AHMEDABAD
Ahmedabad Management Association

First they ran workshops for executives but cottoned on to kids about four years back.

This year, the Association will cover 29 subjects and the topics include personality development and mind power games. Around 2,000 students are expected to take part in these sessions which will go on till end of May. The programmes are priced between Rs 50 and Rs 500 and the age group is between 10 and 18 years.

Educational Initiatives

An outfit started by alumni of IIMs, this organisation is organising indoor and outdoor workshops for kids in two age groups: eight and nine, 11 and 12. The four-week-long workshop is divided into 12 sessions and there are 20 students in each batch. This programme is priced at Rs 1,500. “The whole idea is to prevent boredom in children and our programmes focus on making learning fun,” says Sudhir Ghodke, director, Educational Initiatives.

DELHI
idiscoveri

This institute was started by alumni from Harvard, Insead, IIT and XLRI and offers Youreka, an eight-day adventure programme for nine to 16 year-olds. The programme is designed around activities that result in numerous ‘I did it!’ moments.

Students stay in hill or riverside camps and go rock climbing, mountain biking and rafting. “We remove children from their comfort zone and make them independent,” says Gaurav Saklani, co-founder and director, idiscoveri. “Our return rate in this programme has been 45%,” he adds. About 2,000 students are expected to attend Youreka this summer.

Les Elfes

Since 1987, Les Elfes International, a Swiss organisation and member of the European Council of International Schools, offers students new experiences in camps up in the Swiss Alps.

Since 1996, hundreds of children aged between eight and 18 from India have availed of this facility in summer and winter. Students from 52 countries share ideas and experiences to develop both teamwork and leadership qualities.

Around 300 students from India will be taking part in Les Elfes Camps this year. The two week long programme is priced at Euros 2,500.

Wanderland Inc

Delhi-based Wanderland Kids Club has a year-round calendar. This year, they’ve lined up a two day trek trip to Pangot in Uttaranchal. They’ve also organised a parent-child camp with trekking, birding, yoga and workshops on how to deal with fear.

Leap Years

An afterschool centre for kids, Leap Years, has a number of workshops for kids on till July 2. Sports include tennis, cricket and Shaolin Kung Fu. The curriculum was developed by Shubha Mudgal, Leela Samson, Bulbul Sharma and Aditi Mangaldas.

Studio Abhyas

Yoga, Vedic chanting, Bharatanatyam and theatre. Studio Abhyas will be holding classes in these through the month of June in Hauz Khas.

MUMBAI
Empower Activity Camp

Empower was started by Brigadier Sushil Bhasin six months back for summer, Diwali and short camps. It focuses on imparting life skills like tolerance, patience, team building and leadership, through activities like rappelling, shooting, treasure hunts, golf and cooking.

The fees range from Rs 260 per person for a day’s trip to Rs 1,000 per person for an overnight trip. The company’s own camp site at Kolad, Maharashtra, is expected to be up by December: tents, dorms and cottages.

Tantra of Climbing

Mountaineer, wildlife photographer and Bombay Natural History Society member Bibhas Amonkar designs courses for students that revolve around nature education and awareness. Kids older than 10 can join.

Tantra focuses on outdoor activities like rafting, para gliding, cycling, sky gazing and hiking, fees from Rs 1,800 to Rs 4,000 per person.

CHENNAI
Genius Education and Learning Systems (GELS)

Genius began its summer camps for school students in 2000. “We want to teach students some useful skills during summer vacations instead of having to attend the next term’s classes in school during holidays,” says Vasanthy Ranganathan, director, GELS. This year, she expects 50 students between six and 14 for two courses designed to improve memory skills. Fees: Rs 1,000 per child.

HYDERABAD

Schools here are big on personality development. School teacher P Bhagyalakshmi says, “I’ve been working for three years to improve the mindset of small children.”

Bhagyalakshmi teaches skating, drawing, painting on different media like sand, glass and kundan work, besides indoor sports like chess, carrom and scrabble, all for a fee of Rs 150-200 per course. All this at the 70-year-old Vivekananda School at Saifiguda.

KOLKATA
Birla High School

This school began its first ever summer camp now: a day programme from 9 to 1.30 pm, six days a week. Thirty children from between Class Two and Five have already enrolled at Rs 1,200 each to bone up on dance a la Tanushree Shankar and well, tee-shirt painting.

—Reported by Aparna Ramalingam in New Delhi, Sulekha Nair in Mumbai, Somnath Dasgupta in Kolkata, Shabana Hussain in Chennai & B V Mahalakshmi in Hyderabad