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Cashing in on camp fever
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Many children find summer camps fun. And parents are content with the smile on their child's face
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EXHAUSTED ALL possible locations to visit for the vacation?
You can no longer ask your child to study?
Do you feel your child should spend time productively?
Looking for a crash course that can make your child jack-of-all-trades?
And, you don't want to spend too much?
If your answers to these questions are `yes' you should probably be turning the pages of newspapers for summer camp ads. And you can't be blamed. Come summer, apart from cool cottons and coconut water, camps are in to complete the list of the three Cs one can turn to. Sprinkled across the city, they have become another school for children (a good thing, they don't have to carry a load on their backs for, the camps supply the necessary material) offering a host of activities — music, dance, drawing and painting, origami, puppetry, embroidery, public speaking and even mathematics and science.
Be it T. Nagar or Tiruvanmiyur, one in every five children attends these camps to `brush up' their skills. But do these camps have something substantial to offer?
Geetha, a student of Sristi School of Fine Arts, says, "Our instructor teaches us pretty well. Even if we don't have the inclination towards drawing he makes sure we get into the mould. It is worth the distance and travel and not to mention the heat."
While many join these camps to bring out the creativity in them, some consider them a time pass.
Kavya, an 18-year-old running Iris, an art camp, says, "It's not worth spending a bundle to learn a little of a lot of things. We must have camps where we can focus on one aspect."
For the water-starved Chennai-ites, swimming is a boon. But many get carried away by the `15 days in, a swimmer out' ads not realising that sports often take a long time to become experts at. When fun is the factor both parents and children are looking for, these camps just give it. "Well, my instructor is a doctor who cured me of hydrophobia and I have a lot of fun here," beams Neha at a swimming camp in the city.
"Teaching small children is quite a task as they require a lot of motivation and persuasion to get rid of their inhibitions," says Sekhar, a swimming instructor.
With Lucia, Lola and Pilar (remember the Asereje - Las Ketchup girls) bringing in the Spanish fad and the Latino dances coupled with J Lo's numbers, many dance schools offer crash courses which let you dabble in all types of dances. At the end of it you would probably tango to a jiving number and hip-hop to jazz. Never mind. For, many enrol in these camps to chill out and have fun.
The LR Swami Building on Mount Road might be an obscure place, but maths lovers think otherwise. "I'm happy that camps of this kind exist — food for the brain," says Arij.
With a mathematics camp ahead, can science be far behind? For Pavithra, a resident of Tiruchi, the science camp held in Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre is fun laced with learning.
"I had to teach the instructor how to use the software," grumbles Rabya, for she had spent a lot on the multimedia classes.
M bole tho Munna Bhai, Z bole tho? Zeal Speak Easy classes. This course, which aims at improving public speaking skills and vocabulary and helps in changing diffidence into confidence, seems to be a hit with Manav and Wafia who "simply love these classes and find them interesting." Says Bindia Bhalla, the instructor, "We give more attention to children who are introverts by assigning them role plays and real life situations and judge their reactions to it."
Many children find these camps fun and enjoy attending them as the atmosphere is more relaxed. The extent to which these camps serve the purpose or whether they are value for money seems to be the moot point. Despite this, many parents send their wards to the camps breaking their promise of "I shall spend time with my child and teach him to spend time productively at home." Well, they seem to be content with the smile on their child's face and the absence of "It's boring, Ma." They find this a way to keep them away from the idiot box. But lack of experience and enthusiasm on the part of some camp organisers results in many frowning faces.
"Making the best out of nothing is an art and these summer camps do help children in socialising with different age groups" is the view of a mother of two.
Every coin has its flip side. Hasn't it?
PRATHIBA RANGAVAJULLA
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