Certificate for Five Days at Steve & Kate's, Noe Valley.

Instead of a rigid structure, we give our campers choice. Instead of teaching kids the typical way, we give them tools and gentle guidance to help them become autodidacts. The difference is subtle–and it’s profound.

At Steve & Kate’s, campers step into a world packed with possibilities: for experiencing new sensations, for expressing themselves, for exploring their passions and potential. The results are unexpected and they’re unexpectedly rich. One camper dives deep into stop-motion animation. Another discovers a passion for dance. Or chess. A camper becomes engrossed in making the perfect bread. Or developing Leo Messi-like touch on the soccer pitch. These discoveries are all the more exhilarating because campers make them for themselves. This is a world liberated from adult judgments and expectations, and campers flourish in it.

After 34 years, we’re still 100 percent obsessed with making each edition of Steve & Kate’s freer, fresher and more effective at inspiring campers to zero in on what makes them truly happy.

–Steve & Kate