Summer Spark

My son was 7 last summer and attended «Spark Camp» (as he calls it) for four weeks total. Our plan had been for his grandmother to watch him for the summer, but it turned out she was going to need surgery. We couldn’t believe our luck in finding such a high-​quality summer camp experience. He attends a Montessori school during the year, so we were so happy to have his camp experience be a compatible style. We felt comfortable that Kaylie and any other teachers would create a community for positive social interaction as well as intellectual development, so we wouldn’t lose ground on grace and courtesy during the summer.
Our son was 100% thrilled with his experience and so sad when it was over. He still has a shelf in his room with all his treasured creations from camp. He’s looking forward to attending again this summer!

My son absolutely loved this camp so much so that we ended up canceling all of his other camps and signing him for Summer Spark. Just to be clear, that is a huge accomplishment. My 7-​year-​old has high expectations and Kaylie and her team exceeded them all. Kaylie has a team of encouraging, caring and professional educators that not only taught my son to execute creative, science-​based ideas, they taught him how to play chess. If you have a curious child that thrives in creative environments (who doesn’t?!), this camp is for your child.

My 6 year old girl had the best time. We went for just one week this summer to try it out, and she let me know that next summer the only camp she wanted to go to was Summer Spark, and vacation of course. She loved her projects that she created and couldn’t wait to show me how they worked when she brought them home. She was even excited to show me that sometimes they didn’t work and that was ok, «you just have to keep trying». She made new friends, but also told me she liked it when she could work alone. Summer Spark was wonderful, new learning experience that we will be doing again.

There is something very special Kaylie Reed does in creating her camp that I can’t describe, but it really works in creating an environment of respect, calmness, good fun, and interest. After one week of the camp I went back and signed him up for another week, it was so great. My son went to about 7 camps this summer, and this one had the best feel – that lovely zone of calm and focused. Somehow she makes it work with kids of different ages and skills. The word respect keeps coming back to me, she seems to have a deep respect for the way kids really are and I think they can feel that.

My children absolutely loved this camp! They came home every day with new creations they made from recycled materials. We were so impressed with Kaylie and her staff and my children looked forward to going back every day. We will definitely be returning next year!

My 7-​year-​old son attended three weeks of Summer Spark this summer and he loved it. It was the perfect blend of play time and think time. His teachers were creative and very flexible, allowing the kids’ imaginations to drive their activities. He made new friends and brought home tons of projects each day. I highly recommend this program for parents that are looking for a relaxed but stimulating environment.

My daughter attended a few awesome camps prior to attending Summer Spark. She came home from the first day and said, «This is the best camp ever! I wish I could live at camp!» Thank you Kaylie and Daniel!

This is the second year our son has attended Summer Spark. My son loved it and was excited to go back for two weeks this year. This has been a great compliment to the many sport camps. My son loves the creative thinking and the out of the box ideas /​projects. It’s fun and challenging. We will again be sending our son and our daughter when she’s old enough.

We sent our son to Summer Spark for a couple weeks this year. He loved it and wants to go back next year. Kaylie keeps the kids interested, thinking, and teaches while engaging their imaginations. I can’t recommend the program highly enough. We will be sending our son again.

Coming from a stay at home mom who wasn’t looking to send my child to a camp at all-​I chose to send my 6 year old here because I knew spending any time in a program designed and operated by Kaylie Reed could only be a privilege and beneficial for my son. She’s the best of the best at guiding children and my son loved his week there! He’s already asking to do another week so we may do it twice this summer!

As a parent, all I know is that my kids have been elated after camp and truly ‘sparked’, as the name implies. It’s the only camp they’ve actually begged to return to! But since I haven’t attended camp myself, I asked them to write the review. :) My daughter says, «Give it all the stars. It’s great because we have lots of freedom. We can do the group plan or we can do it our own way.» I think that summarizes the spirit of what makes Summer Spark so appealing to them. The careful balance of structured planning with the space to not just ‘tolerate’, but actually encourage independent thinking and deviation from the instructions. The kids have been so creative and completely detoxed from their screen addiction. They feel so celebrated and proud of their creations each day. This camp is worth every penny… I only wish I’d known about it sooner! We will definitely return next summer. Thanks, Kaylie & crew!

We are from Los Angeles, but we have heard so many amazing things about Summer Spark that we decided to take a road trip to Austin this summer. Our camp experience has lived up to everything we had hoped for and more. Both our boys loved it — even our shy son who likes to stay home was begging to go back. The projects are designed to keep campers begging to be challenged. Wish we had something like this in Salt Lake!

Summer Spark is an amazing program that my son enjoyed every minute of every day. Sometimes it is difficult to create a program that equally challenges a child’s mind as well as engage the fun side of it, but Summer Spark was able to do it! My son loved that he got the opportunity to work independently as well as in groups. We loved to see the inventions he developed every day, about the friendships he was making and watched how he took the lessons learned at Summer Spark and applied it to our own conversations or his play time. I would highly recommend Summer Spark and its teachers. We will be back next year!

My kids always choose TV and video games over doing things. Always… except for the week we tried Summer Spark. I’ve never in my life had my boys *ask* to go back to school or camp before. They loved it. They were active and engaged during the day, and at night all they wanted to talk about was their challenges from that day. They were even eager to share the lessons that were discussed at camp… whether they learned more from success or failure, etc. Thank you, Kaylie and SS — we can’t wait to come back!