Super Summer:
Inside a great holiday camp option
This coming holiday season is likely to see more parents than ever looking for great activities to keep their kids busy in Hong Kong. Instead of trying to come up with an endless stream of fun and educational ideas on your own, why not turn to the experts? Hosted at Stamford American School, the Camp Asia programme offers young campers the opportunity to try something new or delve deeper into their passions.
The programme caters for children from four to 14 years of age, and runs from 9am until midday each day. There’s a whopping 13 different camp options available – something for everyone! Activities are catered for each specific age group: for ages four to seven years; another for the eight-to-10-year-olds, and one for those who are 11 to 14. Students are then further divided into sections by age.
Multi-activity programmes
Camp Asia offers new experiences for kids, catering to a range of interests. Campers can do a deep-dive into art, drama, storytelling and science, depending on which of the available streams they enrol in, be it Creative Communications, Tech Explorers, Coding, Art and Design or others. At Stamford’s 10,000-square-foot arena, children in each stream will have loads of space to move freely and get busy. They’ll also have access to Stamford’s Innovation Centre, a resource fully stocked with the latest technology.
Exploring design
Got a budding artist or creative mind in your home? Let them unleash their creativity in the Art and Design stream of Camp Asia. If your child has ever dreamed about designing their own masterpiece using hands-on and digital tools, then this stream might be the perfect fit. They’ll get to produce their own visions, starting with design basics and then exploring construction as they work to realise their creations. Each piece is then presented to parents in a virtual showcase.
Getting innovative
If your child is more drawn to the science and tech side of things, the Innovation Experts stream is a great opportunity for them to put their skills and passion to use these school holidays. Here, students don their thinking-caps to solve real world challenges based on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Led by Stamford’s innovation team, they’ll design, create and present their ideas using a variety of media from augmented and virtual reality to digital creation tools.
Join Camp Asia!
When: 9am to 12pm, 28 June to 23 July
What: Over a dozen different camp streams, covering language, coding, creative arts and other skills
Who: Ages 4 to 14
Where: Stamford American School Hong Kong, 25 Man Fuk Road, Ho Man Tin, Kowloon; the camp offers a daily free shuttle bus from Yau Ma Tei and Ho Man Tin MTR stations.
How: Visit campasia.hk or email info@campasia.hk for more info; each five-day camp is priced from HK$3,000.
Are the kids keen for some fun over the holiday? Read on for details of an award-winning school camp programme for the summer – one with 13 different streams to choose from!
Early childhood education sets the platform for a child’s learning journey, and each subsequent stage of education relies on that platform as a springboard to success. Learning an additional language as a child is one way to add an extra dimension, in the form of lifelong benefits for the future. Here are just a few of the well-documented advantages in language learning for kids:
• Bilingual children have been shown to learn faster and easier.
• They develop better problem-solving skills and creative thinking abilities.
• They find it easier to connect with other cultures.
• Children with the ability to speak two or more languages also tend to have better career opportunities in adulthood.
Where to get started
The Hong Kong Institute of Languages (HKIL) has been teaching young learners, students and adults in Hong Kong for well over 30 years. For children aged three to 12 years, the institute currently offers seven languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese.
The objective of these seven different language streams is naturally the same: to enable children of all ages (or adults in HKIL’s many courses for older learners) to communicate in another language. But it goes well beyond that. It’s also about the notion of “plurilingualism”, to employ a buzzword! When you learn a language, you also learn a culture. If a child has access to multiple different cultures, their thinking – and, by extension, their education – is enriched. It opens their minds to diversity.
The courses
At HKIL, students of all levels are catered to – from a beginner who hasn’t seen a word in the new language, to an advanced student who may even speak the language in their home. And there are specific focuses, too, including for teenagers who may want help with exam preparation for school. (The list of exam prep courses available at HKIL is impressive, covering the likes of the DELF, IGCSE, GCSE, IB, IELTS, SAT and more.)
Learning is done by face to face in private and small group classes, as well as via online lessons. Students can swap between these different modes of learning, or select a blend of both if it’s more convenient.
The emphasis, what’s more, is on learning with speed and ease. That will be music to the ears of anyone who might be worried that acquiring a second language could be too difficult. The HKIL team says: “Our mission is to offer an innovative learning experience that goes beyond traditional foreign language education through our approach to new pedagogy, where you can learn a new language faster and easier.”
Central Campus: 6/F, Wellington Plaza, 56-58 Wellington Street, Central info@hklanguages.com | hklanguages.com
2877 6160 (WhatsApp: 5421 0288)