School will soon be out for summer and that mean it's time for parents to start making plans for child care.

Erie has plenty of options for educational camps and programs in the summer months, like at the ExpERIEnce Children's Museum.


As Claire West, the Education Manager for the ExpERIEnce Children's Museum explained, "So all of our camps are drop-off and pick-up. All of our camps, start at 9:00 and end at 4:30 for our older kids and then our younger kiddos have a half day program." This summer, they have fourteen camps for different age ranges including four to six, seven to ten and eleven to thirteen. They have already filled all the spots in the four to six and seven to ten year-olds, but there are still spots open for the eleven to thirteen program. 


Meantime, many schools host their own summer camps for their families to take the burden off the parents for a couple of weeks each summer. Lindsey Kerner, the  Executive Director for Covenant Preschool explained, "I think it is important to a lot of our parents who are working and so this gives them a way to keep their kids involved in the school. It's going to be based more on fun activities, story telling, arts and crafts, less academic and more play."


Covenant Preschool's summer program is making its return this year for two weeks in June after a hiatus due to Covid and organizers hope it continues to grow in the following years. Not only are kids able to learn and play when school is out with different camps and programs, but they also provides parents with child care in the summer months.


Educators with the ExpERIEnce Children's Museum said mixing learning and creativity is what they are all about. "These are fantastic camps for our working parents definitely. They can drop off their kiddo in the morning, knowing they are doing fun activities, they get to see special guests from around the Erie community, they are learning to network and learning new skills and they are also meeting new friends and getting to interact with our educators who hold the camps", explained West.

For more information about the summer programs at the ExpERIEnce Children's Museum, click here.


Covenant Preschool is looking forward to celebrating their 75th year celebration next month.