2025 Overview & Registration
Activate offers full-day camps for incoming 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Our camps have an arts and engineering focus, and campers also swim three times a week, visit local parks, and have a lot of indoor choice time, in which campers can explore art, music, games, engineering, books, puzzles, and more.
There is an optional 45 minutes of literacy instruction in the morning.
Tween/Teen Assistants
Every week, there are two slots for incoming 7th and 8th graders to assist. Tuition for assistants is 20% off the regular tuition. There is more information on this page.
Camp Changes
We’ve made a few significant changes to camps this summer.
More Camper Autonomy (and no more weekly themes)
Core to Activate’s philosophy is that children need autonomy to pursue and practice their creative passions. However, children also benefit from structure, daily rhythms, and adult-directed lessons. This summer, we’re altering our camp program to offer children more autonomy while exposing them to many different art and engineering projects. Every week, there will be a graphic design project, an animation or music project, a photography project, an engineering project, and two hands-on art projects like printmaking, papermaking, and painting. The projects will be different from week to week. Inexperienced campers will generally do projects as directed, whereas the experienced campers will have more opportunities to experiment. All campers will have weekly open studio time for digital or analog projects and experiments. We are discontinuing weekly workshop themes.
Every week, campers will take home a bag full of art and projects, including several high-quality prints of digital art, an engineering project, hands-on art projects, and a custom frame for one of their prints. Each camper will design one t-shirt per summer using heat-transfer vinyl, and each camper will get a thumb drive for their digital projects, such as animations, songs, and photographs.
Less Screen Time
Year after year, we’ve cut back on student/camper screen time. The abovementioned changes to our camp schedule will further reduce screen time.
Elongating the Day
The drop-off window is from 8:30-9:15. (Our old drop-off time started at 9:00). The pick-up window is from 3:30-5:00. (Our old pickup window ended at 4:00).
Less Intense Literacy
Last year, we offered optional daily literacy lessons for the first time. However, after some reflection, we realized it was too intense. This summer, we will continue to have a daily literacy block, but we will reduce the intensity and shorten the block. From 9:15 to 10:00, Greg (Activate’s founder and lead teacher) will lead a literacy lesson that parents opt into. The literacy lesson will mainly involve reading short stories or news articles and studying related words using the Activate method (which is inspired by the SWI framework). Children whose parents opt out of literacy will have ‘quiet time’ during this period. The quiet time options are reading, writing, drawing, or solving math puzzles.
Activate is not and has never been a literacy camp. Instead, we aim to stave off the ‘summer slide’ with daily reading and by teaching interesting linguistic content campers wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to (unless they attend Activate School).
Field Trips
Mondays: Sellwood Park and Pool
Tuesdays: Johnson Creek Park
Wednesdays: Sellwood Park and Pool
Thursdays: Westmoreland Park or Sellwood Riverfront Park *
Fridays: Sellwood Park and Pool
* We’ll go to Oaks Park on the final Thursday
Registration
Registration for 2025 summer camps will open on Saturday, 2/1/25, at 8:00 am. All camps will likely sell out within 24 to 48 hours. Last summer, some camps sold out in less than an hour.
We use a registration platform called Jumbula. We recommend registering to Jumbula in advance. Use the link below to register for Jumbula.
Tution
Each week of camp is $500, except for Week 3, which is $400 because it’s a four day week, and week 8 is $520 because of an Oaks Park trip.
Early Enrollment Package Deal
Families buying five or more camps (for one child or multiple children) get a 5% discount and access to early enrollment. This option opens on 1/1/25 and closes on 1/30/25.
Our regular cancelation and refund policy does not apply to the 5% off package deal. We will only give credit for cancelations; we will not give refunds.
The package deal requires a coupon code, and early enrollment requires an access code. Email greg@activateschoolpdx.com for both codes.
This package deal is only for campers (3rd-6th graders), not tween/teen assistants (7th and 8th graders).
Payment Plan
There is an optional four-installment payment plan for all camp purchases. 25% is due upon registering, on 3/1/25, on 4/1/25 , and on 5/1/25. Payments will be automatically charged.
