Looking for fun and educational kids’ activities for the school holidays so you can ditch the devices this summer? From art, drama and Mandarin to sports, robotics and cooking, check out these holiday camps that’ll put little hands and feet – and minds! – to work. Keeping the kids busy during the school break won’t be a challenge with these options!
British Football Academy
Focus: Football
Ages: 5 to 14 years
Duration: Weekdays, 1 to 5 July, or 8 to 12 July, 9am to 12pm
Location: Dulwich College (Singapore)
Cost: $250 for a week or $50 per day
Registration: admin@bfasingapore.com | bfasingapore.com
The British Football Academy (BFA) Summer Football Camp is a great opportunity for kids to be introduced to football and for current players to improve their existing skills. A huge focus of the camp is on the social side of sport, offering young ones the opportunity to work alone as well as together in teams. This arrangement allows them to hone essential social skills including teamwork, communication and leadership.
Campers will also learn the basics of the sport such as shooting and dribbling, with training sessions run by BFA coaches Andy Gillespie and Dave Phelps, who’ve both worked in the professional football scene in England. They also have many years of experience working with children, so your little ones will be in good hands. Also, all BFA coaches are trained in first aid. Note that meals aren’t included, so children need to bring their own snacks and water bottles.
This is a relaxed and fun atmosphere for kids to pick up football skills. The coaches offer a great balance between improving football ability, having fun and learning social skills. It’s a great chance for kids to make new friends and fall in love with the world’s most popular sport.
Camp Asia
Focus: Sports, technology, creativity, enrichment and multi-activity
Ages: 3 to 16 years
Duration: 17 June to 31 July, Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm
Location: Stamford American International School
Cost: From $650 per week. Sign up before 19 May and enjoy a 10 percent discount
Registration: 6593 3691 | campasia.asia
Coming in as the top kids’ holiday camp in Expat Living’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2019, Camp Asia is offering over 20 fun camps this summer. There’s a camp to suit every interest, from sports camps (soccer, basketball, gymnastics and parkour) and creative camps (art, drama, Super Chef, Arcade Architect, magic) to enrichment camps (English, mathematics, science, aviation and Mandarin) and high-tech camps (coding, electronics, robotics and drones). New to the line-up this year are the Multi-Adventure camp (ages nine to 12) and the Netball camp; if you’re not sure what to choose, the Multi-Activity camp covers a wide range of interests.
The camps are all about making friends, building confidence and, most of all, having fun. Full-time Education Managers are on hand to ensure the programmes are high quality and that the children are in good hands. In addition to nurses, all staff are first-aid trained and have undergone a thorough background check. The camp also has a handy bus service to ferry children to and from camp, and provides freshly cooked meals daily.
Canadian International School
Focus: A mix of activities, from sports to languages and STEAM
Ages: Four to 14 years
Duration: Monday to Friday, 17 June to 26 July, 9am to 3pm
Location: CIS Lakeside and Tanjong Katong campuses
Cost: $650 (one week); sign up before 31 May and enjoy a 10 percent discount
Registration: online.cis.edu.sg
Kids can choose from over 70 CIS summer camps across five fun categories: sport and wellness, creativity and performance, STEAM, global languages and multiactivity. Camp facilitators are experts in their fields – and many are teachers at CIS. Besides learning new concepts, campers will have the chance to develop important life skills such as teamwork and problem-solving. Children can also look forward to making new friends. Each camp is designed to help children grow cognitively and emotionally in a fun and stimulating environment through unique experiences. All snacks and lunches are included, with transport available at an additional cost.
The camp lineup includes Planet Warriors (hands-on sustainable activities like recycling, gardening and farming), Urban Art Scene (activities combining street art and hip-hop culture), DJ Music Camp, Chefs Around The World, Music Video Camp, Scuba Diving, Xtreme Adventure (a mix of indoor and outdoor activities such as raft-building, bubble soccer, archery and escape room challenges), STEAM Machine, Sporting Spartans, Bilingual Buddies, and Lights, Camera, Action.
Centre Stage
Focus: Drama, music, movement, musical theatre and occasionally film
Ages: 3 to 14 (split across four different age groups)
Duration: 10 June to 16 August, with five-day and four-day options, 9am to 12pm or 2pm to 5pm
Location: Centre Stage HQ (15 Woking Road) and East Coast Centre (5000G Marine Parade Road)
Cost: Between $395 to $445 for a week
Registration: centre-stage.com
Centre Stage is running more great holiday camps this summer, featuring a wide variety of activities, from drama and musical theatre to dance and arts and crafts. There are specialist interest performance camps such as “Play in a Week”, “Film in a Week” and “Musical Theatre Mashup” that focus on particular musicals, plays, stories and themes such as Arabian Nights, The Jungle and Under the Sea. Kids can look forward to a fun and friendly atmosphere where they can make new friends, explore their creativity and pick up new skills. Some camps include performances for parents at the end of the week.
The camps are taught by a team of Centre Stage teachers who have performing arts backgrounds; the centre also brings in specialist teachers from the UK. All staff are also first-aid trained. Campers receive a certificate of attendance plus a group photo at the end of their camp. They’ll also be offered a 10% discount off their next camp and a free trial for a regular Centre Stage class.
Coding Lab
Focus: Coding
Ages: 4 to 18 years
Duration: 3 June to 16 August (Monday to Friday), with options of two full days (9am to 4pm), five two-hour sessions, or five 3.5-hour sessions
Locations: 264 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #03-06; #10-06 Parkway Parade; and The Grassroots’ Club
Cost: $395 to $745
Registration: 6528 2282 | codinglab.com.sg
Get a head-start on coding at Coding Lab’s holiday camps. Taught by a qualified and experienced team, the camps provide a host of fun courses for techy kids, from game design and app creation to understanding the link between math, sciences and code. Through hands-on projects, learning is made fun and exciting while covering a comprehensive and structured curriculum that touches on important topics and skills that are key to coding. Coding Lab strongly emphasises inquiry-based learning, critical thinking, innovation and creativity through its multi award-winning, MIT inspired curriculum.
Children will pick up computational thinking skills as they tinker with robots and have fun with kinaesthetic activities and crafts. They’ll have the chance to code scenes from their favourite stories, programme a robot to hunt down fruit, and more. Older campers will also learn how to use more advanced programmes such as Python and Java. For the two-day camps, lunch and tea are included, and all kids receive a certificate when the camp ends.
Discovery Camps
Focus: A mix of activities, from languages and mathematics to art and drama
Ages: Three to 14 years
Duration: Monday to Friday, 3 June to 16 August, 9am to 3pm
Location: Lorna Whiston at United Square and Parkway Parade, and SJI International
Cost: $625 for a week, or $100 for a one-day trial
Registration: 6664 8122 | discoverycamps.com
Discovery Camps offers a mix of creative, educational and tech themes in its camps. All staff have years of experience in their specialist fields, be it linguistics, art, drama or tech. At the end of the week, kids receive a certificate of attendance, and parents are kept up to date with weekly reports.
For a mix of educational and creative fun, enrol in the multi-activity camp. Kids who love the limelight will enjoy Actor’s Studio, where they’ll put together a show for parents. Those who enjoy technology will have a blast at the Lego Robotics, Coding Academy and Movie Maker camps, with nine-to-12-year-olds given the chance to explore game design topics such as Minecraft and Roblox, and older ones aged 12 to 14 learning new concepts such as virtual reality and entrepreneurship in technology. Other fun camps include Art Studio, English Explorers, Magic Maths and Life Skills.
Ivy Camps Singapore
Focus: Multi-topic
Ages: 5 to 12 years
Duration: 24 June to 2 August, Monday to Friday, 9am to 3.30pm
Location: GEMS World Academy (Singapore), 2 Yishun Street 42
Cost: $1,480 (two-week programme, including meals) and $150 (optional bus transport)
Registration: ivycampssingapore.com
GEMS World Academy (Singapore) has teamed up with Ivy Camps USA for their summer camp this year. This is the first time that Ivy Camps will be conducting a camp in Singapore. Participants can expect a good mix of academic focuses including STEAM, business, performing arts, public speaking and leadership, with fun American-style camp activities.
The programme is designed to help campers learn new academic concepts while having fun, discovering new things and achieving personal growth. Each camper will have the opportunity to interact and learn from instructors from top universities around the world, including Ivy League schools. Besides being motivated towards personal success and empowered to be independent thinkers, participants will have the chance to establish deep connections and mentorship opportunities.
Bus transport is available for those who require it, with pick-up and drop-off at selected locations across Singapore. Each day, campers can look forward to a morning snack, well-balanced lunch and afternoon snack. At the end of the camp, participants get a Certificate of Completion.
Little Mandarins
Focus: Mandarin language Ages: 4 to 9 years
Duration: Monday to Friday, 3 to 28 June (9.45am to 12.45pm) and 1 July to 2 August (9.45am to 2.15pm)
Location: Little Mandarins, Block 71 Loewen Road, #01-03
Cost: $350 per week (three-hour camp) and $530 per week (4.5- hour camp)
Registration: 6473 8377 | little-mandarins.com
During the Summer Mandarin Fun Camp, kids will enjoy learning through interactive activities such as songs, games, crafts, role play and storytelling. Offering fun weekly themes, the camp aims to make learning Mandarin fun and to build children’s confidence in using the language. Vocabulary relevant for daily life will be taught and children will be immersed in a Mandarin-speaking environment where they will gain familiarity with greetings and practise what they learn. Camp themes are refreshed each summer; this year, the themes are Something Old Something New, Zipping Through China and Hi There.
Camps are suitable even for children with no Mandarin. Little ones will be able to pick up basic conversation skills through interacting with teachers and other campers or build on their existing vocabulary if they have a foundation in the language. Camps are conducted by qualified Little Mandarins teachers who are trained in-house. Many are mothers who are passionate about teaching and interacting with children.
Tanglin Trust School
Focus: Multi-activity
Ages: 5 to 10 years
Duration: 8 to 12 July, Infant & Junior Full Day (9am to 3pm) and Infant Half Day (9am to 12pm)
Location: Tanglin Trust School, 95 Portsdown Road
Cost: $695 for the full-day programme (early-bird discount of $650, until 9 June); $445 for the half-day programme
Registration: 6778 0771 | tts.edu.sg
At Tanglin Trust School’s summer camp, “Passport to Fun!”, kids can look forward to a wide range of fun activities such as cookery, IT, sport, cycling, rock climbing, swimming, art, music, yoga and mindfulness. The camp allows children to stretch their limits and step out of comfort zones in a safe environment. Useful life skills they will pick up include teamwork and being open-minded. Camps are designed and delivered by highly-skilled Tanglin teachers, teaching and learning assistants, and qualified coaching staff.
The pastoral care and wellbeing of each child is at the heart of the Tanglin holiday camp experience – parents can be assured their children are in good hands with the low camper-staff ratio. They’ll also be glad to know that the camp is open to both Tanglin and non-Tanglin students. Meals aren’t included but there is a convenient door-to-door bus service.
Whizz Kidz
Focus: Science, multi-activity and technology
Ages: 4 to 12 years
Duration: Monday to Friday, 24 June to 16 August, 9am to 2pm
Location: UWC South East Asia (Dover and East campuses), GEMS World Academy, GESS, Canadian International School (Lakeside and Tanjong Katong campuses) and Kidzland
Cost: $550 to $650
Registration: 6271 1478 | whizzkidz.com.sg
Learning is made fun and engaging at Whizz Kidz’s STEAM Summer Camps. Young ones can take their pick from exciting and educational week-long camps including Fun Science, Multi-activities, Robotics, Coding, 3Doodler Printing, Theatre and Movie Making. New to the lineup this year are the Junior Doctor and Speech Drama camps. Meals and transport are included at additional costs at selected venues.
The interactive learning experiences at all the camps are facilitated by bubbly well-trained staff who are knowledgeable in their field. Besides picking up new concepts and learning new skills, kids will also have the chance to make new friends. As the day ends, they’ll prepare to present their findings and experiments to showcase to their parents. At the end of the week, all campers will take home a goodie bag of things they have made during activities, and a completion certificate.
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This article first appeared in the May 2019 edition of Expat Living. You can purchase a copy or subscribe so you never miss an issue!
