Can’t Afford Summer Camp for Your Kids? 3 Lower-Cost Options to Look At

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If summer camp is out of reach this year, you’ll need to find a summer activity for your kids. Read on for some less expensive alternatives. 

There’s a reason the summer months can be particularly expensive for working parents. When school’s not in session, many parents have no choice but to shell out massive amounts of money to cover the cost of summer camp.

The average cost of summer camp is an astounding $178.49 a day, according to the American Camp Association. If you need five days of camp for eight weeks, that means you’re looking at about $7,140 for the summer. And that cost is per child. If you have multiple children, you might easily deplete your savings account in the course of covering camp fees for a single summer.

Now, if every adult in your household works full time, you may have no choice but to shell out the money for summer camp for your kids. But if you have a flexible schedule, work part time, or have a parent in your household who doesn’t work at all, then you may have options for keeping your kids busy this summer that don’t result in such an outrageous credit card tab. Here are a few to look at.

1. Recreation programs through your town

Town-run recreation programs tend to be shorter than full-day camp, so they’re often not a good solution for people who work full time. But if you need a way to get your child out of the house for a few hours a day, or a few days a week, then a recreation program may be a good bet. The cost is likely to be far cheaper than full-day camp, so see what options your town has to offer.

2. A membership at a town pool or swim club

Some town pools give residents free access during the summer. Others charge a fee to join the local pool or swim club.

The downside of joining a pool or swim club is that you usually have to be there with your kids — you can’t just drop them off like you might be able to with a recreation program. So if you need a way to unload your kids for part of the day so you can work, this option may not be optimal. But if you simply need a way to keep your kids busy, you may find that this is an affordable route to take.

As an example, you can join the Holmdel swim club in Central New Jersey for $650 for the whole summer if you’re a resident of the town and get your pass early (if you waited, you’d pay $700). That fee covers your entire family. If you go twice a week for eight weeks, your cost is roughly $40 per visit, or $44 if you waited to join.

3. Season passes to an amusement park

As is the case with most pools or swim clubs, you can’t just drop your kids off at an amusement park, go back to your desk, and collect them a few hours later (unless, of course, they’re old enough to be able to wander a theme park alone). But if your goal isn’t to secure childcare, but rather, keep your kids happy and busy, then buying season passes to a local amusement park could be a good bet.

The cost of a daily pass to an amusement park can be very expensive. But often, the cost of a season pass is quite reasonable.

At Six Flags Great Adventure, a popular amusement park in New Jersey, a daily ticket costs $40, and it doesn’t include parking, which is a separate fee. A season pass, meanwhile, costs $90 and offers you unlimited access to the park when it’s open, plus free parking. So if you were to visit Great Adventure three times during the summer, your season pass would more than pay for itself.

It is possible to keep your kids entertained when school’s out for summer without completely busting your budget. Keep these ideas in mind if the idea of paying for summer camp is enough to send you into shock.

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