2001 Kids' Summer Fun Guide
Fri., May 4, 2001
You're not one of those parents who has every minute of their kids' summer planned out before Valentine's Day, are you? We assume, you being a Chronicle reader and all, that you're a bit more slackerish than that. Our annual Kids' Summer Fun Guide has always been published around the antepenultimate week of school (give or take a penult), just when the excitement (for kids) and dread (for parents) of three months full of nothin' begins to set in. As such, it's way too late to reserve a bunk at most out-of-town, overnight kind of camps, so you won't find those here. What we offer here are in-town or close-to-town day camps, as many as we could get our grubby little hands on, all of which still had space available at press time. But if you're still too much of a slacker to get in on the smorgasbord of seasonal fun sprawled before you, we understand, and have included three lists of stuff to do that requires little to no planning, registration, money, stress, oh please remind me again when school starts back up?! If all else fails, turn to the special edition of J.C. Shakespeare's "Who Asked You?" column to be assured that kids' favorite part about summer is plain old slacking off, just like their mommies and daddies do.
A big huge thanking is in order to listings hunters-gatherers for being anything but slackers: intern Elizabeth Skadden, who grew up in Austin and has fond memories of some of the camps that are still listed in these pages; and Wayne Alan Brenner and Barbara Chisholm, whose research was informed by their expertise as fun-loving parents. As always, if we failed to include your kids' camp or activity or otherwise messed up, we will be eager to repair the oversight in the Kids' section of our weekly Community page (see submission information, lower right). In the coming weeks, we'll publish the city's pool schedule, Austin Public Library's youth program schedule, and many more kid-friendly entertainment options.