Quirky Different Types Of Summer Camps

Summer is fast approaching. The scorching sun takes us back to our good old days when we were all excited to visit our grandparents, play with our cousins under the hot sun and quench our thirsts with innumerable gulps of nimboo pani and ice water. Running around the whole neighborhood and occasionally enjoying the sweet summer rains… bliss is this! There was not a single day when our parents worried about us or our health getting upset. We were the kings and queens of hyper-lands who would always deny to cool-their-heels over a couch doing nothing. So many things to do and so less time. Gone are those days when boredom was a term unknown.

Kids these days fall prey to such unwanted elements like the technological gadgets and some illogical games which includes no skills. This is the reason why today’s children find it extremely difficult to spend time doing one activity a day. A bunch of options and an array of vibrant activities have captured their tender minds, the absence of which will make them get bored. For most of the kids Android is their buddy and Google is their Agony-Aunt. This trend will actually make them fall into some unpleasant conditions like becoming an introvert, lack of focus and concentration and a stiff behaviour towards parents. Not blaming the parents who are busy racing behind their responsible roles. Either a stay-at-home-parent or a working couple’s child will face this kind of a situation quite commonly as there is a clash between the necessity and preferences.

Parents feel it necessary for their children to get busy, be active and indulge in some refreshing new world of activities which will build a new land amaze built with the bricks of creativity. But children who argue the preferential point would love to just let their hair loose and break the monotony of holding books in their hands. They need a much preferred break from books and any information clasped inside the papers. They want to do and try all those things which they had jotted down as their “bucket list” of summer vacation.

It is not right to blame the children. Nor does it mean to hold parents responsible for this. It’s the generation and the era we stay in to be considered while doing any kind of a blame game here. Children crave for attention like how we crave for their love. This attention is not always from the parents who are more than happy to help and spend time with their loved ones. Attention is also necessary from their peer group. The kids who are comparatively much exposed or well informed about the social life are like the role-models for the kids who would try to imitate them and get the feel of being “Cool”. This is totally normal and is considered a typical behaviour of any child.

Are there any ways to actually kill this addition towards gadgets? Is there anything else that will make your son/daughter find relaxation after their hectic exam schedule? Isn’t there any way out for the parents who are stuck in the maze of child activity engagement? The answer is the SUMMER CAMPS.

Summer camps are the activity hubs where in the children of different or similar age groups get together- facilitated by a trained adult, create some original or productive output or get indulged in some skillful or cultural activities, which includes complete involvement of all the participants. Summer camps usually start around the first week of April every year. This is the time when most of the schools would have finished their annual exams and the kid would be free to enjoy their 8 to 10 weeks of summer vacation. This is the time when children spend most of their time at home as compared to their regular school days where the children are out in their school for approximately 6 to 7 hours. This vacation gives them a royal break from the routine and the exams for which the kids prepared really hard for. Summer camps usually include some activities which build up the motor, logical and other developmental skills in children. Be it art and craft or singing and dancing; kids get a hint of many such wonderful spices which constitute to make a tasteful quality time of learning.

Summer camps are a boon for both parents their children. It proves beneficial for the parents who like to get their children busy during the vacation. Parents try hard to get the little brains working by asking them to do many things which might not include parents’ involvement. This will disappoint the kid who craves for some game partner or a buddy who can be with them always. Children find it extremely exhausting to think about all those various methods to keep their boredom by the bay. This is where summer camps come into picture proving a single solution for both kids’ and parents’ problems.

Today summer camps have emerged as one of the major areas of interest. It does not wear a simple makeup anymore. Things have drastically changed with the emerging years. There is a flood of ideas and a gush of creative people who have written all new pages about the whole idea of a summer camp. Gone are those days when children enjoy just paper crafts and painting dolls. It’s an era of innovation which ranges from robotics to archery, horse riding to puppetry. Bringing something new and ingenious is the only motive of the organizers. Let us look into some of the totally out of the box original summer “Skill” camps which are seen these days:

• Destination camps:

  This is the fresh new trend in the field of summer camps where the enrolled children would be taken to a different location either at the outskirts of a city or an entirely new place amidst the flora and fauna. There the children would be educated about the ecology, the basic necessities of survival, the minimal knowledge about simple cooking required for sustainability like preparing rice or cooking something found in the forest area etc. These life skills would be advocated by various activities like nature walks, camping, trekking, star gazing, tent stays etc. These activities will build up the confidence of the children, give them the opportunity to make new friends, get their oratory skills better and keeps the low self esteem away from them.

• Science and Technology camps:

  These camps help to create, build and discover the inner thoughts in the children. The Sci-Fi camps are the new trend which pumps up the innovative side of the kid and engages them in a whole new world of tomorrow. Be it robotics, fun with chemical experiments or enjoying the physics through the activities on light, sound and speed…the curiosity will keep these little scholars waiting for tomorrow’s session at the end of each one.

• Theatre and Movie making:

  Expressing the ideas is the greatest opportunity we can ever give any person to flourish in everything. Expressing it through emotions and learning the art of capturing the same…sounds fun isn’t it?! The latest trend of theatre and the movie making camps put technology into good use by calling all the future movie stars and film directors to flock in and enjoy the art of entertaining in a professional way. Be it reciting a soliloquy or to emote the right words after the right cue, all requires lots of practice and experience. Theatre/acting camps build the confidence in children and provides them a platform to get rid of Stage phobia. Movie making on the other hand is very niche and requires lots of skills and interest to inculcate the love for camera. If acting is an art, capturing this in a proper angel is no less than any science.

• Environmental conservation camps:

  Keeping the latest environmental scenario into consideration, “Go green, and Stay clean” is the need of the hour. Activities which involves gardening, kitchen garden cultivation, compost making, preparing recycled papers using newspapers or something unusual like making candles out of used/broken crayons. Ideas can vary from a small thing to something really big which needs more than a single hand. Working together as a team and enjoying such activities will not just be beneficial to the children but also to the environment.

• Cooking and Baking:

  Let the children unleash the master chefs inside them. Cooking is not a skill anymore. It is considered an art which pleases all senses – olfactory, gustatory and the visual. It all takes a true knack of an artist right from cutting vegetables to switching the flame off at the right time. There are summer camps which teach these amazing culinary complexities to children in a less complex manner under the guidance of some skilled professionals. Making a cupcake or roasting a pancake, steaming dhoklas or lip smacking fruit chaat… kids do get a hint of how hard it is to please your tongue. These are the places where they understand that their cooking parents are indeed the blessed artists who satisfying their cravings quite brilliantly everyday.

• Folk and traditional art forms:

  Revisiting the past by redoing the same thing what our ancestors learnt and practiced as a part of their everyday life. Storytelling which includes stories from Bhagavadgeetha and Panchatantra, playing folk games, learning the folks songs/dance which spreads the typical essence of our soil and other activities like these gives us a satisfaction of trying something new which is equally innovative and a precious learning experience. There are few camps where the children are introduced to the traditional art forms like classical format of both dance and music in an innovative, stress-free way which is much appealing with the younger bunch.

• Sporting camps:

  Swimming and tennis belongs to the usual trend. Say hi to the new-age sporting statement. Archery, shooting, horse riding, kayaking, rocking climbing, skating and martial arts. Summer is all about getting outdoors and soaking up in the sun. These activities have made a refreshing new entry in the urban neighborhoods creating a buzz in the world of kids’ engagement.