<p>I found it an excellent time to perfect my pool game and poker/blackjack skills in my friend’s basement. And lots of bike rides 5 miles to town to hangout with my friends at the city pool and try to talk to 14 year old girls. Time well spent.</p>
<p>My 15 yr old goes to a Y camp for 2 weeks, and has been since she was 9. She will do LIT this summer and CIT next summer. She’d love to go longer, but money won’t allow it. She loves it and makes good friends. If your daughter doesn’t have friends close by, this would be a wonderful outlet for her! There are Y camps everywhere! I am a true believer in the value of summer camp. All of my kids have been and continued for years until they were able to get a summer job. The ACA website has a list of camps with varied opportunities. [Summer</a> camps enrich children’s lives! - American Camp Association](<a href=“http://www.acacamps.org%5DSummer”>http://www.acacamps.org)</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your great ideas! This has been very helpful.</p>
<p>Yes, camp! The summer after 9th grade, my D went to two camps, three weeks at her regular, beloved general camp in August and two weeks at a drama camp. She spent another week visiting with a girlfriend at the girl’s mom’s house on the other side of our state. That took care of six out of the ten weeks of summer. It was great! No boredom that summer.</p>
<p>Another idea: our YMCA has extensive day-care programs in the summer. They accept teen volunteers as full-time interns in each camp session. This is how you get the experience to be hired back as a counselor in the program in future summers. Two college girls from my church now work in this program every summer, and that’s how they started. They are all set for their summer jobs in college as long as they want to return.</p>