School will be wrapping up across North Carolina in the next few weeks. Still not sure what do with you kids? Our museums and historic sites and local arts councils across the state offer summer camps that inspire kids to create and teach teens about the Tar Heel State’s past in a fun, collaborative atmosphere.
Our camps are filling up pretty fast, but we still have some availability. Here are nine camps that still have spots open and promise plenty of summer fun:
1. Summer teen workshops at the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh.
Teens can play with photography and collage to explore the past and imagine the future or use a variety of media to create artistic-poetic mashups and retell a storyat week-long workshops at the museum in June.
2. Life on the Carolina Frontier at Fort Dobbs in Statesville.
Let your kids enlist in a North Carolina Provincial Company and learn about the lives of the soldiers who built Fort Dobbs, the settlers they protected and the Cherokee warriors they fought.
3. Camps offered by local arts councils and nonprofit arts and cultural organizations across the state.
A few that have caught our eye so far are the Summer Clay Camp for Kids, offered by the N.C. Pottery Center; All About Abstracts and Cool Jewelry, offered by the Wayne County Arts Council; and the visual and performing arts camps offered by the Arts Council of Wilson.
Get in touch with your local arts council for more offerings near you.
4. Summer Science School and the Junior Sailing Program at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort.
Kids can explore a range of topics from coastal conservation to the science used to investigate the wreck of Blackbeard’s flagship at the museum’s Summer Science School or learn safety, seamanship and a number of other sailing skills in its Junior Sailing Program.
5. History camps covering a variety of topics at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh.
You kid can become a history detective and learn how the museum researches and produces exhibits, get a taste of life in colonial North Carolina or set sail for a coastal Carolina adventure. Registration for all of the museums camps is still open.
6. A Civil War summer camp at the Museum of the Cape Fear in Fayetteville.
As the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War ends, kids will drill like Civil War soldiers, dress up like them for a photo op and participate in an array of other activities to ignite the history spark in campers ages nine to 12.
7. The first annual Backcountry Militia Day Camp for Kids at House in the Horseshoe near Sanford.
History will come alive for your kids at with an artillery demonstration, musket and rifle firing, spinning and weaving demonstrations and the change to meet an 18th century surgeon. The camp will also feature hands on activities and a special tour of the Horseshoe site.
8. Hands-on art making workshops and camps for elementary and middle school-aged kids at the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh.
Seven of the museum’s camps still have openings. The Blast from Past camp, combining art and history for fun for elementary and middle school kids and the middle school workshops on fashion and expressing yourself look especially interesting to us!
9. A host of history camps at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Southport.
Whether you little one longs to be a pirate, Civil War solider or archaeologist, the N.C. Maritime Museum in Southport has a hands-on adventure for them.
In addition to all of these awesome camps, the Museum of the Albemarle, N.C. Museum of Art, N.C. Museum of History, SECCA, Tryon Palace and all three of our maritime museums offer programs for kids and family weekly.
Hosting your own summer camp and looking for a place to take your kids? Our 27 historic sites scattered across the state are perfect for a morning, afternoon or all-day trip. The Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum in Sedalia and Tryon Palace make it especially easy to accommodate your large group.