Basketball fans appreciate Basketball City's seven climate-controlled basketball courts, full locker rooms, and a snack bar. Visitors can join in open play for $8, or rent a court for $65 (8 to 12 players).

Basketball clinics are available each Saturday for boys and girls ages six to 17 at a cost of $15/session.

Basketball camps are offered during the summer and over Christmas break. Check the website for details.

Blue Streak is a co-ed, noncompetitive summer day camp for kids who love sports. The program offers archery, baseball, basketball, floor hockey, football, frisbee, golf, volleyball, kickball, repelling, soccer, softball, swimming, teeball, tennis, and track and field. Operated from the campus of The Grosse Pointe Academy.

Camp sessions runs from June through August. Extended care before and after camp is available. Blue Streak is based in Ohio, and several camps are located in Michigan and Ohio.

Camp Mirage is a summer day camp program that offers 29 different sessions, from flag football, babysitting and cheerleading, to street hockey, girl power, and wilderness trek. Children can be signed up for one week or the whole summer. A junior camp program is available for kids ages four to six.

Sessions run from mid-June to the end of August. Before and after care is available.

Grades: PreK-12

Enrollment: 1,620

Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:9


Cranbrook is an independent day and boarding school that has programs for pre-kindergarten through high school students. The institution is known for its challenging academic, arts, and athletics programs - and for its beautiful 315-acre campus, which in 1989 was designated as a National Historic Landmark.

On the grounds are the Cranbrook Art Museum, the Cranbrook Institute of Science, and the Cranbrook House and Gardens.

Cranbrook offers a good number of summer opportunities, including a baseball camp, lacrosse camp, soccer academy, theatre school, art studio camp, volleyball camp, and young authors camp.

On campus is an indoor swimming facility used by the competitive Speedsters swim team and also open to the public (purchase a membership or pay a daily fee). Swim camps, leagues, and lessons are offered, as are aqua aerobics and S.C.U.B.A. classes. Rent the facility for birthday parties or other gatherings.

The school's Wallace Ice Arena is open to the public as well as for use by Cranbrook's students and faculty. The cost for public skating is $5 for adults and $3 for children and seniors. Open skate times vary by season.

Fox Hills has a terrific par-three 18-hole course on which novices and children can learn the sport. The clubhouse is decorated with a safari theme and offers a variety of light food items and beverages.

The course offers many opportunities for families to get out swinging. A summer junior camp is offered for children ages six to 13, there are frequent adult-child scrambles, and an adult/child league runs through the summer.

Fox Hills is also home to the Crystal Mountain Golf School, which offers golf camps and hour-long clinics to adults and children ages six and up.

Housed at the Franklin Athletic Club, the Franklin Kids Club is a fitness center and licensed day care with a preschool program.

Two large gyms with moonwalks, a rope swing, slides, and colorful mats will keep your children plenty busy. For the older kids, there's foosball, air hockey, Nintendo, basketball, and floor hockey. Open gym times are available six days of the week.

Classes are offered in gymnastics, karate, arts and crafts, and more. Special programs include prenatal "Fit for Moms" and post-natal "Mommy and Baby Bootcamp" classes.

Day camps are offered on school vacation days and weekends, and there is also a latchkey program. The licensed pre-school accepts kids 2 1/2 to 5 years old (they must be toilet trained).

Parties: Franklin Kids Club offers two fitness-focused parties that come with a coach, a party host, invitations, and paper products. The Weesports party, for ages 1-4, runs 90 minutes and costs $215; and the Kidsports party, for ages 5-10, runs two hours and costs $265. For an additional $110, you'll get pizza, cake, party bags, and beverages. All prices are based on 15 kids.

Other neat party ideas include the club's Mess Makers (art-based), Mad Science (science-based), and Gym and Swim birthday parties. Check online for details.

Franklin Kids Club has some great programs for scouts and youth groups, too, including fitness challenges and sleepovers.

Mills Gymnastics USA offers a wide-range of recreational and team gymnastics programs, including a Tumble Bear program for kids age 18 months through five years old and a homeschool gymnastics and tumbling program. The facility encourages parent viewing of classes and its staff is safety certified in all areas.

Birthday parties are available starting at $125 on Saturday evenings and Sunday during the day. Unique summer days camps with various themes and different field trips are scheduled during the summer months.

The Troy Sports Center is a large sports and entertainment complex that houses four ice rinks, the Gotta Dance dance studio, a Hockeytown store, and a fitness center.

Skating and hockey classes are offered, and hockey leagues are available for ages three and up.

There are open skating and parent/tot skating times nearly every day of the week - call or check website for schedule.

Parties: Throw a birthday party at the Troy Sports Center and get two hours of open skating and skate rental, a decorated party room, pizza or hot dog, chips, and soda for $14.95/person ($9.95 for nonskaters). Minimum 10 people.

Windermere offers both private and semi-private horseback riding lessons. The center also runs a summer horsemanship day school Monday through Friday in June and July in which students learn and practice caring for horses and equipment.