My stepson (13 years old in August) has 5 weeks holiday during July and August. I am looking for somewhere he can go to be with other kids for a couple of weeks over summer. Any ideas? Preferably somewhere with a disciplined outlook - and not with too many younger kids. (Say 11 to 17 year range). He speaks German and English and loves football. He has a predominant lazy tendancy and I would like somewhere where he is forced to act as a memeber of a group - with responsibility. I would appreciate any ideas. (boot camp springs to mind - but I cannot find one.)

Well I'm afraid it isn't boot camp , and I'm not sure I would say discipline is top of their list, but if all else fails you could always check out village camps... at least it keeps them busy http://www.villagecamps.ch/

Whenever anyone says summer camp, I take solace in the outcome of Adams Family Values:

Wednesday: I don't want to be in the pageant.
Gary: Don't you want me to realize my vision?
Wednesday: Your work is puerile and under-dramatized. You lack any sense of structure, character, or the Aristotelian unities.
Gary: Young lady, I am getting just a tad tired of your attitude problem.

[as an Indian, ad-libbing during a Thanksgiving play]
Wednesday: Wait, we can not break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides, and you will play golf, and eat hot h'ors d'ourves. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They said do not trust the pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller. And for all of these reasons I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground.


Think on.
dave

Thanks Leen - However I forgot to mention "quite cheap". Looks a bit pricey - but nice.

My two boys liked to go on farm holidays. Although not of a sporting nature, they could help out on the farm, get fresh air and experience country life.

They both thoroughly enjoyed them.

Further details at: http://www.bauernhof-ferien.ch/

HTH

Jbrady , we live out in the countryside inside the toggenburg national park (Stgallen & the Santis mountain) we are looking for a family to look after the small farm here for a week or two from the 28th June - would cost you nothing just have to feed the chickens and check on the sheep.. 2 cats and probly kittens by then and a border collie bitch and an berner Dog (puppies should be gone by then , we have several hectares of woodland , fields and a mountain stream , theres lots of walking here and our garden is fully equiped for kids with a huge 4m trampolin swings and stuff...
I think theres a picture on ur website
www.backliner.ch
Simon

Hi Audiodruid - I really do appreciate your kind offer, but my son does not finish school until after the first week in july. Also, the main aim is to get him involved with groups of other children - he is a bit of a special needs kid and has been (mollycoddled) surrounded by many adults for the last few years. This is why I am looking for somewhere disciplined and away from his safe environment (mother, grandmother, 2 special teachers). Somewhere which will focus him into a group mentality. Should have mentioned all this first I suppose. Many thanks again

Erm what's a boot camp for you? Cheesy German commercial TV reports have educated me that they are for the scum of society, and organised by scum. There's nothing remotely similar in Switzerland to what I've seen.

The Scouts (called Pfadi here) have summer camps but to join an organisation right before the camp isn't optimal, in my opinion...

This is a good starting point I hope...

http://www.itc-ijc.com

just something I found. Can't recommend (I'm too old now).

I used to go to lots of WWF camps, don't know if they still exist, but they were really good. Lots of nature, kids of that age (possibly max. 16 years old), great background ideas and so on - I had lots of fun.
Can't exactly remember how expensive they were, but if you're a WWF member or live in Zurich it's cheaper, I think.
Good Luck finding something!

There are actually still WWF camps around. Most of the ones for this summer are complete, but there are still some interesting camps with places available. There's an interesting looking river rafting camp for 12-14 yr olds for 545 CHF.
www.pandaclub.ch

Hi my son is also a pain in the butt at the moment he is 9 years old this year and he goes to Jungwacht every week. It's like Scouts. They are having a summer camp in Graubunden from 12 July till 21st. It will cost us 200chf or there abouts. Money well spent to get him outta the way as we are also moving around then.

Google for Jungwacht and the name of your local gemeinde

jublazueri.ch - Kantonsleitung JW & BR Zürich

If you need any more information just ask.

Jungwacht is a church run version of Boy scouts.. very catholic...

Pfadi (Pfadfinder) Pathfinder = Scouts ... much better... if you ask me

My step son was also a right royal pain at 9 years old... as my best freind a californian mum says - just feed em and ignore em ... it's only a phase..

I know it's catholic run but unfortunately there is no pfadi around where I live right now. I am a staunch non beliver and don't even let my son attend Bible lessons at school. Till now I haven't seen any church influence in Jungwacht apart from them singing a few church songs just before they leave for home. If you can goto Pfadi then I agree go. Jungwacht is cheap though, not sure how much pfadi is. If it's the only thing in your area then I wouldn't bother too much about it being part of the church.

The church seems to be much more in Swiss society than in the UK I have noticed. Trying to move to a village where you cannot hear the church bells going mad ( 6am 11am 4pm and 6pm) sounding like notre dame is near impossible. A lot of Swiss seem to like them

You wouldn't belive how long the bells rang when the new pope was elected a while back. 25 Minutes !!!

The merit of Jungwacht was that it provided Switzerland with an all-purpose youth movement alternative back when Pfadi was a bit military-oriented. Nowadays it's a good option for somewhat religious youngsters or for parents who believe in gender-separate clubs, as these are more common in Jungwacht than in Pfadi...

Well both Jungwacht and Pfadi organise camps and go to the woods, there are some differences but I think that the CEVI (YMCA) is more religiously oriented than Jungwacht. In the end it depends on your club... I've been a Pfadi member and fan for ages but there are a few clubs around that aggregate the weirdos.

Off the topic a bit but i found scouting to have been far better organised back in the early 80's when it was still a refelction of BP's original ideas - it was hard for us to have to give up the old uniform and the berrets for what we saw as a namby pamby toned down version - Did you that the original scouting for boys has been re published and austrian scouts still wear the old style BP hats.

Yes we swore an Oath to God and the Queen but our church was built on the site of an earlyer pagan temple and we had patrol names that reflected the older traditions.

I may be a bit too patriotic for some , the Union Jack and british ways , scouting taught us discipline and skills that have given me an advantage in my life , leadership being one of them ...

Theres still a picture of BP stuck on the fridge here at home..

The church seems to be much more in Swiss society than in the UK I have noticed. Trying to move to a village where you cannot hear the church bells going mad ( 6am 11am 4pm and 6pm) sounding like notre dame is near impossible. A lot of Swiss seem to like them

I managed it ... the place is called Dicken ... no church ... and in a valley so we don't hear the others....

Yeah Diken,

I know that place somewhat. I had my wedding reception at the local fondue place at the top of the hill. Grass out front with a great view.
There is also a place to sit outside under cover in summer.
It's a bit in the middle of no where. I have been an Eastender for some years now and not meeting any other expats gets oppresive after a while. So moving to Kanton Zürich. But I still get the bells albeit not from a catholic church.

there is a fabulous school call Maya Joyie link below. I sent my 13 year old son there for a 2 week summer camp. They do hiking and some really amazing things, they do do some school work in the mornings but the experience for him was very good (very boot camp like). He came back with very good self esteem and a much better outlook on life. A very positive experience!!

www.mayajoie.ch/

I have also been looking around for a (predominantly) English speaking camp for my 9 year old daughter, we are based in Lugano. One of the interesting looking options was the summer program through TASIS, where they are broken into groups by age and there is some focus on second language (French, German, Italian). I did not follow up when I saw that her age group was over-subscribed, but you may want to have alook at their site http://summer.tasis.com/Hope this is useful!