Community Boating Inc. has a 10-week Summer program for kids ages 10 to 17. Called the Junior Program, it offers lessons in sailing, canoeing, paddle-boarding and wind-surfing. They have STEM classes, games and activities through the season.

Last year I sent my two for beginner sailing lessons and because of their extremely generous sliding scale program, they qualified for $1 memberships!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! (Please pardon my excitement, our BBHS household doesn’t typically qualify for aid programs though we totally need them)

Anywhoo…the best way to describe the overall program is that it’s kind of like a Boys & Girls club where kids can come and go during open hours, no adults besides instructors are allowed inside during Junior Program, and there are specialty classes they can choose to take.

Once a kid passes their sailing tests they can check out various kinds of boats and go out on their own.

There are some drawback to this program you should be aware of. It’s not an easy thing to get to the CBI location. You have to take the pedestrian bridge over Storrow Drive and it’s a long walk. (I’m getting older and the walk over from train platform to CBI was really long for me.) There are no reliable cheap places to park near the pedestrian bridge. We saw many parents pull over near the base of the bridge and let their kids out to take themselves to CBI. This is fine for older kids, but might be tricky if your kids need accompaniment. Other families, like ours, took the T. Some kids take themselves to and from the train.

Another drawback – if you need to accompany your kids to and from – is what to do with yourself while they are there. If they go for the whole day, it’s not so hard because you can easily leave and have time to get things done before returning. But if they only go for the lessons, that’s 3 hours you have to fill for yourself. The West End branch of the BPL is reasonably close enough if you want a free place to be to get out from the sun and heat.

Registration for Summer 2020 has already begun. I whole-heartedly recommend this program!