My son (who will be in 5th grade this fall) attended College For Kids at Tarrant County College last year for July and absolutely LOVED IT! He spent most of this past year talking about how he can't wait to do it again. We didn't register last year until late May and got into every class we wanted except one.
Registration opened YESTERDAY and EVERY SINGLE CLASS he wanted to take is ALREADY FULL!?!
I'm BEYOND disappointed and he is CRUSHED! I understand that TCC had other campuses and therefor there ARE other places for him to attend College for Kids but the dates don't work for us. JULY is the timeframe we have to work with as he goes to visit his biological dad in another state for part of the summer.
Does anyone know of anything else like this or something else for the month of July? I'm just crushed...
The person said to keep checking back that people change plans, cancel classes and such when scheduling vacation but I'm just like... I'm not paying $160 for ONE class... it's $160 for one class or four classes in the morning... (half day) and then $160 for one class OR 4 classes in the afternoon. He wanted to go ALL DAY.
****edited to reply to what was just posted as a reply... it's not that we were SOLD on the 8 classes he had chosen, we had 1st, 2nd, 3rd and even sometimes 4th choices for the same time frame... I'm saying that ALL of those are already booked. Seriously, the only thing I saw (and this was just to check on if I was having computer glitches) they had an opening for ceramics and one for scrapbooking. I'm sorry, but I"m NOT putting him in that. A) because I can teach him ceramics as I've done it since I was 3 and B) because I am a scrapbooker and have an ENTIRE ROOM dedicated to it... not spending money to put him in there..
I was just trying to find alternative ideas since we obviously will have 3 weeks, now, that I would like for him to have some kind of mentally stimulating activity.
i don't know if it's still up, but a couple weeks ago i was looking at tons of summer camp ideas at fortworthchild.com
check that out and see if they still have a list and description with options you'd like.
Dear Rene,
I always had my daughter in summer school or some type of educational summer program even when I was a stay at home mom. I didn't have her do it because she had bad grades or anything, quite the opposite. She was an only child until 10 and having her go to these programs kept up with continuity and keeping her mentally stimulated. We, of course, had plenty of summer time together and took vacations, etc, but it was just a way of life for her that she always looked forward to.
There were many times her first choices for classes were already full (and we always signed up in advance) so we picked other things that were offered. No, they weren't her first choices, but she ended up loving them and gaining from the experience anyway. So...it wasn't with the same group she had the year before...so, it was something completely different.
If your son is crushed....try seeing it in a different way. He can still go, but maybe thinking outside the box would be a good thing.
It's kind of like trying out for the lead in a school play and not getting it, but there are still other parts that can be just as fun and important.
Really think about still letting him go and being more open to what is available instead of being so disappointed that what he wanted might not be an option.
He spent most of last year talking about how he can't wait to go again.....
There's no reason he still can't. If it's an awesome program, I'm sure the available classes will be just as enriching, but perhaps in different ways.
I always enrolled my daughter, either way, and there were times she had an opportunity to switch after the classes had begun and she stuck with the new ones.
It's not the end of the world.
That's just my opinion.
You don't really say which classes he is interested in, but here are a few ideas:
The Living Science Center at River Legacy Park in Arlington has summer camps for kids from preschool age through 8th grade, I think. The kids learn about wildlife, ecological issues, etc. www.riverlegacy.org/sumschedule.html
The Spanish Schoolhouse has summer camps (usually two weeks long) where he will be immersed in the Spanish language while doing all kinds of fun learning activities.
www.spanishschoolhouse.com
Several local children's theaters have summer camps where the kids can learn about acting, directing, behind-the-scenes, etc. These are a couple that I have looked into myself, but I'm sure there are more.
www.artisanct.org
www.creativearts.org
www.kidswhocare.com
UTA has some summer camps that seem similar to TCC's:
http://www.uta.edu/ucomm/collegetown/summercamps.php
Hopefully you guys will find something that interests him. Good luck!
Alliance United Methodist Church runs a Creative College for Kids for four weeks during the summer. Each week is a different focus and it costs $60 per week. There is Physical Education, Music, Art and Science. (The Art and Science classes will be in July.) The registration forms will be online May 1st at www.allianceumc.org. Last year, the classes filled up early and I heard a lot of terrific feedback about them. The church is located in the Park Glen neighborhood of Fort Worth, near Watauga and Keller. You can call their office at ###-###-#### with any questions.
