Summer camp changed my life, so I’m so excited that my 6 year old son and 4 year old daughter will be attending Oasis Day Camp this summer. They’ll be going to the Bayside, Queens location — the camp is located right at Queensborough Community College and is in session from July 02 to August 17, 2012.
I spoke to President and CEO of Oasis Children’s Services, Bernie Tessler, recently and was very impressed with what I heard about Oasis Day Camps. The camp offers a day camp experience with academic enrichment in different content areas like science, engineering, and the arts, as well as many different sports and daily swimming.
Called Choice Academy, every two weeks campers can choose different subjects and experiences like learning more about the ocean (through Science Exploration), building simple machines (in Engineering) or experimenting with watercolors (in Fine Arts). Choice academy is offered for two periods a day, two or three days a week.
Terrific Features:
Morning Drop-off (It’s right on the Queensborough campus) or Bus Service – to a mom who lives in Queens and never finds a parking spot at both her children’s schools, this is HUGE!
Lunch – You have the option to sign for a hot lunch service or pack lunch for your child. Menus vary daily. And if you have a picky eater, you can choose substitutions for specific meals. If you are signed up for the lunch program, bagged lunches are provided on trips days. Click HERE to see the menu!
Indoor Pool — Swimming is in QCC’s indoor pool. The counselors are in the pool with the children and Oasis Children provides their own WSI trained lifeguards at the pool (besides the ones from QCC). I relayed my nervousness to Bernie about my son going in the pool. We decided to keep him out of the pool at his camp last year, because we weren’t sure he was mature enough to handle it. This year, at age 6, we’ve seen a huge jump in maturity and want his water experience to be a positive one. We’re okay if he doesn’t really learn to swim, we want him to be comfortable in the water. Bernie assuaged my fears and issues and made me feel secure about trying Ben out in the pool. The staff won’t push him, but will encourage him to explore and become familiar with the water. I have a feeling he’ll get so relaxed that he will actually learn how to swim!
Good Camper to Counselor Ratios — 5 campers to every counselor for my 6 1/2 year old son’s age, 3 campers to every counselor for my 4 year old daughter’s age.
Oasis Early Start– The youngest kids are 4 at Oasis Children and my daughter will be part of it. Bernie told me that their day is a little more low key, compared to my 6 year old’s, they may get some rest time and end the day with storytime or puppetmaking. But I was also thrilled to hear that she would be swimming!
So, check out Oasis Day Camp for yourself! They have many locations — like Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island, New Jersey, etc.
I received 2 complimentary weeks of summer camp as part of a promotion with MomSelect and Oasis Day Camps. As always, all opinions are completely my own.
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