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The rest of the city may gripe about a sulphurous summer, but for
countless playschools and child development agencies, it's the sweetest
season of the year, according to a report of The Times of India.
It's time for money to be made through ambitious summer programmes that sound like they're going to do for your child's cognitive development in four weeks what due process would take a couple of years. Often at Rs 2,000 a week.
But while upscale playrooms have been rolling out the yoga mats, children in BMC schools too have been breathing easy, thanks to summer camps conducted by various non-profits.
At these programmes, children accustomed to less privileged realities are shown a good time through art, sports, music, theatre, paper craft, dance and other forms of creative expression.
At Prateeksha Nagar Municipal School, about a dozen limber young bodies could be seen rehearsing the hip throw, kitted out in their uniforms of white.
A fifth-grader, who appeared to be investing much effort into her chops, claimed she was learning judo to keep teasing boys in her rough neighbourhood at bay.
In the room next door, the kids were less martial, more material, as they gyrated to the pulse of some Bollywood rap-and-roll.
Ear-splitting yells emerged from another room, where a creative physical theatre class was in session, which no doubt the kids in the courtyard practising their asanas tried hard to firewall.
"Most of these children's parents-day labourers and menial workers-are relieved to have them out of their hair in the holidays," says Arun Jadhav, project manager with a not-for-profit called CHIP (Children in Progress) , that has been organising summer camps at two BMC schools in Oshiwara for the last six years.
"We usually have these camps for two weeks after the final exams and until the results are declared. After which many children vacation in their native towns," he says. There's even a sort of day-care facility for the young siblings of students who would have otherwise had to forgo the classes to chaperone their wards.
For the kids, the classes are fun because they allow them to explore extra-curriculars with the freedom of choice.
Because the classes are free, there's no guilt on their part for wanting to skip a day.
But the programme is so varied and interesting that no one seems to want to play hooky.
If anything, the numbers have been growing every year, says Jadhav, who has counted about 200 children this year.
No doubt they have full attendance on the last day when there's usually an outing to the Nehru Science Centre or a cinema.
At the BMC schools run by the non-profit Aseema in Bandra and Santa Cruz, there's more than fun on the summer cards.
"We've started summer school this year for older children who would benefit from extra tutorials in grammar and math.
A Teach for India volunteer will instruct them," says Naazish Shah, who coordinates the summer camps for Aseema.
Besides the new addition, there's the usual run of sports and art activities. "Our children usually don't get opportunities to learn new things like kids who are better-off, and so we decided to have these extra-curricular classes for them," says Shah, counting among their activities a logo-designing workshop to help kids understand the niceties of corporate branding, and dance lessons by Shiamak Davar's outreach-oriented Victory Art Foundation.
While the summer classes are given range and expertise by volunteers who hold specialised workshops in music, drama and so on, it works the other way around as well.
Children practised in an art form also play tutors to others their age. A creditable initiative by Akanksha puts children and alumni from the NGO together with children from moneyed homes, and the first lot teaches the second art, something of a specialty at Akanksha.
"This summer we won't be conducting our regular summer camps in Mumbai, but we will have our Art for Akanksha workshops," says Ruchika Gupta, director of the art programme.
"We have two batches, one for three- to five-year-olds who learn to make paper clothes and paint canvas bags; the other is for six- to ten-year-olds who learn traditional Indian art forms like Gond, Tanjore, Madhubani and so on," she says.
"It gives our kids a great sense of empowerment to be able to teach children who seemingly have everything." There's an exhibition at the end, for friends and family, of the work accomplished in the week-long workshops which, this summer, will be held at someone's home in Ashoka Towers in Parel, and later at Candy's in Bandra's Pali Hill.
It's not all happening indoors; come summer, a couple of non-profits also take their kids out for a spot of sun. Our Children, for example, ferries 750 kids from 14 orphanages, in batches, to Aksa Beach for a day and night out on the sands.
Welfare for Stray Dogs has had youngsters from Salaam Balak Trust and Akanksha visit their kennels at Saat Rasta to wall and bathe the dogs. It's turning out to be a great break for children everywhere.
It's time for money to be made through ambitious summer programmes that sound like they're going to do for your child's cognitive development in four weeks what due process would take a couple of years. Often at Rs 2,000 a week.
But while upscale playrooms have been rolling out the yoga mats, children in BMC schools too have been breathing easy, thanks to summer camps conducted by various non-profits.
At these programmes, children accustomed to less privileged realities are shown a good time through art, sports, music, theatre, paper craft, dance and other forms of creative expression.
At Prateeksha Nagar Municipal School, about a dozen limber young bodies could be seen rehearsing the hip throw, kitted out in their uniforms of white.
A fifth-grader, who appeared to be investing much effort into her chops, claimed she was learning judo to keep teasing boys in her rough neighbourhood at bay.
In the room next door, the kids were less martial, more material, as they gyrated to the pulse of some Bollywood rap-and-roll.
Ear-splitting yells emerged from another room, where a creative physical theatre class was in session, which no doubt the kids in the courtyard practising their asanas tried hard to firewall.
"Most of these children's parents-day labourers and menial workers-are relieved to have them out of their hair in the holidays," says Arun Jadhav, project manager with a not-for-profit called CHIP (Children in Progress) , that has been organising summer camps at two BMC schools in Oshiwara for the last six years.
"We usually have these camps for two weeks after the final exams and until the results are declared. After which many children vacation in their native towns," he says. There's even a sort of day-care facility for the young siblings of students who would have otherwise had to forgo the classes to chaperone their wards.
For the kids, the classes are fun because they allow them to explore extra-curriculars with the freedom of choice.
Because the classes are free, there's no guilt on their part for wanting to skip a day.
But the programme is so varied and interesting that no one seems to want to play hooky.
If anything, the numbers have been growing every year, says Jadhav, who has counted about 200 children this year.
No doubt they have full attendance on the last day when there's usually an outing to the Nehru Science Centre or a cinema.
At the BMC schools run by the non-profit Aseema in Bandra and Santa Cruz, there's more than fun on the summer cards.
"We've started summer school this year for older children who would benefit from extra tutorials in grammar and math.
A Teach for India volunteer will instruct them," says Naazish Shah, who coordinates the summer camps for Aseema.
Besides the new addition, there's the usual run of sports and art activities. "Our children usually don't get opportunities to learn new things like kids who are better-off, and so we decided to have these extra-curricular classes for them," says Shah, counting among their activities a logo-designing workshop to help kids understand the niceties of corporate branding, and dance lessons by Shiamak Davar's outreach-oriented Victory Art Foundation.
While the summer classes are given range and expertise by volunteers who hold specialised workshops in music, drama and so on, it works the other way around as well.
Children practised in an art form also play tutors to others their age. A creditable initiative by Akanksha puts children and alumni from the NGO together with children from moneyed homes, and the first lot teaches the second art, something of a specialty at Akanksha.
"This summer we won't be conducting our regular summer camps in Mumbai, but we will have our Art for Akanksha workshops," says Ruchika Gupta, director of the art programme.
"We have two batches, one for three- to five-year-olds who learn to make paper clothes and paint canvas bags; the other is for six- to ten-year-olds who learn traditional Indian art forms like Gond, Tanjore, Madhubani and so on," she says.
"It gives our kids a great sense of empowerment to be able to teach children who seemingly have everything." There's an exhibition at the end, for friends and family, of the work accomplished in the week-long workshops which, this summer, will be held at someone's home in Ashoka Towers in Parel, and later at Candy's in Bandra's Pali Hill.
It's not all happening indoors; come summer, a couple of non-profits also take their kids out for a spot of sun. Our Children, for example, ferries 750 kids from 14 orphanages, in batches, to Aksa Beach for a day and night out on the sands.
Welfare for Stray Dogs has had youngsters from Salaam Balak Trust and Akanksha visit their kennels at Saat Rasta to wall and bathe the dogs. It's turning out to be a great break for children everywhere.
