Summer camps keep children busy during holidays in Tiruchi

Summer camps in the city are keeping children entertained during the vacations with a host of programmes focused on sports, crafts and personality development.

As concerns have grown over electronic device addiction among children, many parents are choosing to send their wards to camps that specialise in sports and physical fitness this year, said camp organisers in Tiruchi.

The District Central Library and its Readers’ Forum have been offering a series of activities for children aged 10 years and above from 10 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. daily from May 5.

These include workshops on origami, mono-acting, martial arts, handicrafts and yoga sessions, besides Tamil handwriting exercises, portraiture, and chess training, conducted by subject experts.

The library’s summer camp will end on May 31.

Several schools are also organising summer camps during the vacations. “Our camp offers coaching in athletics, football, skating, art and craft, and vocal music among other subjects. It is open to students of all schools, and the response has been quite good for the first batch. We will start our second batch on May 18,” said an official at the Sri Vignesh Public School in Woraiyur.

Sports training is the main draw at the summer camp hosted by Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Tiruchi.

“Parents are eager to send their children for sports coaching with the idea of making them train as professionals in future. We are conducting batches in basketball, volleyball, cricket and skating with professional coaches. These programmes are good way to curb smartphone overuse among children, as they are kept physically engaged in the classes,” J. Joshua, secretary, YMCA, Tiruchi, told The Hindu.

At the Bouncy House play zone, upcoming camps for children will focus on communications and storytelling, brain games, social and emotional skill development and fun learning challenges. On Tuesday, a workshop on Warli art was held at the centre.

“This year, we can see a definite shift towards physical activity-based vacation programmes, by both parents and children in Tiruchi. This is a positive development, because it shows that the obsession with screen-based entertainment is decreasing,” said Bouncy House founder Jaisri Raju.