Sarah’s Science

Sarah Science is just wonderful! I could not have imagined a better camp experience for my daughter (8 y.o.). She is usually an indoorsy kind of kid but has had so much fun playing outside all day in the woods, now she comes home after camp looking for trees to climb near our house! We originally signed up for 3 weeks but she loved it so much that she’s ended up going all summer. The atmosphere is warm and relaxed, and all the staff are terrific. The whole place is just idyllic — the kids are outside all day in a beautiful corner of Tilden, they get lots of independence and free time to just have fun and do their own thing. It’s been great for my daughter’s confidence; and every morning when I drop her off I wish I could stay at camp all day too! Oh, and the science projects are really cool (although that aspect of camp does not dominate at all; I would really consider it a general camp with a small science element, which was perfect for us). Also, I love the flexibility about extended day — you can just decide each morning whether you want aftercare for that day, which is great for me since I am a freelancer so my workload varies a lot and isn’t always predictable. Would definitely come back to Sarah Science!

This was our first summer trying camp for our 6 year old son who was weary of camp and what it would be like compared to school. He came to Sarah Science warn out and in huge need of recharging.
Sarah’s Science camp excelled in all categories we could ever imagine. His love of music, science, hiking, swimming, playing freely and experiencing nature with new and old friends has restored so much of our child’s soul it is remarkable. We are so grateful we cannot express enough gratitude to see how happy our son is with his life and his enjoyment of camp.
He cannot wait to get to camp each morning and has not complained once about an experience at camp all summer long! This is a huge testament to how well he is treated at camp.
He has been in camp only with Sarah Science since the beginning of summer break as we saw the value of keeping the same routine and continuity for our child and it is has made his experience even richer. Having personally met Sarah and Aaron and a number of the camp counselors and their energy for love of children being free to express themselves and just have fun it is obvious that children learn the amazing science Sarah has come up with in nature with ease as it is done in such a stress free way.
They are determined for children to learn through curiosity of the mind in nature without constantly being corrected for just being kids. They do not tolerate bullying and their is no bullying as kids just get to be kids and feel the freedom in the forest and if they notice an unhealthy interaction they deal with it in the moment and talk to the children calmly and carefully preserving their sensitivity and always being respectful.
We will be coming back next summer and our son cannot wait to be a Camp Counselor in training (a CIT when he is all grown up in his words) as he is so inspired by the leadership and quality of the people Sarah and Aaron train and pick to manage and take care of the children.
Thank you Sarah’s Science camp and all the folks who put all the hard work into making this an outstanding experience for our child. We are forever grateful.

We LOVE Sarah Science camp! My sons have attended camp off and on for the past 10 years at the Berkeley site (and one is now a Jr. Counselor). This is a true summer camp experience — music, dirt, friends, crafts, bugs, hikes, games and go figure: some UNSTRUCTURED time where kids can just be kids… outside in summertime.
Aaron, the Berkeley Director miraculously maintains a positive, energetic attitude week after week. He is accepting of learning differences and abilities in a respectful and inclusive manner. For that and more I’m forever grateful!

My daughter absolutely loves their summer camp!

The best of the best. This camp lets kids be kids… running around, picking blackberries, digging. This is summer how it’s supposed to be. The directors are great. They appreciate the kids. It’s the way to go.

We love, love, love Sarah’s Science and attend for several weeks every summer and at least a day or two during the holiday break. The kids are 7 and 10, and love the projects, the outdoor time and the traditional camp fun (games, hikes and songs). This is our third year, and the kids get to pick their own camps.
We have always had great communications with the staff about sign up and more, though we’ve never had a «day of» issue that required their attention. I just know my kids come home happy, full of new knowledge, dirty and tired. All good things.
My ONLY reduction from 5 to 4 stars is because of the check out procedure — I don’t feel like it’s totally locked down, and when the kids were younger it made me a bit anxious. Not so much in summer (remote parking lot where paths are visible) but in the holiday location which seems unattended when it comes to check out. But after checking my daughter out, I ran into Sarah… who actually knew my daughter’s name and what lego structures she had made. So clearly, they know who the kids are!

From an employee, teaching the class was an amazing experience. The projects and the general atmosphere of the Sarah science work program has been an incredible experience. It’s not everyday you get to go into different schools, meet and interact with amazing children, and teach them about science and the world in general. Don’t get me wrong like any other company they have things they definitely need to improve upon. For instance getting checks out on time and scheduling different teachers \assistants for the correct class. Getting and making sure that the students and parents have paid for the program and. That the roster is up to date before the classes start. But overall the projects are fun and educational, the use of creative and entertaining educational materials, and the overall enthusiasm this program has is incredible. This after school program Is definitely a program that parents should n roll their children in, and if the school does not offer the option, enrolling them in their summer camp or holiday camp. It really is a great experience for all involved!

My son who is 14 is LOVING the CIT program at Sarah Science. It is so validating and positive for him that it seems like we have a different teenager at home! I cannot thank Sarah, Aaron and the other staff at Sarah Science camp enough. I thank you from the bottom of my heart as to how your CIT program has impacted our family in such an AMAZING way. He is at Tilden and it is not a small feat for him to get there every morning on the bus and his bike, but he loves it so much he doesn’t complain one bit. He comes home so proud and validated as he works with the children in the program. He gives glowing reports about Aaron and about how much he enjoys the program. He remembered how wonderful this camp was for him when he was younger and the fact that he liked it at a younger age, so he wanted to return for the CIT program.
This special gift to our family of your CIT program will be forever remembered by us. Thank you so much for giving such a wonderful gift to our family and our son in helping him grow and be resonsible. I HIGHLY recommend the camp & the CIT program for other families. It is amazing!

This review is on the basis of the Mantis Mania and Spring Break camp, both held at a church on Lakeshore. Basically, we loved it! My son came back each day full of info and excitement. We had one small issue where he reported being picked on by other kids (he’s the youngest they accept) but I spoke with the staff about it, and they made sure a staff person was always close by for the rest of the session. My son had a great rest of spring break. When we picked him up on the last day, Sarah was so enthusiastic about his progress, curiosity and energy (his energy generally overwhelms people rather than excites them), that she practically insisted he come back for Mantis Mania. I’m SO glad we did. It was a short session, just the morning, but where spring camp had him coming home with caterpillars and a butterfly box for them to transform, he left Mantis Mania with two mantis egg sacks and instructions on care and feeding. My son and husband have LOVED these mantids. They’ve been the pets we never had. Making it all possible is the well written instructions, activity books and phone support they’ve offered. I even asked them a question on facebook about the butterfly and they responded back and helped us understand even more. Good folks — we’ll send our son back.

This camp is good overall, the setting is beautiful and my kid loved the projects, the snacks and being outside all day. If you want diversity in terms in campers and counselors this is not the place for you. Also, Sarah doesn’t seem to ever return phone calls personally – I had some concerns once and I called several times, specifically requesting that she be the one to call me back and she never did – she just had her employees relay messages from her to me.

We’ve been going to Sarah’s Science summer camp (aka Dirt Camp) since our son was 6 years old — this is our 4^th year. He loves roaming in the forest with a gaggle of boys playing imaginary games, building stick forts, discovering AMAZING bugs, unearthing squirrel tunnels, devouring kid-​food snacks twice a day, playing dodge ball and freaky Friday water squirter fights — and making lots of friends.
Some of the projects are totally awesome, some are duds, but there’s typically 2 a day plus advanced projects — and the freedom to either build the design or get creative. Last week he announced «that PVC pipe is as cool as Legos!» and went rummaging through our workshop (okay, the part of the garage that’s spilled into the patio). We can’t believe some of the things he makes when inspired by material or collaboration. I like that Sarah’s staff designs everything from common hardware store materials instead of buying pre-fab’d curriculum.
I appreciate the clear and fair prices, easy going after care, and abundance of adult staff.
Sarah’s Science is a life saver over Spring, Thanksgiving, and Christmas break with mountains of legos and other activities.
This is a great environment for independent learners that are 110% and hungering for kid time. If only school were like Sarah’s Science…

We did the bug of the month workshop with Sarah Science. We heard about praying mantises. Learned how to culture food for them, wingless fruit flies and came home with a couple of mantises. We also have two egg cases which we are now incubating.
The workshop was hands on and well organized. My son had a great time. We will definitely try some of the other Sarah Science events.

Our child spent one week at Sarah’s Science at the Berkeley location in Tilden last summer (August 2010). We had such a positive experience at Cal Camps before this session and Monkey Business (the previous summer), that we were a bit shocked and extremely disappointed by the quality of the program and poor supervision.
The campers spend most of their day at a dusty and very isolated picnic site. The «science project» takes up most of the morning and doesn’t involve any teaching, except here’s how you put it together (not the concepts behind the project). All the materials are new and there is no thought to using recycled materials or found objects from Tilden. There is one hike per day to the same location near the Merry Go Round. Nature surrounds the kids, but they don’t really explore it. The afternoon is not structured and the choices involve games and hanging around the dusty picnic ground.
The parking situation is chaotic for drop off/​pickup as cars race up and down the hill. Kids are summoned by walkie talkie to walk down on their own and cross this road at pick-​up. CITs are suppose to be directing traffic, but we found them to be strangely absent each day.
This camp relies heavily on CITs to meet their camper/​counselor ratios. The CITs seem more interested in hiding away in their secret grove (off limits to the younger campers) and bringing high powered water blasters on «water» day on Friday to absolutely soak younger kids than actually providing leadership. This might be *fun* for older kids but I do not recommend this camp for younger children ages 5 to 7.

We’ve aged out, alas, but our son still has a network of kids he met at Sarah’s Science, that’s pretty cool too. I feel responsible for the good review I wrote earlier, and I regret I’ve heard stories of some turbulence between councilors/​site manager and campers in the last year. Not personal experience but credible reports from people who I trust. I happy to see more good reviews from last summer and I hope the difficulties were overcome. Your mileage may vary, of course, and kids are the hardest audience. But I’m going to dial back my rave 5 stars to a well deserved 4. I’m still a fan, and if I had a child interested in summer camp, Sarah’s would still be my first choice. Perfection is not given very often in this world.

My 6 yo son did two weeks of Sarah’s Science Camp — This Land is Your Land this last summer and it was by far the best camp we have ever attended. He came home very dirty, tired, and super excited to tell me about the awesome project they had done that day (they were really very cool projects that kids are excited about and proud of). He loved his counselor so much he keeps asking me about him even months later. They also had plenty of just being a kid time too running around and chasing his counselor — felt sort of like the older brother he never had. As a parent I liked that they are super organized and professional and were very responsive in dealing with my child’s food allergy. My son is already asking when he can back to camp so we will definitely do it again next year!

My son goes to the Robert’s Park version of this camp and loves it. He is a hard-​to-​please, shy camper and has nothing bit good things to say about this camp everyday. Amazing. He is dirty, tired and happy. He loves all the activities and having something to make everyday. He is learning and having fun, what could be better. The staff is friendly and seem to work well together. They also seem to really like kids. I would highly recommend this camp.

I love it when my kid plays outside all day long and comes home happy, tired and in need of a bath. If Sarah’s Science camp was for people a lot older than ages 5 – 10 I’d be there in a flash. I wanna make a Mentos geyser!
Officially called, This Land Is Your Land summer camp… and affectionately called Sarah’s Science camp by parents and kids… they offer 3 *great* East Bay locations: Tilden Park (Berkeley), Roberts Regional Park (Oakland Hills) and new this summer at Little Hills Ranch (San Ramon).
The focus is science, with weekly themes that range from nature to art and all kinds of cool gadgety projects like build your own electric pinball game and construct a crossbow ball launcher. The activities aren’t all science. The kids also hike, create art, sing songs, play sports, make new friends and once per session go swimming. At the end of each day they bring home instructions on how to re-​create the science project of the day at home.
My 8 yr old niece has been going to the beautiful Oakland location for a couple of years and my son went last year. They both love it and can’t wait to go back this summer.
The price is well within the range of other camps, which is to say, not cheap at almost $ 300 per session (and a bit higher at the new SR location). While I work, I could warehouse my kid in daycare for less, but gawd I really hate doing that. I will likely do some «you watch my kids… I’ll watch yours» tradeoffs with other moms for part of the summer, but I think Sarah’s Science Camp is well worth the price if you can swing it. They do offer a slight discount for registration by ⁴⁄₁ and returning campers got a bit of a discount if they signed up and paid early.
Sarah is a science teacher by trade and the camps are organized and well run. The hours are 9 – 3, with before and after care available. In addition to summer camp, Sarah’s Science offers other programs throughout the year. Check them out at
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