Last year, on our last day in Vermont, we saw an advertisement for mountain bike camp for kids. It was too late for this trip, but we kept it in mind for the future. We planned for us and a few other family members to chip in and make this trip a Christmas gift for the girls. They were so excited! And we were excited to offer them such an experience.
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We realized that there were going to be some excellent benefits, beside having an awesome time, for our girls. This is social time with other kids. We were grateful that the instructors made it work even amid the COVID crisis. Second, being with other kids who are striving to improve their skills creates a positive peer pressure. While your children might complain on the trail with just your family, among their peers, they are a lot less likely to do so and therefore build their endurance and skill faster. I also am glad that they got to learn from more advanced riders. They learned things that I simply cannot teach them because I don’t know myself.
If you are like us, you will probably need to plan in advance for the cost of this. Let me encourage you though that it is always a great idea to invest in your children’s interests. Kids get the sense that they are important to you and that you believe in their abilities when you are willing to invest in them; even if they can’t express it in those words. You’ll need to factor in the cost of the camp itself, travel, lodging, and possibly a trail pass. Like I mentioned above, you can make the trip a gift and have other family members contribute to the cost.
We enrolled our daughters in a day camp with Kingdom Cycling and Experiences in Burke, Vermont. Fortunately, we have family in the area who kindly let us stay with them. That was a big saver for sure! But there are lots of Air BNB’s in the area too. The cost of the camp itself was about $250 per child. That included riding with an instructor from 9 AM to noon and lunch for three days. The camp ran Tuesday through Thursday. We were very happy with this program and would definitely recommend it!
The girls made some new friends, loved their instructors, and improved the skills on their bikes. The instructors did an excellent job of making skill building into games. Each day the girls told us about games they played and what skills they built. They told us about the trails they rode and things they saw. The highlight was riding a trial called Harp because there is a fairy house there. They got exactly what we were hoping for from this experience. We plan to do it again in the future.
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