Welcome to Summer Camps at Gardner!
2026 Summer Camps will be available for registration in Winter 2025-2026.
For more information about our Summer Camp Program, please see our Summer Camp Information Packet.
“It is a safe and nurturing place for neurotypical and neurodivergent students to attend with professional educators who are trained and experienced working with students with diverse needs and interests. “ - 2025 Summer Camp Parent
This summer, Gardner School of Arts & Sciences hosted our fourth season of summer camps since we re-envisioned our program. 138 children embraced the opportunity to join one or more of our 28 camps over our six-week season - that’s a 40% increase in campers from the previous summer of 2024, and over twice as many campers as during our first returning season in 2022!
Campers as young as 3 joined the fun, and for the first time we opened some of our camps to students in middle school. Students chose from a variety of unique offerings each week designed to spark their creativity and curiosity, with camps focused on art, writing, exploration, technology, crafts, survival, and more. As the days grew warmer, the staff pulled out sprinklers and splash pads to allow the campers to cool off while spending time outdoors on our beautiful 5-acre campus.
Our Early Childhood staff took on our tiniest campers, inviting them to spend a week imagining what it would be like at the beach, on a camping trip, in space, or on a wild animal safari. These preschoolers embraced the concepts and transformed the classroom and our Imagination Playground into wild spaces and alien planets, which they explored like professional adventurers.
All our camps were led by Gardner faculty, who designed and taught camps that spoke to their own passions and interests. Our kindergarten teacher shared her love of ceramics with three separate camps of young students eager to create their own clay masterpieces and fire them in the school’s kiln. Our music specialist led several group camps such as “Scout Camp” and “Mad Scientists”, designed to get the campers working together, using their problem-solving skills, and building new confidence in their own abilities. Our science specialist offered technology-based camps in Robotics and Digital Art to some of our oldest campers; those students not only had the opportunity to learn new skills, but they also were able to take home their robot or their drawing tablets at the end of the week to continue their learning at home.
While our attendees included almost three dozen current Gardner students and several alumni, nearly three quarters of our campers were students from the greater Southwest Washington community, some of whom were veterans of previous Gardner summer camps.
Thank you to our campers, families, faculty, and staff for sharing your 2025 summer with Gardner, helping our Summer Camp program grow and thrive, and creating formative memories that will last a lifetime. We appreciate you all and hope to see you again in the 2026 camp season, along with many new faces!
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Our 2026 summer camp season will run from July 6th to August 14th, 2026.
Each camp runs for one week, Monday-Friday, from 9am - 3pm.
Cost per camp will be announced when camps open for the year. Select camps may have an additional materials fee, listed under the camp description.
Camps are listed by the ages students are for the 2025-2026 school year. Please only enroll campers in camps for their age ranges.
Preschool campers must be 3 years old and daytime potty trained to enroll in our camps.
Please contact llinderman@gardnerschool.org with any questions regarding our Summer Camps.
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Our primary summer camp staff is drawn from the amazing teachers here at Gardner. More information about our teachers can be found here.
Instructors will send out emails to all registered families a week before camps start with more detailed information about individual plans.
If you need to contact the camp leader during the camp please call (360) 574-5752. This rings to our front office and our staff will assist you in making contact.
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Campers should bring the following, clearly labeled with the camper’s name:
Packed Lunch and Snacks (we do not have a cafeteria onsite)
Water bottle
Sturdy shoes for outdoor adventures (all camps)
A change of clothes - we get messy and wet, even during “indoor” camps!
Sunscreen (For Preschool camps, you can authorize the use of our bulk classroom sunscreen on your child, or you can bring your own - If you bring your own sunscreen it must be labeled with the child’s name, and must be accompanied by a Request for Administration of Sunscreen form.) For K-6 campers, they can retain and apply their own sunscreen.
Additional items needed for your child's camp. Instructors will contact families in advance with more information.
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While sign ups open for camps in February, currently enrolled Gardner families have priority for camps until March. The general public is welcome to submit a registration during February; all camp spaces still open at the beginning of March will be offered and invoiced at that time.
Currently enrolled Gardner families will receive an emailed invoice through FACTS in a similar manner to other charges throughout the school year.
Prospective families and non-Gardner families will receive an invoice from Authorize.net, and will be asked to electronically sign a waiver and permissions prior to camp. All payments must be submitted before registration is finalized. Please complete payment to secure your spot; enrollment is not confirmed and the spot is not assured until the invoice is paid.
If the camp you are interested in fills up, you will not be invoiced or will receive an invoice noting “Waitlist" and charging $0.00. We do have cancellations throughout the sign-up period. When that happens, we will contact the waitlisted campers, if any.
If a camp for which you have paid is cancelled by Gardner School for any reason, a full refund will be issued. You will have the option to transfer to a different open camp (in any week) if you wish. There is no fee for this transfer, but it is subject to camp availability.
If plans change and you wish to transfer to a different camp (either in the same week or a different week), please contact llinderman@gardnerschool.org to check availability and make that arrangement. There is no fee for transferring camps, but the transfer is subject to availability.
There will be a minimum $25 fee assessed per cancelled camp session for any cancellations. If you need to cancel registration for any reason, 14 days’ notice is required to receive a full refund (less the $25 fee.) Cancellations with less than 14 days notice but more than 24 hours notice will receive a 50% refund. No refunds will be issued to cancellations within 24 hours of the start of camp. There are no refunds or adjustments for partial-week camp attendance or absences.