What are some good summer camps for teenagers?

little kids camping tent image

Layla Kyri

The title question sounds very vague, but I want to go to a summer camp this year. Preferably a few weeks long. I live in Michigan, and sadly, all of the ones I've found here are wildly expensive, or for little kids, or Christian (which I am not, and I'd rather not have to deal with another set of people trying to save me.)

I'm willing to go out of state. Maybe even to Canada. Hopefully not *too* far, but if I'm going to go somewhere else, I might as well go somewhere cool, right? Though I'd prefer to stray from big cities
Anyway, here are just a list of things that I think would be cool in a camp. It doesn't have to have all of them, but it should give you an idea.

Cabins. Not tents. Not dorm rooms. Actual cabins.
Nice, relaxing scenery.
Archery.
Horses.
New age-y or Pagan stuff.
Renaissance festival stuff.
Crafting.
music- For beginners!
Not every minute of the day planned. There needs to be a little bit of chill time.
No babying people. We're teenagers, we don't need to be checked on like little kids. The last camp I went to had people get out of the lake every ten minutes to do a head count, and you had to have a buddy wait outside of the water. So not worth it.
Maybe some community service.
Learning things.
Food that isn't disgusting.
Paint ball.
Ropes course.
Fencing.
If it has some kind of therapy in it.
Just a bunch of fun things to do.

I can't really think of much else to put. I just want a really fun place to get away in the summer, and meet some people. I'd prefer if it were in or close to MI, but I'm not gonna pass up another state. But it has to be, like, perfect if I'm going to go far.
I've been to two camps, and I'll describe them and explain what I did and did not like about them.

The first was band camp, and that was just really overwhelming. I'm not in band anymore, so I can't go back, but it was a whole lot of running around a field on a humid day, with the sun frying you, trying to memorize your drill, and also trying to learn new work (color guard), and then being forced to go to events that may keep you up til 1, just to get up 5 hours later and do it all again. I did, however, like the camp because when you weren't complaining about how exhausted you are, it was fun. I liked the atmosphere. The events we had were pretty fun and they had a lot of stuff around that would've been fun if we had more free time. However, I think that place is mostly for booking school trips and retreats and stuff.

Then I had a work weekend at a place that's also a summer camp, and I'm really considering for summer. I was only there for a weekend, but the teen package would probably be pretty similar. We'd be working behind the scenes of camp, and be doing I believe 60 hours community service in 2 weeks. And I like the cabins and the showers aren't horrible, and they have all sorts of cool things like horses and paintball and a zip line, and the food is really good, and they aren't too expensive, but the problem is... It's a Christian camp. I don't mean like a vaguely Christian camp, I mean, like, the lower levels take Bible lessons and it's all worship-y and stuff. There's nothing wrong with that, I mean, yay them for being religious. But I'm not Christian, and while I respect their religion, I don't think I want more friends who completely disapprove of my beliefs (and 90% of my Christian friends do), and it's just... I don't want to spend two weeks being constantly preached to.

Got any suggestions? I think this might give you something to go on.

Answer
Suggestions? Yes, yes I do.

I don't know what *too* far is, but the camp I'm suggesting is in Canada. Southern Ontario, so it's not that far. Maybe 7 hours by car?

I've been going for 5 years, and love it!

It's called Camp Muskoka.

From your list, it has:
â¢cabins- provided that you're over, say, 8, you are in a cabin.
â¢nice, relaxing scenery- oh yes. It even has a private lake.
â¢archery- there is archery.
â¢horses- horseback riding with the camp 5 minutes away.
â¢crafting- yup. And it's awesomely housed in a converted school bus.
â¢music- will a recording studio do?
â¢chill time- there's about two hours of the day free, plus meals and after dinner. You also choose your activities literally right before you do them.
â¢babying- no. No babying. You're assigned a number, and there's a board full of chips with numbers at the water front. Flip it.
â¢learning- well what do you want to learn? You can learn all sorts
â¢food that isn't disgusting- I happen to really enjoy the food. Just ignore the kitchen staff.
â¢paintball- not much to say about that. There is paintball.
â¢ropes course- yup. With the largest over water zip line on the continent.
â¢lots of things to do- over 60 different choices per week.

Showers and toilets are in the cabins. The counsellors are in there too, but in their own room. They're just like friends really. 3-4 years older, MAYBE. They just like to sit and listen to music and do hair/nails and stuff in the cabin. It's a lot of fun.

www.campmuskoka.com

Hope to see you there this summer!

P.S.: you can go anywhere from 1-8 weeks of the summer.

How to make a tent easily out of household items?

foreveryou

My friend is sleeping over, and all of our other friends are at camp. So we wanted to have a little camp out ourselves. Our idea was to make a tent. Now, I've looked at a BUNCH of websites, and they all either have insanely complicated tents, or indoor ones made for little kids. We need a way to make a tent fast, and able to hold outside for the entire night. Any suggestions are helpful!!

Answer
Does your mom have a clothesline anymore? That's what we did. You use clothespins and clip sheets to the clothesline -- clip just the edge, so the sheet hangs far enough down to make a tent wall.

Failing that availability, can you set up a table or two outside somehow? Put sheets over it to enclose it, and put heavy stuff on top of the sheets to hold them down. It makes a rather short tent, but you can sit in it and it is cozy for sleeping.

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