The end of summer camp

This year, we put the kids into 2 different camps, but staggering the weeks they went to maximize peace in the house.  However, this year, the camps were both downtown, not far from my work, so I ended up taking the kids to camp for the past 3 weeks (and not being able to bike to work at all obviously).  But it all worked out, not to say that there weren't some stressful moments, particularly once when I was running late and just barely signed out my daughter before the end of the after care period.

What was a bit surprising is that my son didn't feel that he got too much out of the stop-motion animation, partly because there was too wide an age range in the class and too much of the time was just filler (playing outdoor games rather than building the clay sets). 

On the other hand, he did get some good experience in navigating the city.  He was allowed to sign himself out of camp after the first day and walk over to my workplace.  On the second week, he was allow to take the subway home by himself twice.

My daughter was not happy about getting up early, but I think she got more out of the camp activities, and ultimately enjoyed it more.  She wanted to take everything she made home.  On the last day, I left work early to see the show and tell period.  Then we walked over and tried to see inside Osgoode Hall, but apparently the tours are far more limited than what is described on the internet.  We clearly weren't going to be able to see anything, and then she decided she wasn't that interested in seeing the building when she realized it just housed lawyers and their law library.  We stopped in at Campbell House, and they showed us just a bit, though it is in some disarray due to Hogtown.  I'll take her back some weekend in Oct. when it is back to normal.  It was just as well we left slightly before the peak of the peak, since I was carrying so much stuff from the camp, including this model of a hotel room made inside a cardboard box.

All in all, it was a decent camp experience, though I am glad I am not going to be responsible for getting them to and from camp on time for the rest of the summer. I actually am hoping that the older one go off to "away camp" next summer; I was doing that a lot by the time I was 12 or so, but that may be a step too far.