Students descend in droves on camps
BY JAMIL KHAN @ Gulf Today-Sharjah, August 15, 2009
With the end of summer vacations fast approaching, students of various schools and higher educational institutions are still enjoying a plethora of summer camps that were launched by their respective institutions or public and private bodies around the UAE. 
A bouquet of healthy activities has been included in these camps, like computer and language learning courses, short-term lessons for music, art-related activities and many more, besides organisation of outdoor trips with a view to enjoy nature with bundles of games thrown in for good measure.
HONING SKILLS
A majority of camp-enlisting students come from families of expatriates living in the UAE and have been drawn to the camps not only because of their recreational activities but also to hone their skills in myriad fields like cooking, designing, painting and other related areas.
Some of the camps, which have been set up by renowned schools and institutes have become popular with kids, especially those that have classes for information technology courses, as well as performing arts-related courses.
ARTS AND CRAFT
The Bead Palace at Jumeirah Beach Road had launched a number of courses and activities, which included beading (making jewellery), canvas painting, wood craft, designing and painting, pottery, felt sewing, deco-page, scrap-booking, card designing, cooking, cake decorating, knitting, T-shirt painting and glass painting. These classes were held on daily and weekly basis in order to benefit maximum number of students.
The SAE Institute Dubai, located in Knowledge Village had also kicked off a creative camp for kids with courses on film-making, 3D animation, photography, graphic design, music making and free-hand drawing. The course make-up ensured that everyone was in for an exciting time of creativity, relaxed learning and loads of fun.
SPORTS TRAINING
Then there was Ski Dubai, which had started a training camp for young children to improve their skiing and snowboarding skills under the tutelage of highly professional trainers at a place located in the heart of Dubai.
Besides such activities, many camps have already been started by organisations, imparting coaching in football, basketball, swimming, gymnastics and computer skills on a weekly and daily basis, again to accommodate maximum number of enthusiastic students.
Some of the camps conducted workshops on yoga, meditation, breathing, relaxing, stretching, creative writing, public speaking (impromptu and prepared), art & craft, field trips, cooking, leadership training, games like tennis, soccer, swimming, cricket, hockey, relay games, rock climbing, gymnastics, bowling and other such indoor and outdoor sports.
The Eton Institute, Dubai had initiated a number of camps combining fun with learning and uniquely tailored courses for kids and teens.
LINGUISTICS, COMPUTERS
They offered young children to choose from 6 languages and learn as they play in an engaging and entertaining environment. In addition to learning a language, kids can also develop their creativity through art and craft sessions or get fit with classes in self-defence besides sharpening their computer skills by learning how to launch a website, create animation and to assemble their own personal computer.
The Dubai International Art Centre had introduced summer workshops for both adults and children. The range of workshops on different topics, which had been widely popular among students, will continue till the end of the current month.
Furthermore, the Dubai Ladies Club have been organising their annual ‘Confident Kids’ summer camp for the last five years.
The four-week summer programme has been designed to build children’s confidence through extracurricular activities and educational field trips.
End
Jamil Khan -- The Journalist 