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Camp Challenge - at Tuckahoe High School, in Eastchester, New York. 

I can no longer recommend Challenge Day Camp as a camp for the gifted.  Due to some personal experiences at the camp, I have found that the camp does not provide enough proper support regarding camper behavior, in particular regarding bullying by some the children that have been attending the camp for several years.  It seems that as the children get older (3rd, 4th and 5th grade) and into the age where bullying becomes a problem, those classes are more likely to have bullying occur unchecked.  The camp’s response to bullying is to tell the children to become friends.  There is no evidence that the camp counselors and directors have had proper training in handling bullying in children or at least the current way of handling bullying is ineffective. As a result I can no longer give a good recommendation for this camp.

Camp Emerson - in the Berkshire mountains in Pittsfield, Mass, 4 hours from Manhattan.  This camp is recommended by one of our local experts on gifted children.   The camp is a regular camp that also provides enrichment oriented programs. This camp is a sleep-away camp.   From them: “Camp Emerson is a resident summer camp for highly motivated girls and boys who are looking for a traditional camp experience with a intellectual stimulating bent. Design your own schedule from over 50 activities including: arts, athletics, science, adventure, watersports, performance and our STEP BEYOND program including: science, cooking, magic, MythBusters, forensic science, rockety, movie making, CO2 race cars and much more. Meet other like-minded kids, make great friends and have tons of fun. 100 staff for 200 children age 8-15. Located in the Beautiful Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts. Contact us: directors@campemerson.com, 800-782-3395.

SIG - Summer Institute for the Gifted -      Westchester location at Purchase - Manhattanville College.  This organization has many camps across the country and most of them are sleep-away camps.  They are part of the American Institute for Foreign Study.  Having just started the Purchase location a couple of years ago, they are increasing their visibility in Westchester.  When we went to visit this camp in the summer of 2004 at SUNY Purchase, the camp seemed somewhat disorganized.  The environment was somewhat scattered as  the campus was shared with other camps.  The classes were in different buildings around campus and lunch was served in a separate building.  Now that the camp has moved to Manhattanville College things may have improved, but we have not visited them in this new location.

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