FAQs

We have camps throughout the United States, with locations in California, Washington, Colorado, & Illinois. Use our camp finder to find a camp near you or view our list of locations HERE.

All camps run from 9am-3pm  Monday through Friday.  We offer optional extended care hours from 8am – 9am and from 3pm – 6pm.

We are closed on Juneteenth (June 19th) and Independence Day (July 4th).

If a location is listed as TBD, it means we are confident that we will have a camp in that community, but are still confirming the specific location. As soon as we have finalized our site plans, our website will be updated!

We’ve been perfecting our signature mix of eye-opening learning and mind-blowing fun for over 20 years. Our approach isn’t to balance learning and fun, rather we aim to make learning fun. Every day our engaging and enthusiastic instructors support campers to create exciting hands-on projects that explore art & engineering concepts and teach lasting innovation skills.  Galileo campers also spend big chunks of their day outside—playing games, taking on team-building challenges and participating in silly camp traditions from songs and team cheers to dress up days and, everyone’s favorite, water day.

Learn more about what your camper’s day will look like at Galileo:

Entering K – 8th grades (Camp Galileo)
Entering 8th – 10th grades (Counselor in Training)

We do our best to group campers together with at least one friend, as long as they are in the same grade range. To make a friend request for your camper, log in to your account and fill that out under your child’s information.

If you don’t do any social planning in advance, don’t worry! Our small group format and highly trained staff help facilitate new friendships and make every camper feel safe and included.

If you do plan to share your summer with friends, don’t forget about our Refer a Friend program—click here to learn more.

We carefully craft our curriculum to provide the perfect amount of challenge and fun for kids at every level. Therefore, we cannot group differently aged campers together.

At Camp Galileo, we group campers by grade in four age groups:

1. Rising K – 1st (Nebulas)
2. Rising 2nd – 3rd (Stars)
3. Rising 4th – 5th (Supernovas)
4. Rising 6th – 8th (Meteors)

Our curriculum is carefully customized for each group.

For campers entering 8th – 10th grades, at select locations, we offer our Counselor in Training (CIT) program. With guidance from dedicated staff, CITs hone essential leadership skills  (like collaboration, communication, goal setting, giving feedback, etc.), mentor younger campers, and take on design challenges to increase camp magic &  joy or to build something cool with their fellow CITs—all while making new friendships and experiencing all the fun of a classic Galileo summer.

We offer extended care every day from 8am – 9am  and 3pm – 6pm. You can add extended care when enrolling your camper or add it on after you have enrolled here.

Learn more about how campers spend their extended care time.

We are pleased to inform you that we welcome camper aides, provided that they go through our onboarding process prior to the start of camp. NOTE: This process can take up to two weeks and needs to be completed before the start of your camp week.

While our camps aren’t specifically designed to accommodate campers with special needs, many kids with a wide range of needs have had great experiences with us over the years. If your child has a 1:1 aide at school, it is likely that given the nature of Galileo’s programming, which is delivered “classroom style,” your child would benefit from the same level of support.

We can usually accommodate most common needs and/or potential challenges, but we know that every person and family is unique. Given the nature of our programming, Galileo is not able to  provide 1:1 support or act as the primary aides for any individual camper.  If your child requires the assistance of an aide at camp, it is the responsibility of the family to complete the Camper Aide process.

Please feel free to contact our customer service team HERE for more information about whether our camp would be a good fit for your child.

We offer camp for rising kindergartners through rising 10th graders.

We require that all Camp Galileo campers be entering kindergarten entering Kindergarten in the fall of the upcoming school year. We will not be able to accept any TK or Pre-K students for the 2024 summer.

We currently offer only full-day (9am – 3pm) programming for all grade levels.

Our camp is designed to unfold across the full enrollment week. We recommend that campers stay for the full camp experience. We do not prorate for missed hours or days of camp.

We pride ourselves on a small group format where staff can work closely with campers and provide the personalized encouragement and support they need. During class time, we maintain a camper-to-staff ratio of 12:1. Camp Galileo campers are never alone—even trips to the restroom happen with a buddy or in a group—and our staff is trained to take attendance every 15 minutes and during every transition.

We do not have universal camp “themes” this summer and carefully craft the cultural experience to include loads of camp magic and big summer fun.

Still, many campers and families define their experience by the impressive projects they take home and so, Nebula, Star and Supernova camp weeks are named for the projects campers create in their Innovator’s Studio rotations. (6 unique weeks x 3 age groups = 18 topics). These topics have been selected to inspire high interest and engagement for each cohort and they differ from age-group to age-group and week to week.

Similarly, Meteors camp weeks are named for their main project of the week.

CIT weeks are unnamed however the curriculum offers a variety of activities for instructors to select at their discretion and in accordance with the group’s interests — with 3 options for most rotations or 3ish weeks of unique programming.

Official program week names and schedule can be found here