Budding game engineers ages 7–9 can try Adventures in Minecraft Game Design presented by iD Tech Camps at Butler University July 6–10 and 13–17. Participants learn the rudiments of coding via the hit game Minecraft, with breaks for food and outdoor play.
PASS: Prepping a first-grader to invent the next Facebook sounds great.
FAIL: Encouraging them to spend even more time on a computer sounds insane. $879. 888-709-8324
Instead of teaching kids how to do crafts, School of Rock in Carmel spends the summer teaching them to shred. There’s a Best of Green Day five-day camp July 6–10, a Beginner Camp July 20–24, and a July 27–31 camp devoted to studying and playing the music from Weezer’s Blue Album.
PASS: Awesome way to get your child to stop playing drums in his room for a week.
FAIL: Can your kid name a Green Day hit? $500. 317-848-7625
Young music-mixologists and turntable-scratchers can learn the ropes at summer camps offered by Deckademics DJ School. Three five-day programs are available throughout July, giving kids ages 9–14 a chance to learn what it takes to get other kids to dance.
PASS: If your kid’s any good, you can rent him out for weddings and bar mitzvahs.
FAIL: Your offspring might adopt a DJ name like Prime Cutz and refuse to answer to anything else. $185. 317-662-8661
Children ages 8–18 can perfect their driving technique at summer camps offered by Rev Racing Motorsports Academy in Fishers July 6–10 and 27–31. Pint-sized pit crews get a Monday–Friday session featuring everything from meetings with drivers to lessons on proper tire-changing techniques to actual go-kart racing. Part of the curriculum integrates STEM programming.
PASS: Sounds like a blast. Can parents sign up?
FAIL: Showing second-graders how to race sounds about as smart as giving them rocket-launchers. $350. 7719 Loma Ct., Fishers, 317-920-9500
The improv troupe ComedySportz offers high-schoolers tips on stand-up and sketch comedy during a weeklong camp. SNL’s Sasheer Zamata (a Pike High School grad) is an alum. The July 13–17 camp culminates in a show for family and friends at downtown’s ComedySportz Theatre.
PASS: Participants learn to think on their feet.
FAIL: Your kid already has a smart mouth. $199. 317-951-8499
 Indianapolis summer camps your kids actually want to attend.){kind=link}