Friday, June 17, 2011

First Week of Summer Camps for the Little Princess a Success!

We hit the jackpot this week with the Little One's summer camps. Her morning camp this week was Write On! Workshop -- a creative writing camp held at Westminster College that was absolutely fabulous. There were visits from published authors; kids got to sign up for different writing "clubs" each day, like Fantasy Club, Newspaper Club, Songwriters Club, Vocabulary Club. A daily reward was offered to kids who wrote 20 minutes each night at home. The Little Princess wrote quite prolifically, did quality work, and stretched her abilities. Sadly this is the only week this summer that the camp is offered. Since this was the 5th year of this camp, it's likely to be offered again next summer.

I'm equally pleased with the Little One's afternoon camp this week: "Science Mix" at the Utah Museum of Natural History. I can't believe how many cool things these 2nd & 3rd graders got to do in one short week of half days. They visited the electron microscope on the U's campus, dissected owl pellets, made slime, learned about weather -- but the most impressive thing was the little vial with her DNA in it which was created by using some kind of mouthwash and mixing the results with dish soap and other substances. There are still some camps at the museum for various age groups with openings, and I feel like they are a valuable learning experience and well worth participating in. The camps offered at the museum can be found here.