Summer Day Camp Review: Gymkana at University of Maryland, College Park

Gymnastics Camp with a Scoop of Ice Cream on Top!

The University of Maryland's gymnastics performers, the Gymkana Troupe, hosts a spectacular summer day camp for children ages 5-16 at the College Park, Maryland campus. Five one-week summer day camp sessions are available. Two of my children have attended Gymkana summer day camp at the University of Maryland in different years. Several of their friends have attended as well. The universal reaction to this camp is a rave. Gymkana is, without a doubt, the superlative gymnastics summer day camp in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. Four daily rotations in gymnastics plus afternoon exercises on specific equipment allow kids to build remarkable skills in a one week period. On the last afternoon just before pick up, the campers don their free camp tee shirts and put on a show for their families. Kids who didn't know gymnastics a week earlier form pyramids, propel themselves over bars and display their trampoline mastery.

Unlike other gymnastics facilities, this summer day camp is on a University campus and has access to the University of Maryland facilities. Not limited to the gym, the Gymkana summer day camp is able to include daily swim sessions in its programs and walks to the University dairy. This gets kids outdoors and provides more variety than the typical gymnastics summer day camp offers. Only in inclement weather do the campers at Gymkana summer day camp swim indoors.

A unique feature of this camp is the opportunity to visit the campus dairy. Twice a week, they trek on over for an ice cream treat. This feature is extremely popular with the kids attending the camp.The youngest campers, the Gymkatots, have an arts and crafts session daily. These sessions are lightweight, usually involving construction paper or paper plate crafts, but they do give the kids a necessary break from physical activity.

CampStructure
There are three groupings of children at this summer day camp: