Goa: Summer holidays are here. Gone are those days when children ran to their ancestral houses in the villages or the maternal uncle’s house. Times have changed and so have the concepts of holidays. It is time for summer camps.
Nowadays summer camps are much awaited programs for kids as well as parents. A joyous ride for the kids and a relief package for the parents who otherwise don’t know how to engage their kids during holidays.
And it isn’t only about dance and singing anymore. Several new areas have evolved over time, which cater to several different topics. One such camp is organised by young tenth standard pass out students who have formed a group called ‘Learn via Experiments’. The summer camp is titled as ‘The Learn Marathon’.
This is a ten-day summer camp full of art and science, where you get to learn innovative ways to use paper and glue to make fascinating pieces of craft, as you learn the fundamental concepts of science from fun and exciting experiments. You can learn the laws of gravity by watching cartoon characters fall from cliffs in funny scientific cartoons! And if that’s not enough, add in quizzing, maths, and a whole variety of lectures to the list. A whole two weeks of educational mayhem that’s sure to enrich every kid’s brain.
The activities also include Robotics. You can learn how to make robots draw. Photography is another course on offer where you can learn the basics of shooting quality pictures of sunsets, people and a lot more.
“Workshops act as a space for creativity where the child is provided with tools to tinker with,” says Siddharaj Mopkar, one of the coordinators of the learn Marathon. “Our past workshops have led students to build new content and will be conducting workshops for younger kids. It is time we look at students as active content creators instead of passive consumers of textbooks,” he adds.
“Summer camps are important for small kids to explore their talents. It helps them in their extracurricular activities,” says Vishlesha Kankonkar of Footworks Studio, an outfit that is organising summer camps for children in Margao. “We organise this summer camp to help kids to recognise their talents and to give them all motivation to innovate ideas,” she says.
Footworks is offering an array of activities like dance, craft, gymnastics, drawing, taekwondo, etc.
The Goa Yachting Association (GYA) has also organised summer camps to teach windsurfing to students, for ages from 10 to 15 years. Each camp is of five days and will impart instruction on basic windsurfing, after which the student will have to follow up and practice to achieve proficiency. The camp will be conducted by former national champions Derrick Menezes and Remy Fernandes, at Dolphin Adventure Sports, Hawaii Beach, Dona Paula.
“In modern times when kids spend more time with gadgets, the opportunities for experiential learning are shrinking,” says Dr Abhijit Nadkarni, whose child Shiv is all eager to attend a summer camp titled ‘Majja – Children’s Festival’ which is being organised by Abhinav Creationz in Margao. “Well organised summer camps allow kids to get out of the virtual world and to experience the real world through joyful collective learning,” he believes.
“Majja is a festival where we intend to engage the children in various activities like drawing, theatre, music and craft. Instead of making the festival a burden for children, we intend to make this a joyful ride for them,” says Sayli Sawant Talaulikar, coordinator of Majja. Children are engaged through the media of stories and music in their mother tongue, taking them closer to the environment they are born in. We also immerse them in the otherwise seemingly boring subjects like science and astronomy in an enjoyable manner, so that children can develop a liking for them,” she informs.
Nature camps too are attracting children in large numbers. One such camp was organised by Mrugaya Xpeditions for the third year running in association with Nature’s Nest and India Untamed. This was a three-day residential camp, filled with learning, creativity and adventure. The camp included nature games, team building activities, nature trails, a night walk, a short trek near Tambdi Surla temple, adventure activities, a treasure hunt and screening of wildlife documentaries. One important feature of the camp was making handicrafts with the help of local artisans and an interaction with local naturalists.
Several educational institutes too organise several summer camps for their own students. These camps are usually organised during the time gap between the final exams and the results. Special faculty is engaged by the schools to make these camps innovative and enjoyable for the kids.
Government bodies such as Bal Bhavan and the Ravindra Bhavans have also organised several activities as part of the summer camps initiated by them.

Team TNV