math). That concerns him as the life of a musician (or mathematician) is extremely competitive with very few places at the top.

Music (or math) are both really all about practice. That’s another strike against both for him. Doing something for fun is good. Taking it as a grinding career … that’s not too interesting. (Same reason he doesn’t want to be an investment banker or a management consultant - too much work.)

All that said, he is really young and who knows what will happen in 10-20-30 years!?

Oldfort, I disagree! For my son 6 weeks of pure Number Theory all day every day will be hog heaven! I also know many other kids just like him.

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Re the French: maybe not for this summer, but for a later summer, could he go to France or to the French speaking part of Canada and stay there for part of the break? We have done this (not with French) for our kids, sent them abroad for a few weeks for language immersion. Do you have relatives in France? Our kids didn’t go to language immersion camps per se, but to summer programs at which a different language was spoken.

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At BUTI, he has the opportunity to attend all concerts at the Tanglewood venue for his full time there. He will see plenty of well oiled professional musicians if he does this. Plenty.

In addition, the Young Artists Programs have a number of master classes, and smaller concert presentations for the participants. Lots of well oiled professional musicians in that group as well.

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Lizardly, We actually have a trip to France scheduled this summer only. :slight_smile:

But that’s for the cuisine and the siteseeing and not the language as we are not French nor French Canadian, and have no relatives in either place. Truly though, the preference for French as a second foreign language in high school is not borne out of a love for French. It is purely a matter of convenience, to choose something simple in High School.

That said, another opportunity just popped up and he has been invited to a summer piano program to - guess where!? - France for 2 weeks which does not overlap so we might just send him there. This one is a scholarship that some competition that he was part of just sent his way.

Thumper, Unfortunately, it is not that simple. We know BUTI as he was there last summer too. He has had many master classes for a long time now and outside of BUTI as well, both in the USA and abroad. He has attended literally a hundred plus concerts at the local Symphony Orchestra in his life. But he doesn’t know any professional performance musicians up close and personal. That’s how role modeling works. Personally though, I think he will be even more turned off from a musical career if he did know any such musicians, as musicians work HARD for a living.

Working hard is not my kid. :slight_smile:

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Just saw this thread, but wanted to jump in and share my experience with summers. One son went to our state’s 5 week residential Governors School with a math focus that opened his eyes to applied math, rather than just mathematics. My other son went the top three week residential Music Camp here in the southeast but is now focussing on applied math too. I don’t think attending should be based on what they want to major in or do as a profession. I personally think any summer camp that makes a student “think” not just “do” is the critical factor for their growth. I’d look at more the intellectual and experience match rather than focus on choosing music or math. Especially when you and your child are having a hard time deciding.

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Sounds like the piano program in France kills three birds with one stone: not overlapping, providing more activities, French (it’ll be good for him if he is to take it in the Fall). Sounds like an awesome opportunity, too!

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Sounds like a great summer is coming together. Your son is very young! I think it is very healthy that despite his obvious stellar talents and accomplishments, neither you nor he is super invested as yet in a particular path. Congratulations on your openness, and his, to whatever the next few years might bring. Hope he has a great time at Tanglewood and in France!

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A bit over thinking for an eight grade summer program, do one this summer and do another next summer or find another program where the kid do could both,not that hard. Can’t wait to see when the kid needs to decide what college.

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Thank you, Compmom and MYOS1634!

Oldfort, Knowing the kid I suspect it will be another spreadsheet with attributes and weights come college time. :slight_smile:

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In Honor of Pi Day I thought I would share three competitive MATH summer camps for students with a developing passion for math. Math Camp, Honors Math Camp and PROMYS
All three still have applications open and are all mentioned by CalTech as programs admits have previously attended.

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OP - Great outcome.

DS would have loved a math camp. (I even emailed the 10th grade math teacher about it, but didn’t know of any) But he also loved music and did lots of that, Probably there is no wrong answer on this kind of thing, just multiple good options.