I had high expectations for this week-long summer day camp. The week before, my 9 year daughter attended the girl scout "Twilight Camp" which was a week-long as well, cheaper by about $50, and my daughter LOVED it! However, upon arrival, you are greeted at Camp Mariposa by a disinterested staff. The grounds are pretty, it holds a girl scout house, a small babbling brook, and several areas with picnic tables under canopies for activities. My daughter went during the "art week" theme, which focuses its activities on such things such as watercolors, sketching, etc..
4 out of 5 days into it, the reviews from my 9 year old and her 9 year friend are: "Boring, long, too much free time, too many restrictions(they have a brook in the middle of the camp but you aren't allowed to do anything with it--um its 100 degrees out here, guys). Also, none of the staff seem to be memorable, and every time I have dropped them off, or picked them up, no one so as much looks up to see who I am, or if I should be taking these girls.
I see some middle-aged women usually sitting somewhere with sunglasses, sometimes reading a book to themselves that will MAYBE smile if you engage them long enough with eye contact. Then a bunch of 18 or 19 year old girls who are clearly not very interested in being there either.
Every-time I have picked up my girl and her friend, I have been asked "What took you so long? Do we have to go tomorrow? Someone was being a bully to me today! Can you pick us up earlier tomorrow?" Now, there are other girls that come up to me when I take them and literally say to me, "Can you call my Mom and ask her to come get me?"
I am thinking, WHAT is going on here???? I paid $150, I pack their lunch everyday, and assume for the 6 hours they have them, they would sing and learn girl scout songs, do bonding activities, create more things, learn new games.... Kind of like they did at the girl scout "Twilight Camp" which was for the same amount of time, they fed them, and they had a blast and LOVED the staff and made new friends.
Whoever is running this camp, probably can take ALOT of ques from the Twilight Camp leaders and staff about how to run a good day camp. Now that its too late, a lot of different parents I know in the girl scouting community are saying things like "Oh my daughter went last year, and didn't really like it." and "Too much down-time" and "I thought it was maybe it was just my daughter that didn't like it" out there. The word of mouth has got a negative spin, and there is a reason you don't see many reviews about this camp out there.
Unless staffing and management changes things to reflect expectations of a Girl Scout Summer Camp, and not of a daycare facility of a Parks and Rec program(btw, that are MUCH cheaper than this camp), then I will not likely be taking my daughter to Camp Mariposa again. Which is fine by them, since I doubt they know who my daughter is, or who I am for that matter, anyways... read more