MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — If you’re still trying to get your child in summer camp, many are reporting they’re already at capacity.
This is the case for both recreational, specialty, and academic summer camps.
This time last year, the country was going through the COVID-19 delta variant wave.
Mask mandates were in place, there was no vaccine for kids and the culture around summer camp was visibly different.
“This year, we've already capped out 8,000 campers that we're going to serve across our Charlotte area," Amanda Little, a YMCA Greater Charlotte Youth Development Director of Out of School Time Programs, said. "If you want to scale to look at that, that's about eight-plus elementary schools of children that we're going to be serving across the Charlotte area.”
The YMCA of Greater Charlotte kicked off its summer camps this week.
Kids and parents are ready to get back into the normal summer routine of swimming lessons, outdoor activities, and socialization.
“They maybe have an interest in like cooking, they can come to one of our cooking camps and really get the fundamentals of how recipes are made and how to work in the kitchen," Little said.
Academic summer camps are also seeing a rise in registrations.
Summer class spots for the Ballantyne Reading Academy for the Very Young are full.
“Those that had some learning disabilities to start with, or dyslexia, remote learning was very much of a challenge for them," Lorie Lewis, the owner of the reading academy, said. "So they are trying to catch up."
The tutoring company’s owner said they’re seeing mostly first and second-grade students.
Despite summer camp spots filled the tutoring company is still accepting one-on-one lessons for students.
"Handwriting is an interesting one right now," Lewis said. "Didn't think about this during COVID, that teachers could not see how the kids were forming their letters when even though they were learning teaching them.”
Whether it's in-person tutoring or in-person swim lessons, there are some things children need to do in person to see the most success.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.