Willowbrook Arts Camp — Local services in Tualatin

This camp is a mixed bag for sure. I had always heard good things about it so this summer I signed my kids up for all 6 sessions. Right now we're in week 5 of 6.

I've had a few questions from time to time and I've found out that emailing does not get results. After camp one day I asked my question in person to the staff member in charge and was told "I try not to answer emails unless it's an emergency." What?? So if you have a question, call them!

Also, as others have said, the pickup process takes on avg 30 mins each day, some days 40 mins. They have a good system with taking your pickup slips and putting a number on your car about 15 mins from the front of the line. But then it takes so long for the counselor to actually round up your kid(s) I always end up waiting at the curb for quite a while when I get to the front. This process could be a lot faster if they could have the kids ready quicker. There are signs to not park in the neighborhood, but I tried it one day out of desperation, and it was a 10 min walk each way and 10 mins to find my kids so it doesn't save any time.

Drop-off is quick, but the counselors don't walk the kids in.

This week temperatures are in the high 90s and will be 100+ at least one day. The cancelation policy is you get $0 if it's less than 2 weeks before the first day of the session in question. And they only offer refunds if they cancel an entire week. I'm very surprised they didn't cancel this week. But now today (Monday aft), they emailed suggesting we all pick our kids up an hour early. If we need to leave them the whole day, that's allowed and no extra cost, but I kind of raised my eyebrow at that one. I think they should have given families the choice to get a refund instead of forcing us to either roast our kids or pick them up early.

I agree with others that most of the art projects my kids have brought home are not impressive materials. But they both did try clay and really enjoyed that. My younger child got to do tie dye but my older one was told they didn't have enough supplies / slots for him to do it. BEWARE- after 5 washes, the tie dye is still heavily bleeding.

The one thing that really bothered my older son - he was told at the invention tent he couldn't build something that other kids had been making. The counselor was a bit unkind and wouldn't let him use the materials he needed. He was told he could build it if he brought his own materials, even though they had what he needed at the invention tent. This upset me as a parent.

My younger son had fun but one day fell on the hooks they hang their bags on and got a horrible gash on his back. It still looks awful, I'll attach a photo. I don't know why there's a scenario where kids can fall on hooks, and why he didn't receive medical attention.

The thing this camp does the best is plays. If your kid wants to be in a play, this is for them. Beware though- they mostly go in 2 week cycles. Week 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6. Older kids will need to attend both weeks because the first week is when casting happens. The plays happen in the second week. Younger kids join in the 2nd week, doing a preshow. My kids were both in a play each. My older child in particular really loved the experience.

Overall, I think I'd send my kids here again, but not for all 6 weeks. Next year they'll do week 1-2 or maybe 1-4 but it's getting too hot for outdoor camp by week 5-6.

Side note- this camp is held in a public park and chain link fences are installed to keep the kids safe. On several occasions, I witnessed a degree of anger / aggressiveness from local community members frustrated with us all. I guess I don't blame them, but it puts us parents in a weird position. FYI, expect to hear expletives hurled at the pickup line or mild road rage from passing cars.

In summary, I sent my kids here so they could explore their interests in the arts as autonomously as possible and I think we've achieved that. I would say I think communication over email could be greatly improved, and more efficiency with the pickup line would vastly improve...

Would not return. Signed up for more than 10 sessions for 2 kids. Maybe good for older kids (where you can drop off and pick up from your car) but for younger kids (3-4), you have to go through security (need your license and check in each time). Check out is a drag with the pin number system and WiFi always going down (once, line was over 8 people in my alphabet queue and waited more than 15 min to check out.other lines with 0-2 people waiting but with wifi down, they were going through a paper book so had to wait in MY line). Parking- tiny. On monday am, the line to get in was over 20 cars longs. Even when I left at 915am, there were still over 10 cars in the street waiting for parking to drop off kids. For a 3 hour camp, i spend more than 30 min dealing with parking, ID checks, pin numbers, where is my child - in holding area or with her class? every day.

Communication between staff and parents not good. My kids missed tie dye twice (because camp only told tues kids to bring a shirt and we went on monday, tie dye was wed). Was told my staff, that was 'a bummer'. Really? that's something you tell my kids, not to an adult.

Art projects are same level as what my kids did in pre-school (here is a traced outline and some scribbles). For older kid, not much better. Expected art I could hang on walls, not toss into recycling. Expected more from a highly rated, highly recommended ART camp.

One more pet peeve, I got charged a CC charge a couple weeks before camp. Another $30 I had to pay which wasn't on the original charge. I would have paid by check the first week if I knew I would have more charges like this. We already spent almost $1000 on camp. This was another annoyance on top of many others. Again, lousy computer system...

We tried this camp twice hoping for a better experience last year, but we won't be returning. It seems like the older kids have a great time, but I don't think it is a good environment for younger kids or shy kids. Neither of my kids made any new friends and much of time they felt confused about what they should be doing. They weren't excited about any of the art projects. It is VERY independent which might be great for some kids, but I expected a bit more guidance/ quality art materials for an 'art camp'. They round the kids up for pickup very early and have them sit in the dirt for the hour that it takes for parents to slowwwwly get to the pickup area. The drop off and pickup is very stressful and the staff in charge screams their names which was frightening to my kids. It doesn't matter if you arrive early or late, the pickup procedure takes 30-75 minutes! And your car is idling the whole time which was so disgusting to me, especially on 95-degree+ days! So many of the reviews (and I'm sure many emails) complain about the pickup/ drop off, the fact that they continue to do it the same way they have for decades is so disappointing! Hire a couple of buses to shuttle kids from a local church parking lot, it wouldn't be...