12 Virtual Summer Camps

From June to August, kids ages 6 through 13 can enjoy mixed media, painting, drawing, and textile art classes via Zoom through The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami. Families in the area can even pick up art supplies curbside before class.

Kids ages 5 to 11 can join a virtual “cabin” at Camp Supernow where they’ll be paired with a counselor and other campers from across the country for an hour of crafts and activities on Zoom. Each session lasts two weeks and costs $199 per camper, but you can enjoy a free trial day to see if your kid’s into it first!

Why not use the time at home to have your child learn a new language, solve brain teasers, or even practice their creative writing. Tailored for specific grade levels—kindergarten and up—your kid can enjoy week-long camps in pretty much any subject that interests them with Varsity Tutors.

From sports and arts and crafts to photography and magic, Happy Camper Live will give your kiddo a real camp feel at home—there’s even a virtual campfire!

The PBS Kids for Parents site offers up free age-by-age tips, crafts, games, and activities to get you through summer. You can search by your child’s age and the area you’d like to work on to find the best options—and, yes, some of the activities will include characters like Daniel Tiger and Elmo.

Kids at any skill level can use the DIY’s app to enjoy virtual classes like, “Photography,” Become a Music Star,” “Build Anything With Lego,” and “Drawing Bootcamp.” With a 14-day free trial, unlimited access to all of DIY’s content, and even offline activities to try, your child’s sure to find something they like.

If you’ve got an older kid at home who’s super tech-savvy, then iD Tech’s virtual classes might be right up their alley. These classes—mostly for kids 7 and up—teach computer animation, app building, and your kid can even learn how to design for Minecraft. This camp’s not free, but once you pay for one child, a sibling or friend can join for free!

Your high school student might be over the days of typical summer camp, but there are still free opportunities for them to get off the couch and be a little more selective with their screen time. K12 Inc. Summer Camp offers tuition-free,  career-oriented summer courses in coding, video game design and programming, business and marketing, health care, and more—some of which will even earn students high school credit.

Reading Rockets’ “Start with a Book” program is free and sort of an online book club for kids ages 6 and up. With 24 topics—including dinosaurs, time travel, and sports—to choose from, your child will be matched with the books to check out as well as corresponding activities, apps, and ideas to keep the fun going after the book’s done.

The new Met Opera Global Summer Camp is a free, eight-week online summer camp—running from June 15 to August 7—for kids in third through twelfth grade. Kids will get the chance to explore music in a new way with the Met’s extensive digital library of operas, plus creative projects to try at home, face time with music educators, and even opportunities to interact with Met artists.

For SiriusXM subscribers, the Kids Place Live channel is launching “Camp KPL” on June 1. Airing on weekdays from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET, this “summer camp” will keep kids occupied all summer long. With ideas for at-home camp activities and projects, family-friendly music, and daily story time, it might be worth tuning in with the kiddos.