It seems to be a little hidden secret that not too many people know about. In the summer months of July and August, St. Andrew's United Church has been hosting a free drop-in for kids ages 9 to 12.
Tessa Johns, a summer student who runs the summer programs for the drop-in, is in her first year running the new program. She keeps the kids entertained with her outgoing personality and adventurous ideas. Johns incorporates many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) activities for the kids. This is great because it allows learning through fun, hands-on projects.
So far, the drop-in camps have been going fairly well.
"July was really steady, we had about nine kids on average and it's free to everybody. It's not faith based in any way, none of it is like that, the church is just putting it on so that kids have something to do during the summer," says Johns "You don't have to sign up for anything you just come by, drop them off at 1 and pick them up at 4, they get a snack and they have a blast and make new friends."
Last week the drop-in was focused on natural science. The kids were outside doing a scavenger hunt looking for anything from spider webs to ant hills and then trying to hypothesize. They then went inside to learn about moon phases with intriguing oreo cookies, followed by a Boreal Forest "paws" scavenger hunt, and they finished off the day learning about greek myths while making constellations using pool noodles, balls and balloons.
Johns tries to have a little bit of everything in the program whether it be social time, quiet time, loud time or just good old snack time. Caleb Eckert and Fionn Wallace confirmed that the best part of the day was indeed, "Snack time and moon phase oreo time," while Taylor Eckert enjoyed the scavenger hunt outside.
This week will be another fun-filled Tuesday and Thursday as the theme will be Super Hero Training, a returning favourite. Kids will learn how to make a comic book, play a Spiderman training game with paper airplanes, make their own comic strip, and, the best part, Johns makes a matrix out of streamers and the kids have to make their way through it.
The summer drop-in will only run for one final week before it's done for the year. You can drop off your 9-12-year olds on Aug. 27 and 29 at St. Andrew's United Church from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
It will return again next July and August. If you have any questions you can contact Sara Perrin at [email protected]
