Schenectady JCC Summer Camp Chaverim

These are all day camps, basically covering school breaks, in two-​week segments, for kids ranging from Pre-​K up through middle school.
The JCC summer camps are notable for a number of reasons.
First off, the daily program allows kids to swim twice a day, with quite decent instruction. The camp fees are on the high side of moderate, but if you throw in the swimming lessons alone it seems like a much better deal.
The activities are programmed by age group, but there’s a great deal of latitude within each program for individual choice. So the kids have the nice combination of being able to go through with a group during their camp segment, but not get stuck necessarily always doing something that might not be their cup of tea.
Activities include the usual craft stuff, outdoor time, cultural activities, arts (little shows, etc.) and an all-​group session at the end of each week. The «bands» for ages are about two-​grades wide so they’re all adjusted age-​appropriate.
The JCC has some back fields, two nice playgrounds, two pools (an indoor pool available in case of inclement weather plus the larger outdoor pool), tennis courts, and a couple of somewhat sad-​looking ball fields. It’s not a woodsy camp but there’s plenty of basic outdoor space immediately adjacent to the center itself. The center is well-​appointed and has a few airconditioned spaces to get out of the heat when necessary. There are other activities going on at the center but the staff is fairly careful to keep the kids and adults out of one another’s hair.
For the older kids, there’s a cool option for a «traveling» camp, which is basically a different field trip every day all over the region. It’s pretty cool, and for the right kind of kid can be a nice bridge from day camp to the independence of traveling alone to a sleep away camp.
The counselors are very experienced, and are onboarded carefully by the camp management over a period of years. There are always at least two per group, plus separate swim and tennis instructors. They have a lot of adult supervision (the Pre-​K and youngers is all adult-​run), there’s a permanent director on staff, and a school nurse borrowed from the local school system to be the camp nurse.
We’ve done about six sessions over the years and have nothing but good things to say. It is a little pricey if you’re just looking for daycare, and it’s a little scattered if you’re looking for an enrichment camp, and it’s not the wide open spaces of a sleepaway camp, but for a sort of smörgåsbord of fairly carefully-​supervised activities, as good as we’ve seen.