Camps by the Day: Book One Day at a Time for the Beach and Beyond

2/16/18 - By Jacqueline Stansbury

My family doesn’t do a lot of camp. I have two children who loath having their time scheduled, and I am mostly home with them, so in the summer I let them loaf. We all enjoy not having a schedule, and, let’s face it, camp can be pricey. We peruse Mommy Poppins’ Event Calendar, where I always find something fun and usually free. Inevitably, though, the point arrives when somebody, maybe even everybody, is a bit bored—or, in the case of the camp director (me), tired. Also, I do work part time, so I can’t always be in charge of the entertainment. This is a recipe for that most dreaded of all childhood diseases: too much screen time. That's when camp starts to seem like a really good idea, and I regret not having signed up. Even the kids sometimes yearn for something scheduled, because most of their friends aren’t around; they're at camp.

So what to do with a couple of bored couch potatoes? It’s summer. Send them to the beach, the beach, the beach! This is a no brainer. People travel from far away to spend their summers by our shores. We are already here. It would be crazy not to take advantage of this most glorious natural resource. Slather on the sunscreen, get some UV sunglasses, maybe even invest in a wet suit, but make sure those kids get some time in the surf and sand! Of course, if the beach is not your cup of tea, we also know a few other places that don’t require advance planning and will welcome your children for the day. As the summer progresses you may even find more, because sometimes a camp that books by the week becomes more flexible if it doesn’t fill all its places.

Here are 10 you can count on:

OUR LATEST VIDEOS

1. Fitness by the Sea has been serving coastal locals in several locations for many years. You pay by the day; the more days you buy, the less you pay, and though you schedule your days in advance, the camp can usually accommodate changes. The exciting news this year is the addition of a bus: you no longer have to live by the beach to go to beach camp. Check the map on the camp's website. There's a good chance there's a bus stop in your neighborhood.

2. Sandy Days at Will Rogers State Beach offers beach camp by the day, as long as you buy five days total; those days do not have to be used consecutively. Activities include swimming and boogie boarding as well as arts and performance. The counselor ratio is 6:1.

3. For a true SoCal beach experience, send the kids to surf camp. Aqua Surf in Santa Monica offers half day, full day, weekly, and package options. The counselor ratio is 4:1, and it really is all about learning to surf. Mornings are for stretching and surfing; midday there is a shaded lunch break, and then back for more surfing in the afternoons. Rash guard, wet suits, and boards are all provided.

4. Venice del Play is a popular family run beach camp that's been introducing Westside kids to the waves for a decade. Beach bunnies as young as age four can start their day off with yoga before hitting the sand with toys and the surf with boogie boards. Adult to child ratio is 4:1, and other activities include visits from specialists in martial arts, ball sports, skateboarding, art, music, and magic. This is a smaller camp and doesn't run every week; 2018 have not yet been announced.

5. If anybody understands kids who don’t like camp and parents who need a place to send them for a day, it’s Steve and Kate. They could not make it easier. A day is 7:30am-6:00pm with all meals and snacks included. This activity driven duo has locations all over from Beverly Hills to Pasadena and the South Bay. Best of all, you can buy one day of camp or twenty days of camp or buy a membership and send your kids the entire summer. The food is healthy and organic with palate broadening but kid friendly recipes designed by celebrity chefs. The schedule is structured but there is much freedom of choice within that structure. Kids can perform, play, read, rest. It is up to them.

6. Paint Lab in Santa Monica offers full or half-day drop off options. This is a drop-in art center dedicated to serious painting. That’s right, you get to encourage creativity, but you don’t have to clean up after it! Normal drop-in painting is unstructured, but the kids' day camp includes top-notch art instruction. Themes change from day to day, depending on the instructor, and often extend to other media. A day spent at Paint Lab generally means going home with a new art skill. Mention Mommy Poppins for a 10% discount.

7. For kids who need to run in the sun, Super Soccer Stars offers many locations all around the LA basin. This is a half-day program from 9am-1pm, accommodating kids ages 3-5 and 6-12. My personal favorite location is on the grounds of the LA County Museum, where it is possible to add an extra hour to your camper’s day with arranged tour of the Tar Pits between 1pm-2pm. The camp’s flexibility allows for one week, one day, or one month sign-ups.

8. Diavolo Architechture in Motion offers its Fox Flyers camp in two locations: The Dance Conservatory of Pasadena and the Brewery Building in DTLA. Sign up for 1,2, 3, or 5 days at a time (not sure why 4 isn’t an option, but I suppose you just add an extra 1). Diavolo is an athletic dance discipline that intersects the body’s physicality with architectural set pieces—definitely something different to do and the perfect antidote for video bleary kids.

9. Boys and Girls Clubs of America can be found in many neighborhoods and are probably the most affordable, flexible option for placing kids on a day’s notice. Kids can join as members for a $30 annual fee and can then come and go as they please as long as they have their club ID. The clubs offer a variety of activities and enrichment and even sometimes field trips (for an extra charge). What they don’t offer is guaranteed supervision. Specific activities are supervised, and there are counselors around and a staff member checking kids in and out, but your child is technically free to come and go as he or she pleases. Different groups of kids show up on different days, since there is no commitment required. The first time my daughter went to the Boys and Girls club she called to stay late because all of her friends were there. The next time, she could not find a familiar face and wanted to leave right away. She’s a good kid and does what her mother says, but if you can’t trust your child to stay until the time you have agreed to pick up, this is not a wise option, as it's not the club’s responsibility to make your child stay. I have visited a few clubs and each has its own personality, so definitely tour first to be sure that it’s a place where your child will feel at home.

10. Equestrians will want to gallop over to Westside Riding School at Will Rogers State Historic Park. Though not easy to find on the website, the school does offer two single day drop off options: an all-day (9am-2pm) Pony Camp and Mini Pony Camp, a two hour session that can be scheduled within the hours of regular Pony Camp. Remarkably, the youngest riders here are just 4, though the all day camp is geared towards riders from 8 to 15 years old. This is a pricey camp at $195-$225 per day (though the price drops to $200 if you buy five days). Only riders who schedule a mandatory 45-minute evaluation ($135) are permitted to participate. In other words, this is really for established riders, not novices. The site is gorgeous. Riders feel as though they’ve left town as they climb the trails, but Will Rogers State Park is located on Sunset Blvd. in the Pacific Palisades—very manageable for westsider riders.

Originally published April 18, 2016