Educational Summer Camps: STEM, Reading, and Writing

Just because school’s out in the summer doesn’t mean the learning stops! The low-pressure days of summer are a great time to gently boost your child’s academic strengths and weaknesses. The best part? These local camps are so fun kids might not even realize they’re learning!

Featured Camps: Summer Science Camps from the Terre Haute Children’s Museum

Summer is supposed to be fun., and at the Terre Haute Children’s Museum, campers will have the messiest summer EVER!

Whether you’re looking for a for space, engineering, cooking, animals, oceans or more, we have the session for you!  And, they will all be MESSY!

Campers will gain confidence and feel as if they rule the Museum after spending time with our highly-trained staff.

Each day is scheduled to maximize learning time, while also giving campers that chance for independent play, time on the Ropes Course Challenge and more!

Scholarships to Summer Camp are available here. Contact the THCM for details and qualifications.

Featured camps! 

In 2025, there are TWO Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Programs that Vigo County School Corporation students can attend FOR FREE!

Rose Power: If you are a high school girl with an interest in science, math, and engineering and want to build your technical skills, Rose Power is a perfect fit. You’ll work in Rose-Hulman’s innovation centers under the guidance of our faculty and students. By the end of the week, there won’t be a tool or machine you haven’t conquered. This residential camp will empower you to build any widget or gadget you can imagine.

Grades: Summer between 9th and 10th grade Session 1 – Sunday, June 8th thru Friday, June 13th

Session 2 – Sunday, June 15th thru Friday, June 20th

Operation Catapult: An exciting residential summer camp experience full of science, engineering, and math awesomeness, with STEM opportunities that allow high school juniors or seniors to reach into robotics or do cool things like brew biodiesel or make a machine from scratch.

Grades: Rising high school juniors or seniors

Session 1 – Tuesday June 3rd to Friday June 13th

Session 2 – Tuesday June 17th to Friday June 27th

Session 3 – Tuesday July 8th to Friday July 18th

Creation Crates: Completing the Creation Crates program will illuminate the potential for experiments in everything you do. Inspired by a Rose-Hulman Mechanical Engineering course, Creation Crates is your opportunity to design your own engineering experiments at home! With a kit of materials delivered to your doorstep, you will work directly with a Rose-Hulman faculty mentor to design, build, and test a series of experimental apparatuses, use your setup to take experimental measurements, and analyze the trustworthiness of your results.

Grades: Rising high school juniors or seniors Sessions: Monday, July 28th through Friday, August 1st – Online 4 hours per day

Again, Catapult and Rose Power have a Vigo County School Corporation scholarship to allow students to attend FOR FREE!

Students will be accepted up until the start date if there are spots to fill!

Additional Educational Summer Camps in Terre Haute

• MATH ENRICHMENT. Mr. Fischer (Honey Creek MS math teacher) will be offering a summer math program for students in grades 5-8 this summer. The program will begin June 16 and end June 27. Topics covered will be based on Indiana Standards. Materials will include warm-ups,
  Indiana Math League type problems, Olympiad type problems and a wide variety
  of problem-solving strategies. This class is geared for students who want to build
  and improve on their problem-solving skills. Classes will meet at Honey Creek MS. $50 for one week and $80 for two weeks. Contact Mr. Fischer at 812-236-1990 (cell) or rjf@vigoschools.org.
• Summer Day Camps at Montessori Academy of Terre Haute. Day camp for ages 3-8 fostering communication, collaboration, confidence, critical thinking, and creativity. Kids will have fun and make new friends, all while building their skills in these five key areas. Each week of camp will offer activities including puzzles, games, music, language learning, crafts, meditative exercises such as Tai Chi and yoga, and plenty of free play, all in a Montessori environment. We will place particular emphasis on emotional self-awareness and mindfulness practices.
• Summer Day Camps at Montessori Academy of Terre Haute As the big kids go back to school, it is time for the little ones to prepare for starting or returning to preschool! This two-week camp for ages 2-6 will introduce them to the Montessori classroom environment and help them become familiar with the school day routine. The daily schedule will include circle time, snack time, a work cycle, lunch, and free play. Snack will be provided, but students should bring their own lunches and water bottles. AUGUST 18-29.
• Afternoon workshops at Montessori Academy of Terre Haute. These are drop-off events for children aged 5+ and will include a variety of activities specific to each workshop’s theme. Cost is $45/workshop.

  Monday June 9: Instrument Petting Zoo. Get hands-on exploration of multiple instruments, do group rhythm work, and make an instrument of your own to take home.

  Wednesday June 11: Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence. Participate in mindfulness and meditative exercises, learn tools for identifying and managing emotions, and make a couple of crafts to help carry those skills forward.

  Friday June 13: Puzzle Fun! Spend the afternoon doing puzzles with some puzzle-loving friends! Work with a variety of puzzle styles and levels, get tips on tackling puzzles, and create your own puzzle to take home.

  Monday June 16: Squishmallow Monday! Bring your favorite Squishmallow friend with you to play! We will be doing some improv acting play with our stuffies (based on their assigned jobs and stories) and doing some squishmallow crafts, including drawing and watercolor painting.

  Wednesday June 18: Origami & Paper Crafts. Come learn the ancient Japanese art form of origami! We will also create some paper crafts using other techniques as well. We will fold, cut, and glue some pretty neat creations!

  Friday June 20: Introduction to Coil Pottery. Use air-dry clay to learn the basic techniques of coil pottery, and show your creativity as you turn those skills into works of art that you can paint and take home!

• Summer 2025 University Connections Summer Program. University Connections is an in-person summer adventure, offered to students currently in grades 2-5, free of charge. The nine-day program at Indiana State University (ISU) from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.  University Connections programming will also include IREAD remediation for grades 2 and 3. Transportation will be provided to and from each student’s home school. 
• Jump Start for Incoming Kindergarten through First Grade students with Vigo County School Corporation. The Vigo County School Corporation is pleased to offer a 2025 Jump Start Summer School program for incoming kindergarten through 2nd grade (Next year’s KG, current KG, and current 1st grade) students. This opportunity, funded by the Summer School Grant, will provide the opportunity for students to strengthen their academic skills, along with the chance for incoming kindergarten students to acclimate to the school setting prior to the start of a new school year. This program will be offered Monday, August 4, 2025 through Friday, August 8, 2025 from 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM. Transportation will be provided within the student’s home school district.
• Camp Invention at Ivy Tech Community College. Inspire your young innovator with a one-of-a-kind summer adventure! Exciting, hands-on challenges will spark curiosity and build their confidence as they dive into limitless STEM fun full of opportunities to imagine, experiment and create.
• Connecting with Code at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Connecting with Code is a paid face-to-face camp which costs $150 for the 5 days (15 hours total) to families that support the program at that cost. There are also scholarships available if you would like to apply to join the on campus version, but have financial need. -OR- if you would prefer, the camp material is also FREELY available via videos that you can use from your own home whenever you have time. TThe material is the same in the videos and the in-person camp.
• For the third consecutive year, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) will hold C.A.M.P. at The Woods from June 9 -13, 2025. C.A.M.P., Challenging Ambitions and Maximizing Potential, continues to be made possible by a grant from Lily Endowment Inc. through its initiative, Indiana Youth Programs on Campus. C.A.M.P. at The Woods is a one-week daily campus program at SMWC for rising high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors. Applications for C.A.M.P. at The Woods are now open and are due by March 14, 2025.

Discontinued Opportunities:

• Summer Science Camp at Indiana State University will not be offered in 2025.
• Ivy Tech will not offer free summer classes for high school students in 2025.

Special thanks to the Terre Haute Children’s Museum and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for bringing you this portion of our guide.  Please help us thank them for their support by visiting their websites, signing up for their summer opportunities, and letting them know that Haute Happenings sent you!

As always, typos happen and event details change. Please confirm with camp coordinators before solidifying your summer plans. Haute Happenings can’t be held responsible for printed errors or program changes, but we will celebrate with you if our info helped your family to have an awesome summer!

Unconfirmed in 2025:

• Summer camps at the Vigo County Historical Museum