LOL, you said what I was going to say but decided to bite my tongue. 
Yeah, Iâm not being very good at biting my tongue lately. Must be the full moon. 
Muffy will have to pay 2K/week because riff-raff pays 1K+ at West Side YMCA:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/wpd-assets/ymcanewyork/summer%20camp%20registration%20forms_2014_westside%20y%20Final%20edit.pdf
See Kinder Camp. These are 2014 prices
edit - this is for 2 weeks so maybe one can still be under 1k/week
âWhat is wrong with a Y Camp?â
If you could get in.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123782&page=1
This is Chelsea Piers Summer sports camp in NYC, which is nice but not over the top (no strings necessary to get in, just willingness to pay):
Price: Weekly $875, multiweek discounts available, early-bird discounts available before May 21.
Chelsea Piers is not calling themselves a sports boot camp or making any representation of getting your kid into a college with sports scholarship, they are just providing an air conditioned place for your kid to play for a week.
http://www.timeout.com/new-york-kids/things-to-do/chelsea-piers-summer-sports-camp#tab_panel_2
Deer Mountain Day Camp:
Price: June 27âAug 19; $5,090â$8,595
I donât suppose there is need based aid. So much for socio economic diversity.
8-|
Oh, and this is the cost for the Y at 92nd St, Camp Kâton Ton for Ages 3-5:
Jun 27-Fri, Aug 5
9 am-12 pm: $5,300
9 am-1 pm: $5,550
9 am-2 pm: $5,800
9 am-3 pm: $6,100
You can work out the math for the cost per week.
http://www.92y.org/Camps/KTonton.aspx
From that site:
âThis behemoth sports facility is a go-to spot for active kids throughout the year, and summertime is no exception. At Gymnastics Camp in the Field House, agile youngsters ages 5 to 14 get free rein over the 23,000-square-foot gymnastics center, where girls tackle the balance beam, uneven bars, vault and spring floor, and the boys get an intro to the pommel horse, parallel bars, horizontal bar and still rings. Aspiring Annas and Elsas should sign up for the Ice Skating Camp at Sky Rink, where instructors teach Level I and Level II skills to prep campers ages 6 to 12 for biweekly skating shows for their family and friends. Skaters also get the chance to warm up during daily cross-training with options like gymnastics, rock climbing, soccer, volleyball and bowling. Big kids ages (12 to 16) can try their hands at many out-of-the-box sports like kayaking, rock climbing, stand-up paddle boarding, sailing, cycling, boxing and fencing during the Urban Adventure Camp. Ages 5â16.â
Hmmmm⊠Does not sound like a pre-K camp to me. Not exactly an apples to apples comparison. Most community center day camps do not have glossy websites⊠I am positive one can find plenty of daycamp options for a pre-kindergartener that do not offer ice skating or sailing at a reasonable price.
Chelsea Piers was converted to a sports center a while back. It has a bowling alley, skating rink, rock climbingâŠprobably the only sports center in NYC. My kids have been there for many birthday parties. D1 went there for few weeks of gymnastic camp, and it was nothing fancy or special (not sure how much I paid). It is very similar to many sports/party places out in the suburb.
There are many less expensive camps in NYC, but one would need to look hard and sign up very early. I had to pull few strings to get D1 into a nicer club camp. It was nice because they actually took kids to their club in Westchester.
https://mommypoppins.com/ny-kids/free-and-cheap-summer-camps
Cheap, but little Johnny will have to mingle with the commoners, with no semi-private spelling lessons, alas.
Average summer camp (both day and away) price in NYC per Google is $300, with options ranging from $0 to $1000+
This camp is listed from BBâs link.
It is free and it is for low-income kids. Not that many families in NYC would qualify for that.
Anybody remember the old movie âBaby Boomâ with Diane Keaton? Itâs set in the late 1980âs. She plays a high powered single woman who somehow is given custody of a dead relativeâs infant. At the playground (NYC - either Upper East or Upper West sides), she is essentially berated because her child was not enrolled in a top preschool/K in utero, so she decides to move to Vermont. I was pregnant with my first child and living in the city when I saw that movie. H and I decided to move out of the city rather than deal with that type of pressure. From what I hear, itâs only gotten worse. In those days, you just had to get onto the waiting list. Now, they give toddlers personality and achievement tests. I shake my headâŠ
I have always said that my kids got into top colleges, not because, but in spite of their public school education. Their HS did not even have AP let alone IB. Itâs a rural school and there was no other choice locally.
However, they did attend dance school, music camp, sports camps and have private musical instruction, etc. This cost thousands of dollars over the years. None of them are professional dancers, musicians or athletes.
In retrospect, of course you do not need to send your kid to an expensive pre- school. Nor did I need to send my kids to dance, music camp, etc.
But If I was wealthy when my kids were young and lived in a city with multiple choices, I would have selected the one that I felt was the best that I could afford. And I bet most of you would have too.
âBut If I was wealthy when my kids were young and lived in a city with multiple choices, I would have selected the one that I felt was the best that I could afford. And I bet most of you would have too.â
I agree.
@morrismm It depends on each personâs definition of best they can afford. For me, no matter how much I can afford on paper, it has always been and always will be about value, and overly expensive things have never been a good value to me.
I lived in NYC. Itâs really not about cost. Yes, things are expensive. But the article speaks more to the rat race than to the costs of camp or daycare. You either want to play and then sign your kid up for such things as this boot camp, or you choose not to play and select other options that donât involve a ridiculous amount of money and ever seeking to give your kid an edge. I know many well off families that chose other options.
To each their own. I dont have a problem with people choosing to join the rat race. I do have a problem with the pressure put on these kids at such a young age. Let them play and be kids for as long as possible.
I do have a problem when parents make fun of other peopleâs choices, or lack of choices in some case.
This is typical on CC - it is acceptable to brag about driving a 200K miles car, but the mob would strike you down if someone dared to say they drove a Tesla.
I hope my husband and I would have selected the program that was the best for our kid, regardless of whether it was the best we could afford.
But since we didnât have the money anyway, the issue didnât arise.
I am kind of curious why people try to put the worst spin on this. Didnât you send your kids to play school? Is it because it costs so much? We donât gripe over $200K car, do we? My beatup honda gets me everywhere I need to go, or we riffraffs drive a toyota camry that muffys wouldnât dream of driving, etc. Whatâs the big deal? There are many price ranges like everything else in life.
I think what is bugging everyone is the notion of âbootâ camp to get already priveleged 5 year olds ready for Kindergarten. Itâs the notion that 5yoâs have joined the rat race of competition.
I couldnât give two you know whats how people spend their money. Or how much pre school costs, or how much this costs. It makes me feel sad for these little kids to already be put under pressure for achievement.
IDK I donât sense sympathy for unfortunate kids if they are indeed unfortunate as people make it out to be. If what they do is not all that different from what a typical play school does, calling it âbootcampâ doesnât make it one. Itâs just a play school. Labeling it bootcamp is probably sesational journalism.
My problem with the situation:
$ - be it $200, $2000 or $20,000 doesnât buy you success in kindergarten. Itâs not the saving grace.
If the parents who spend these $$$ are also providing a language rich, emotionally stable environment at home - the two things proven to be the most important indicators of school readiness for a typically developing child, kudos to them. But I will still âjudgeâ and pose the question, âwould you consider sharing your wealth?â If you recognize that basic skills and experience are important for school success at the K door then might you choose another less expensive option for your child, but sponsor a less fortunate child to receive some of the same services?
The other problem I have is with early childhood programs charging these type of fees for âK readinessâ and perhaps promoting and adding to educational stress for a young child - and their families - by sending the message that kids need to climb the escalator of school rigor before they hit the formal school grounds.