Camps and classes

Has your kid caught the acting bug? Does she show star potential? Or are you the only one who thinks she lights up the room? Seattle has a wealth of professional theaters and training programs geared specifically for kids and designed to nurture budding talent. We even have a few child stars of ou

Choosing the right summer sports camp can be tough — there are so many options! How do you narrow them down to find that one great camp experience? Here are a few things to consider as you ponder the vast assortment of camps listed in these pages. Follow their passion Let your child’s interests b

Getting a taste of the arts in elementary school — learning an instrument, performing in a play — should, it seems, be a given. In Washington state, however, education in music, drama and art at the public elementary school level has become endangered. A 2005 Arts Education Resourc

Food fights, hilarious pranks, young summer crushes: these are romantic images of the overnight summer camps of your childhood and countless movies. Toss in a few sleepless nights and mosquito bites, and suddenly reality hits you: Your own kids may soon be old enough to head to an overnight summer c

We know why tweens should move — our couch-potato nation is at risk for diabetes, heart disease and obesity — but sometimes it’s a challenge to introduce theory to practice so they play nicely. How to find the right activity? How to motivate a reluctant tween? How to find the time just to think abou

For many children, camping away from home offers the first taste and test of independence. There are ups — new friends and fun activities — but there are sometimes downs, too, such as homesickness. Those downsides can be minimized with a little preparation. Think of this suggested timeline as a reci

Imagine: You're eight years old, lying awake in a tent, terrified that you don't have enough oxygen to breathe. Jeannie Larsen still remembers that feeling decades later; scarier still, her parents were not in the same tent to comfort her. Larsen, now a pediatrician in Bellevue and the mother of a

There's a romantic notion about summertime that must be rooted in decades past, or at least in old sit-coms. Where else but on the "The Brady Bunch" would you find children roaming the neighborhoods unsupervised, or bike riding solo to the park? Yet, many parents wax nostalgic ab