No two days are the same.
Here is one anyway.
This is roughly how a day runs for the 8 to 10 group. The younger group breaks building into shorter stretches with more games in between, and the oldest group runs longer work blocks with more social time at the edges.
- Drop-off
Campers arrive, find their group, and start poking at whatever is waiting on the challenge table.
- The morning challenge
A new open-ended problem in small teams. Counselors demonstrate what a team needs, then leave them to it. Everyone tests at the end.
- Field games
Capture the flag, parachute games, and whatever the group has invented this week. Running is a design requirement.
- Lunch outside
Under the trees when the weather cooperates. Lunch comes from home. We provide organic snacks morning and afternoon, with allergy-safe options.
- Quiet hour
Sketchbooks, board games, free build, or flopping in the hammocks. Being a bit bored is allowed, and it is usually where the good project ideas arrive.
- Project time
The build each camper chose for the week. Making, testing, diagnosing and improving, with help available and steadily less of it needed.
- Circle up
What worked, what broke, what we are trying tomorrow. Failed tests get applause, because they are the ones that taught somebody something.
- Pickup
ID-checked sign-out every day. Extended day runs to 5:30 with open studio time.
Rain, heat, and other Chicago weather
Every site has proper indoor space rather than a sad tent. Builds move inside and field games become gym games. On very hot days we move into the shade and add extra breaks, and the building blocks get longer.
Catapult Camps opens in summer 2027
Join the waitlist for first access to locations and registration. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Join the summer 2027 waitlist