'Summer camps help plant the seeds of creativity'

For most of the year, we live in a world of haste. The days swoosh by swiftly, especially for parents and their kids. The rush to cope with overwhelming school schedules, catching time-bound buses, or unfinished homework can take a toll on the minds of children and parents alike. More often than not, they will see themselves burdened under the pressure of an information overload with barely enough time to explore or express.
Enter summer. Families relax and kids rejoice as the plans for a memorable summer unfold. Summer is the perfect time to shift gears, and summer camp is the perfect platform to facilitate optimal growth and progress for our children during the holidays. A break from the routine of school, summer camps offer a refreshing change for children with the parents getting some space to breathe, take it easy, and, most importantly, let new experiences do magic to their children's development.
To truly do this, we need to introduce creative ways of education that are based on fun, games and friendship with a focus on broadening their social, cognitive and emotional bandwidth.
There is an exhausting list of camps to choose from in our young city. However, for the well being of the child, we need to choose camps that do not mirror the long-exhausting hours of school life.
The focus should be on short, daily, intensive and fun workshops to stimulate and inspire the child. Such workshops also help the child's creativity and imagination.
Summer camps should also not serve as replacement for baby-sitting for either a parent or child. To grasp the essence of a new skill, learners need to dive into fun, practical and off-beat activities and tasks to eventually emerge with a keen awareness of their skills, personality and interests. Quality education, through carefully structured learning programmes in a safe and friendly environment, can help a learner open-up, make new friends and increase his/her exposure and interests.
This year at The Gaia Centre, keeping in mind all the lessons for a useful and fun-filled summer, the camp is split into workshops of 3 hours - once during the morning and once during the evening. Creativity is our core at Gaia, and this summer we serve our main ingredient, three ways with workshops in Art, Drama, Communication Skills & Creative Writing. Learners express their thoughts and ideas verbally in performance, artistically through drawings and creatively through words & writing. Whether art, drama or writing, every category is intentionally designed to leave the child with a holistic understanding of the intricacies involved in the skills.
Summer camp is the perfect opportunity to plant the seeds of creativity in the child's mind to grow into newer, brighter ideas that will last them the year. With that, let's choose a camp that facilitates relaxation, creativity, education and growth for all.
The Gaia Centre Summer Camp begins on June 26.
Jesika Menon
Co-founder and director of Emotions The Gaia Centre