Winter break camps offer a wonderful opportunity for kids to stay engaged and learn during the holiday season. As an instructor with years of teaching experience, I understand parents often prioritize educational value, safety and convenience when choosing a camp - in addition to budget-friendly options. So today, I'll share the best winter break camps for kids to keep your child entertained and on track for future success in school and in life. Add in a little hot chocolate, and your student is sure to be a happy camper!

When considering online winter break camps for kids, finding options that are both educational and engaging can be a challenge. That's why platforms like Create & Learn and Outschool stand out as excellent choices. These two complementary offerings provide a wide range of subjects, from coding to creative arts, ensuring that kids can explore their interests and continue learning even during the winter holidays. Create & Learn focuses on STEM education, with a structured curriculum, and offering live online classes led by experienced instructors, while Outschool provides a diverse array of classes that span various subjects, great for filling last-minute gaps in your schedule. Together, they can offer the perfect blend of fun and education to keep kids engaged and excited about learning during their break.

1. Create & Learn: Coding & STEM Camps

Create & Learn offers a variety of interactive online classes and camps focused on coding and STEM subjects. Kids can learn Scratch programming, Minecraft engineering, and even dive into AI concepts. Designed by professionals from Google, Stanford, and MIT, these camps have won awards and been recognized by HulaFrog, Minecraft: Education Edition, and more.

    • Why it's popular: With small class sizes and live instruction from expert teachers, kids get personalized attention and a hands-on learning experience. The courses are designed to be engaging and educational, making learning fun even during the holiday break.
    • Ages: Suitable for children in grades K-6.
    • Learn more: Create & Learn Winter Camps

2. Outschool: Diverse Camp Offerings

Outschool offers a plethora of online classes created and taught by individual instructors that span various subjects including science, art, language arts, and more. During winter break, they provide special themed camps that keep kids engaged and learning.

    • Why it's popular: Outschool's flexible class schedules and wide range of topics make it easy for parents to find something that matches their child's interests. The interactive classes encourage kids to participate and learn in a fun environment.
    • Ages: Appropriate for children ages 5-18.
    • Learn more: Outschool Winter Camps

Beginner-Friendly Online Winter Break Camps for Elementary School Kids

These popular winter break camps don't require any previous experience and span a broad range of STEM subjects.

1. NASA STEM Club

I know how critical it is to ignite a passion for STEM in young minds. This camp on space science does just that. From exploring Mars to diving into the mysteries of galaxies and rockets, this camp will captivate students' imaginations. Your kids will delve into a variety of space-related topics, all tied to real-world NASA projects. Each class is project-based, fostering curiosity and honing problem-solving skills. They'll cover exciting areas such as rockets, Mars exploration, the International Space Station, and our Solar System, making learning both fun and educational.

  • Best for: Grades 1-4, science, live online learning

2. Budding Digital Artist Camp

Unleash your student's creativity through a variety of digital art projects. Each camp session introduces a new and exciting project, such as designing Minecraft skins, creating emojis, crafting animations, exploring photography, and more. These hands-on activities guide students to observe and appreciate artistic elements in life, like patterns and symmetry. They also encourage exploration of emotions and feelings, and teach art basics such as color palettes. This camp is perfect for fostering artistic expression while building a solid foundation in digital art techniques.

  • Best for: Grades 1-4, art/design, live online learning

3. Scratch Coding Winter Camp

Learn how to code games and animations! Developed by MIT, Scratch coding is a great way to introduce kids to computer programming because it uses simple drag-and-drop blocks rather than complex syntax. That means kids can focus on learning core coding concepts and logic, while not getting frustrated with typing errors. Join this beginner-friendly class to jumpstart their coding adventure.

  • Best for: Grades 2-5, beginner coding, live online learning

There's also Scratch Junior for younger students and Accelerated Scratch for older students.

4. Minecraft Redstone Engineering Camp

In this fun class, your child will learn how to incorporate a set of redstone related blocks to build light shows, automatic doors, and even flying machines inside Minecraft. They will also learn about real-world engineering and computer science. No previous coding experience is required!

  • Best for: Grades 2-5, game development, live online learning

Intermediate Online Winter Break Camps for Elementary School

These online intermediate elementary camps provide a great way for children with some previous coding experience to learn new skills, discover new passions, and stay entertained during the winter break.

5. Minecraft Modding Winter Camp

Does your child enjoy playing Minecraft? In this fun winter break Minecraft camp kids learn all about how to build their own mini-games within Minecraft. Built on top of the regular Minecraft game, the platform your child will use in this camp, Minecraft: Education Edition, is a really cool program that includes additional features to teach kids coding and other STEM skills.

  • Best for: Grades 2-5, game development, with previous Scratch coding experience

6. Pokémon Game Building Camp

Build Pokémon games and customize them in all sorts of creative ways! During this fun live online class, an expert teacher guides students through exciting challenges such as how to customize their Pokémon, how to use camera features to catch Pokémon, and other awesome skills to tailor their game-building experience. Create your own Pokémon virtual pet and keep it healthy and happy; Get ready to cast your Pokéball as you make and conquer the Catch the Pokémon Game; design a dynamic functional game of two-player Pokémon soccer; and try to build the tallest Pokémon pyramid possible in the Pokémon Circus Game.

  • Best for: Grades 2-5, game development, with previous Scratch coding experience

7. Digital Design Canva Camp for Kids

Does your child want to create beautiful digital cards, posters, slides or videos for their school projects? Now they can make all of these fascinating projects with Canva - a powerful and trendy graphic design platform with a simple interface (and creating an account is free)! This course explores examples of great graphic design and video storytelling. Your child will learn to use the intuitive drag-and-drop tool in Canva to create their own designs, and share their creations with friends or teachers easily online. You will be amazed to see how creative your child can be with this fun digital design tool!

  • Best for: Grades 3-6, design, live online learning

Educational Online Winter Break Camps for Middle School

Middle schoolers are at a pivotal point in their educational journey, making winter break camps an excellent opportunity to expand their horizons. These camps offer a blend of fun and learning, keeping students engaged while fostering critical thinking and creativity. Whether your child is interested in building their own video games, diving into the world of graphic design, or exploring the wonders of space science, there's a winter camp tailored to spark their curiosity and passion for learning. These camps not only provide educational enrichment but also help middle schoolers develop important life skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, and resilience. Students will get the most from these camps with a little bit of prior coding experience under their belts (or by beginning with a Scratch coding camp).

8. Roblox Winter Camp

Take a big step forward with your Roblox experience by actually creating your own games! In this unique live interactive camp, students will learn how to use Roblox Studio to create customized worlds and code mini-games including multiplayer games, and a game modeled after the highly popular infinity run game where players must turn, dodge, and jump to avoid obstacles and gain points. They'll use fun and simple to understand block coding, rather than the complex Lua language.

  • Best for: Grades 3-8, game development, live online learning

9. Create with ChatGPT Winter Camp

This live online interactive camp offers students a comprehensive understanding of ChatGPT and provides practical guidance on utilizing it effectively. Students will learn how to think systematically and critically by planning fun activities with the assistance of ChatGPT, which promotes the development of important executive functions. Additionally, they will enhance their creative writing skills by utilizing ChatGPT to develop storylines, create character profiles, and master sentence structuring for impactful messages. Students also find out how to code their own ChatBot using ChatGPT as a foundation. Moreover, the course emphasizes the ethical considerations surrounding the use of ChatGPT and AI.

  • Best for: Grades 4-8, artificial intelligence, live online learning

10. Smart Devices: Arduino for Kids

While lots of students have learned to code, few have had the opportunity to build a physical system, which opens up a brand new world. Learn Arduino coding online to create electronics projects for real world adventures at home. In this live online class, students are introduced step by step to circuit and Arduino, one of the most popular systems for building robots and smart home systems in the industry. Student will learn how to design simple electronic systems for alarms, home sensing, motor controls, etc, as well as creating code to control these systems.

  • Best for: Grades 4-9, robotics, live online learning

11. Mobile App Coding

Wouldn't it be cool if your student created an app and all their friends downloaded it? This virtual camp teaches kids to build mobile apps, including exploring how to employ text, device sensors, and even the camera to build projects and games that involve image recognition, word games, and riddles. Towards the end of camp students even tackle making a multiplayer game, as well as a cool app that stores their favorite items.

  • Best for: Grades 4-9, app development, live online learning

12. AI Art for Kids

Delve into the mesmerizing world of AI, exploring state of art tools such as Adobe Firefly, Canva, DALL·E-3 by OpenAI, and Runway ML. From abstract compositions to vibrant illustrations, each session will empower your child to experiment with diverse styles and subjects. Give your child the super power to create, and watch as your young artist brings their imaginative visions to life with AI! 

  • Best for: Grades 4-8, design, live online learning

Online Winter Break Camps for High School: AP Exam Prep

With college applications top of mind, winter break camps are an ideal way to differentiate your child's path while keep their minds sharp and engaged. These high school winter camps offer specialized programs that delve into advanced topics such as Java, Cloud Computing, and even Computational Biology, providing a deeper understanding and practical experience in these fields. High school students can benefit from camps that prepare them for college-level courses and future careers, like AP Computer Science Principles and Intro to Java Programming. With expert instructors and a focus on project-based learning, these camps are tailored to meet the intellectual curiosity and career aspirations of high schoolers, ensuring they make the most of their winter break.

13. Modern Website Design with Wix

This class covers a wide range of topics in Web Design, starting from the basics of how to use WIX and how to structure your website, to designing layout, choosing color schemes, and even to creating a web store to sell products. Whether you are thinking about doing a website to showcase your own art or hobbies, feature school/community events, publicize your sports teams or clubs, or to help local businesses and non-profit organizations, this class will teach you how to make it.

  • Best for: Grades 5-12, design, live online learning, beginner-friendly

14. Python Camp

This camp is great for middle schoolers! Python is one of the most popular real-world coding languages when learning to code. This live online winter break camp covers not only the basics of Python coding for kids and teens, but also puts a strong focus on the elements of Python that are most relevant to Artificial Intelligence, including data structures and libraries.

  • Best for: Grades 5-9, beginner-friendly coding, live online learning

15. Unity Game Development

Unity is the most popular game engine in the world, and is behind many games your child plays such as Angry Birds. In this virtual game development camp, kids build a 2D platform game where players can control the movement of the character and direct its interactions with the environment such as colliding with obstacles and hazards. After that, children progress to making their first 3D game in Unity, while continuing to improve their C# programming skills.

  • Best for: Grades 6-12, game development, intermediate, live online learning

16. AP Computer Science Principles Class

In this Computer Science Principles camp, students are introduced to essential topics in computer science, including binary, encryption, networking, and more. It's a fantastic opportunity to delve into system and architectural aspects of computers. Designed by experienced AP computer science educators, the class aligns with the APCSP exam requirements set by the College Board. The APCSP exam is quite accessible for high school and even middle school students who have a couple of years of coding experience and a solid understanding of computer science fundamentals.

  • Best for: Grades 6-12, AP exams, live online learning, advanced

Free Winter Break Camps for Kids and Teens

Sometimes budget is the biggest concern when looking for things to keep the kids occupied. Here are a few free winter camps to explore.

1. Free Scratch Ninja Camp

Is your child curious about coding but overwhelmed with where to start learning? Then this is the camp for you. Jump right into creating original games and animations with this fun Scratch coding camp. Scratch is a beginner language developed by MIT, that makes it easy for kids to fall in love with coding, by removing some of the typing complexity. In this free introduction camp, your child will work together, along with a maximum of four other students, to build a fun game of their own.

  • Best for: Grades 2-5
  • Price: Free

2. Free Roblox Coding Winter Camp

Does your child love playing Roblox? If so this camp is a cool chance for them to learn how to code their own Roblox world and games. In this free introduction session, kids go through the process of installing and activating the Roblox Studio where they can build and script, and enjoy a self-paced tutorial to create a simple interactive obstacle experience.

  • Best for: Grades 3-12
  • Price: Free

3. Free AI Explorers Camp Event

With the latest developments in technology, AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning can now compose music, and even read medical images better than average doctors. This winter camp offers hands-on experience with cutting-edge artificial intelligence applications. Your child will have fun learning all about things that impact the real-world in big ways.

  • Best for: Grades 4-7
  • Price: Free

How to Pick the Best Online Winter Camp

As a parent, you want a good learning experience for your child. Here are some ways to feel more confident in making the best winter break camp selection possible.

  1. Build on existing interests. If your child are super active, go for camps that feature lots of movement. If they are already sci-fi fans, explore the world of AI.
  2. Check for equipment requirements. If you don’t have a computer, your local library may lend them out.
  3. Buddy up. If you know your child would prefer to have a friend along, see if you can make that happen.
  4. Keep it fun! Remember, you’re planning for the holiday break from the regular school routine. In other words, it’s all for fun while learning. It’s not for a grade.

Enjoy the Best Online Winter Camps for Kids and Teens

Providing children with a structured activity during their time off from school can keep them excited about learning, while ensuring you get a little free time. There are so many options to make your winter break a blast this year. So pick your favorite Thanksgiving camps and winter break camps and get signed up before schedules fill up.

Up next, explore some of the best STEM holiday gifts for kids.