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Specialty Day Camps Make Summer Fun and Interesting

Keeping your child occupied and stimulated intellectually during the summer is easy with specially themed day camps. Here's a sampler of enticing programs offered throughout the country.

 


by Christina DiMartino

Day camps are a great summer resource for parenting children. They help to keep kids interested, energetic, and motivated during summer school breaks. While general activity camps offer great experiences, you may want to consider a specialty camp that closely matches your child’s interests and talents.

Today you can find specialty theme camps for nearly every interest and aspiration. If your children excel in a particular sport, has an art- or music-related talent, or is gifted in another area, you’re sure to find a day camp that will enable them to hone their skills. Here are some theme camps from across the country to give you a jump-start on ideas.

Museum camp

Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, offer weeklong half- and full-day camps (see photo above). The camps accommodate children from preschoolers to high school students. The program advocates that museum summer camps deliver the world to kids.  

The entire museum campus is a field for discovery and creativity. Kids investigate the Earth, art, dance, science and more through behind-the-scenes tours, hands-on encounters, and compelling activities. 

The camp takes full advantage of exciting permanent exhibitions like the Scaife Galleries of ancient to contemporary art, the Bruce Galleries of Decorative Arts and Design, Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians, and the thrilling Dinosaurs in Their Time, which places dinosaurs in dramatic new, scientifically accurate poses amidst the hundreds of plant and animal species that shared their environments. The camp also combines experiences with Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural masterpiece Fallingwater, Powdermill Nature Reserve, and the biological research station of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 

Tennis camp

At its on-campus Reis Tennis Center, Cornell Sports School in Ithaca, New York, offers several tennis camps depending on the child’s level.

Its advanced camps are directed by Cornell’s men’s head tennis coach. Kids ages 12 to 18 learn when to play offense and defense, and when to neutralize a shot to stay in the point. Campers are critiqued during instruction, and their strokes are broken down and evaluated by the coach. Campers also have the opportunity to play in singles and doubles games.

Cornell’s day camp program, for ages 7 to 15, features two sessions each day that directed by the university’s assistant coach. Each session features two full hours of tennis where campers learn the skills, techniques, and strategies needed to become successful tennis players.

Music camp

If your child is an aspiring rock star, consider a DayJams music camp at one of its numerous locations in the U.S. Whether your child is a beginner or a more advanced player, DayJams offers her the opportunity to learn and improve her skills on guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals or horn.

DayJams’ programs are lead by professional musicians and teachers in a friendly and creative curriculum based environment. They are suited for kids age 8 to 14.

At DayJams camp your child will… 

  • Join a rock band 
  • Write an original song 
  • Perform live 
  • Record her performance 
  • Design a poster, t-shirt and CD cover for her band 
  • Make new friends 

Science camp 

With camps in Florida and California, Destination Science camp is for kids who want a few weeks of science-packed, fun-filled excitement.

Destination Science camp is the ideal opportunity for your child to engage in the fun of science. It combines innovative science projects, creativity challenges, outdoor games and character development. Its goal is for every camper to leave with inner science-confidence and outer self-confidence. 

The Destination Science curriculum revolves around central science themes such as technology, physics and space. It builds on all the science disciplines as determined by the National Science Education Standards.  

Gifted camp

The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) provides a camp directory of academic summer camps in numerous states and Canadian provinces. It states that a well-conceived academic summer program will provide a balance between the academic program, athletic or sporting events, and social activities. 

NAGC advocates that a summer program focused only on academics neglects the importance of full development of the individual. A well-balanced program will include engaging, challenging and interesting academics, and will give children a chance to participate in physical activities, structured and unstructured social activities, and opportunities for play and rest. 

Well-matched and appropriate educational programs give children opportunities to develop their potential, and the summer months can provide powerful learning options that extend well beyond regular classroom fare. 

Computer camp 

iD Tech Camps’ mission is to ignite the internal drive in its students by developing social, problem-solving and technical skills that give each student an edge that will last long after summer camp ends.

With more than 60 locations in the U.S., and an average of six students per instructor, iD Tech Camps offers unparalleled personalized instruction. Its policy is to hire only experienced adult instructors. It uses top software and hardware from tech giants like Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Microsoft and NVIDIA.

A program, Endless Summer, is a free online workshop for students who want to learn before and after the summer session.

iD Tech Camps’ students don’t spend all day in front of computers. It blends the traditional camp experience with the best summer technology experience.

Additional camp resources:

 

Christina DiMartino has been a freelance and assignment writer since 1985. She is a researcher, interviewer, writer, editor, and manuscript collaborator with a repertoire of clients from around the world.

Photo by Joshua Franzos for Carnegie Museum of Natural History 

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Inspire Your Kids to Cook

 

by Christina DiMartino

 

Your kids—boys and girls alike—express a desire to cook from a very early age, likely without your even realizing it. They make mud pies in the sandbox, play with child-sized cooking sets, and organize kitchens in doll houses or play areas, and they probably inquire about what you’re cooking from the time they begin to communicate.

 

Kids Cooking Activities offers up reasons why you should encourage cooking activities with your kids. (Set up link at underlining to http://www.kids-cooking-activities.com)

 

* Cooking with your children helps them to learn about nutrition and healthy eating. 

* Cooking in the kitchen will give children a boost of self confidence. They are accomplishing a task, learning something important, and contributing to the family.

* Taking time to cook with your kids will give them lasting memories. They will pass the traditions on when they are grown and have their own families.

* In the enthusiasm of creating something themselves, your children will be more likely to eat what they had a hand in making.

* Kids learn real lessons in science, language, math, and creativity in the kitchen. Cooking will help reinforce all these subjects.

* Cooking is a great way to learn life skills. This is especially helpful when children are older and more independent. They won't have to rely on fast food and junk food to sustain them.

* Working together in the kitchen teaches your child teamwork.

* Cooking teaches children planning and making choices skills.

* Kids practice creativity and imagination in the kitchen. Cooking activities are a great way for kids to express themselves and enjoy their creations.  

 

It may take longer to get the meal or snack done, but the moments with your children will be priceless. Remember to have patience. Don't worry about flour on the floor or spilled milk.

 

A role model for cooking with kids

 

Cooking With Kids, a series of 90-second videos, is hosted by James Beard Award-winning chef John Sarich. Development of the program was inspired by the reality of childhood obesity, anorexia and other eating disorders, Type II Diabetes, and low bone density, which have all become national issues. Cooking With Kids encourages parents and children to spend time in the kitchen together preparing healthy meals in ways that improve communication and help children develop healthy nutritional habits. (Set up link at underlining to http://www.cookingwithkids.org/fact.html)

 

The program shows how easy it is for kids to prepare snacks and meals that taste good and that are good for them. It uses the five food groups as a platform for nutrition messages. You can watch the videos with your children through the website, then print out the recipe and go try it yourselves.

 

The recipes that Sarich prepares with kids on the segments teach them which categories on the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Pyramid are included in the recipe. He explains how vegetable burritos, for example, include foods that have protein, fiber and dairy, and that the burritos are low in fat.

 

Good cooking habits

 

Spatulatta provides 350 step-by-step videos that teach kids good cooking habits, and offers advice for moms, dads and kids on numerous issues related to cooking with kids. It emphasizes topics like teaching kids to wash their hands properly before handling food.  (Set up link at underlining to http://www.spatulatta.com)

 

When it comes to working in the kitchen, you know your children. You know what abilities they have and how fine their motor skills are. Some children are ready to handle a certain kitchen utensil or work at the stove earlier than others. It’s up to you to make that determination.

 

You set the rules in your kitchen, such as you will always light the burners and oven for your children.

 

Go over the workings of every electrical appliance with your child. Explain that the beaters, for example, should be inserted into a hand mixer before the mixer is plugged in.

 

Safety and courtesy are behaviors that need to be re-enforced and modeled.

 

Once you've explained how to handle an item safely, try asking your child to tell you how to do it the next time the task is required when making a recipe. We all learn best when we try to teach.

 

 

CREDIT:

Christina DiMartino has been a freelance and assignment writer since 1985. She is a researcher, interviewer, writer, editor, and manuscript collaborator with a repertoire of clients from around the world.

 

 

PHOTO / ILLUSTRATION RECOMMENDATIONS:

Go to http://www.cookingwithkids.org

 

 

TEASER: 

Cooking with your kids does much more than produce tasty treats! It teaches teamwork, safety, courtesy, math, science, and more, and encourages creativity and imagination. And there are some terrific online videos that will help you get started.

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