TechKnowHow Computer Camps

WONDERFUL experience for both of my children (6 year old and 8 year old). My daughter enrolled in the Intro to Robotics class and the IPAD Movie Making class and my son enrolled in the Legos class as well as the Intro to Robotics class in Seattle/​Kent. The teachers were super: energetic, knowledgeable, patient, understanding (my daughter is really shy), and fun! The price is comparable to other robotics programs in the area but you get much more here, I think. My daughter came home with a full movie that she made with her group/​team. There is team building, leadership skills, and communication skills integrated into this (IPAD) class as well. They use a program to make animation and record a short trailer and film. Really neat! I enjoyed watching them as a parent! I am a certified teacher myself, so I will tell you that this is something you’ll want to enroll your kids in the summer if you can. Great exposure for the children and motivates them to explore careers in STEM. You won’t regret it. Full Day program and they won’t be bored for a minute. :) We will be back (if there are any new programs) next year for sure. Unilocal me for questions. I’d be happy to answer. :)

My boys attended TKH in Burlingame for the first time this summer and, while expensive, was their best time spent this summer. Great fun for young boys (girls too, I noticed that they had a special girl focused track) and they came away with hands on knowledge of engineering concepts. The instructors were young but you got the sense that they had attended TKH as kids and loved it so much that they wanted to come back and teach. We have attended all of the «learning» camps and this was far superior. If you want camp songs and crazy hair days, you should pick a different camp, but if you have kids that love serious building and engineering, this is the place. I appreciate the full day schedule but would love it if after care went until 5:30. Looking forward to many more summers at TKH for the kids! Please stay in Burlingame/​Hillsborough and consider winter, spring, and ski week camps!

My son has attended TechKnowHow in either Sunnyvale or Palo Alto every summer for the past five years, and has signed up again for this summer. It has always been his favorite camp! When he was younger, he signed up for all of their lego «classes», and enjoyed every one. As he has gotten older, he has slowly shifted to all of their game design ones. Many of the classes he has taken during more than one summer without getting bored because each year they change the projects. His only complaint has been that they do not offer enough different classes to allow him to fill his entire summer with TechKnowHow. When he runs out of TechKnowHow, he has had to try other tech camps, which he always finds inferior.
Here are some of the reasons my son likes TechKnowHow better than other tech camps:
— Most important information is shared both verbally and via packets that the campers get. The written material allows campers the option of answering their own questions instead of waiting for a teacher. They can also use it to work ahead if they want to go at a faster pace.
— For the game design classes you get your own computer. With most other camps you have to share with at least one other camper
— More time is spent on tech than non-​tech activities.
— Most instructors and assistants know more about the software than what is covered in the camp. So they can offer fun extensions and hints on the fly if you ask. This helps keep the camp engaging even if you’re had prior experience with the software.
— There are options on how to spend outdoor time.

This is one of the more expensive summer camps that I sent my 5 year old son to this past summer but it is the one that he also enjoyed the best, so I do believe that it was money well spent. I was very impressed with the staff hired for our Fremont location, as well as the activities. We definitely don’t get to build robotics with our legos at home! I am really happy that the staff knew how to handle little boys and help my son adjust to a new learning environment. The hardest time my son had was to have to take a apart and part with is creations everyday.

I sent my son to their Simple Bots full day camps this past summer, and in just one week, my son had grasped the concept of gears, and the effect of putting in a remote control/​receiver unit into a Lego structure. The teachers clearly engaged him and piqued his curiosity and imagination. I was pleased with how simple the sign-​up process, and the execution of the camp was… There was no fancy stuff, team chants, and «song-and’dance routines» like other pricey camps! This camp was worth the money for sure. We’ll be signing up again for sure!!!

Both of my sons love the Lego camps at TechKnowHow. Last summer they took a Lego robotics class and not only did they have an awesome time, they came out of it with knowledge that they continue to use today, including the stop motion filming they learned in the class. I get the added bonus of seeing their creativity grow and watch (often very humorous) new films.
This year my boys signed up again for the iPad film making class. We are really excited to check it out next week. One of my two sons was unable to make the class due to his participation in a summer musical production and although we were inside the «no refund» period, they worked diligently to see if he could attend a later class and when that didn’t work out, they happily refunded the money.
It’s this kind of customer service that will bring us back and creates long term customers. Thank you to Lauren and Bob for all your help!

My daughter loves Legos and spends hours working with her sets at home. I thought the TechKnowHow camps would be very fun for her, so I enrolled her at the Belmont campus. On the first day, we found out she was the only girl in a class of 8 – 11 year old boys, with 2 male instructors. The advertisement literature, online videos, and testimonals show female students and some female instructors. Needless to say, my usually outgoing daughter hated her first day, started crying in the car ride home, and we had to work with the head office to get her removed from the camp. I strongly recommend calling ahead to find out if there will be girls in the class, or at least a female instructor, if you are planning to enroll your daughter.

My son attended a TechKnowHow camp this past summer for two weeks and consistently rated it as his favorite camp. It was a struggle to peel him away from his creations at the end of the day and he could not wait to go every morning. He loved building with the «programmable brain» and applied a lot of what he learned to his Lego play at home.
Recently both my younger and older son attended a test session that TechKnowHow organized over winter break and they both could not stop raving about how much fun they had for days.
I’m definitely registering them for a session this summer. I do wish they had a bit more outdoor time and focused more on social play, but they get that at other summer camps and since they love it so much I do think TechKnowHow is doing it well.

This camp was a wonderful experience for my 8 year old son. He’s into robotics and Legos and is shy and introverted. The camp instructors made him feel right at home. Every day when I came to pick him up (we opted for the after camp hours care) he wanted to stay to the end.
I’m planning to sign him up for next years camp.

My very enthusiastic son said he didn’t want to go the last day to his weeklong camp. He said that the counselors spent a lot of time getting kids quiet, etc. Lots of waiting around. The projects were either too hard or too easy, it seems, and didn’t hold his interest

NOTE THE CANCELLATION POLICY. They have a cancellation policy that only refunds you 75% of the class fee if you cancel after ⁴⁄₁ up to 3 weeks in advance of the class. I called to cancel today ⁵⁄₁ for a class I enrolled my child on ⁷⁄₃₀ which is pretty far in advance since we’re moving out of Northern California. So I am losing out on ~$ 100 which is a pretty hefty penalty considering I called to cancel 3 months in advance to cancel! I know of other camps that don’t have such a steep penalty esp. if you’re cancelling months in advance. Considering our circumstances I would have thought they would be flexible but the woman kept saying they have a cancellation policy that has been explained up front. I do know of other camps that have a flexible cancellation policy within certain notice. For example, Steve & Kate’s summer camp has a wonderful, flexible refund/​cancellation policy and they were gladly able to refund me 100%!
UPDATE to my review above: The president of TechKnowHow personally emailed me in response to my disappointment regarding the cancellation/​refund policy. He appreciated my unique situation given that we’re moving and was able to refund me the balance of the tuition. Thank you!

Our son did the Lego week long camp. I think it was called SpyBots. He loved it as he was given daily instructions and some cool lego parts to build with. Including a remote control set up. very cool. They tried to educate the children as well by reviewing parts such as Hubs, Wheels, Tracks, etc.
My only complaint is the facility that it was held in. It was a hot, tired looking room at a school in San Mateo. Not really Techknowhow’s fault but they really should select more exciting locations.
They spent ½ day building and testing. The other half day was spent playing «educational» games on old notebooks. I’m not a huge fan of video games but these seem to be geared towards creating systems etc. So I let it slide.
Again, my son loved it. I thought it was pretty good.
I’m sad that each SpyBots class is the same. So I only signed our son up for one week session. I suggested to them they should make every week different. This way we can keep our son going…
Oh, the admin that sets everything up (via phone and web) is great. Very helpful and nice to work with.
We’ll be back next year.