It is a common tradition, not only in Malaysia but also in other countries, for schools to organise holiday programmes or camps during long periods of school holidays such as semester breaks or summer holidays.
As parents, you must be familiar with these camps being organised by your child’s school teachers at least a month before a long period of holiday begins. As teachers, you are also familiar with the amount of preparation and planning that goes into organising these holiday camps for your school.
In the context of preschool education, these camps provide parents and their children an option to benefit from the long holidays by taking part in a one-week holiday programme that offers various educational and fun activities in a structured learning environment.
For preschoolers, holiday camps:
Allow them to build new friendships
A huge reason why your child is always asking you about that holiday camp that happens at the end of every school term is because they love how they get to meet new friends to play with. Sure some kids are shier than others, but that’s why holiday camps are so great. When kids are away from their parents and out of their comfort zone, they will learn a sense of independence to carry themselves in various situations. Holiday camps often bring out the best in your kids and cultivate group skills such as leadership, teamwork, tolerance, open-mindedness and good communication. These skills are normally difficult to acquire at home when opportunities to socialize are limited, even in normal schooling days, children are confined to the timetable. Whereas, holiday camps allow them more room and flexibility to express themselves.
Develop new interests and hobbies
Another reason why children love attending holiday camps are the array of activities installed for them. These activities are usually not available to be done at home such as cooking or baking, swimming, watching a play or a magic show. Even normal school programmes don’t usually have activities other than sitting in the classroom. So, holiday camps are usually an entirely new experience for your child. These new experiences allow them to develop new interests and hobbies which can also help them to discover their best self and hidden talents by offering them opportunities to fully explore different areas of interests.
For parents, holiday camps:
Perfect Solution for Your Work Schedule
Yes, your children might be enjoying a long holiday. But you’re still working and news is that you have no idea who is going to take care of your children when school is closed. The perfect solution is holiday camps. The wonderful thing about holiday camps is that they are not simply a one-stop daycare centre.
Holiday camps are designed to offer your child the best learning experiences by engaging them in wholesome educational activities that are carefully planned and curated by actual educators who knows the key milestones of each age group, so you don’t have to worry if the long holidays will put a break on your child’s learning development and progress.
Instilling Discipline and Routine
Without these camps, your child might get carried away by not having a proper routine or schedule to adhere to when they are at home. This might result in your child having a poor sleeping schedule from not having to sleep or wake up early for school. After a long period of time, this can become a habit that is very difficult to break once school starts again.
By attending these holiday camps, parents can rest easy that a routine will be established that will not disrupt the routine that your child is already used to during school terms. In holiday camps, discipline such as following the rules and being punctual is also applied to ensure your child does not end up developing behaviour problems and start throwing tantrums when they have to get back to school.
For preschool teachers, holiday camps:
Continuous Learning
Holiday camps are a good way for teachers to keep track of their students’ learning and progress even outside of school. Although planning and organising one takes months of preparation, it is all worth it in the end when their hard work and effort is reflected in their students learning as these students often learn something new from the holiday camps which will contribute to their academic progress in the classroom. This ensures continuous learning for the students even during the school holidays.
The Alfa and Friends’ STEM Camp offers an alternative for teachers to conduct a holiday programme for children in Malaysia. With our STEM Camp, the teachers do not have to worry about the stress of organising and planning one as the entire programme is prepared with a list of activities along with its materials for teachers to easily conduct at the camp with their students.
The Alfa and Friends’ STEM Camp also provides training for the teachers to ensure the STEM activities are carried out effectively. Each year, the camp adopts a different theme and this year’s theme is… MAGIC! So, if you think your students are interested to take part in learning through cool and out-of-this-world scientific magical activities this coming school holiday, check us out at alfaandfriends.com!
