An elaborate affair, curated with great efficiency and care, the Kids EduCamp, at Dining@DI on July 30, was a three-hour event with activities spanning across quizzes, crosswords, karaoke and hula hoop drills. Our three youngest participants were 6 years old and took a great interest in all the events that were conducted. The four senior kids were assigned to be captains and had to manage a fleet of 7 to 10 year olds while trying to win their games.
The four teams named themselves after sweets and stayed true to their roots as we had team Gulab Jamun (Suhana Choudhury) and team Cham Cham (Mishal Faiyaz) emerging as the Indian representatives. The other two teams were named Fruitella (Nevaeh Wynne-Peters) and M&M (Nitya Malhotra). Most of the kids had already experienced a camp like this before but engaging and talking to older and younger kids together is always challenging. To get past the initial awkward stage, there were two warm up games organised. These games aimed to improve communication and coordination using hula hoops and tennis balls as props.
The first major activity of the day was the Word Jumble solver. Each team was given two sets of jumbled letters which they had to arrange into a word, with a coherent meaning of course. The younger kids were underestimated but came to their teams' rescue. All the teams got both their words, "allegedly" not using any hints.
Moving on to the quiz, the kids were in for a literature-filled questionnaire conducted by Debjani. In homage to the boy who lived by magic, the first round was dedicated to Harry Potter. It was a hit among the kids with middle names and dates being whispered in the hope of getting the answer. The second round was dedicated to current affairs where the questions were challenging for an 18 year old like me too. However, the kids guessed and pressed trying to gain points for their teams. As the last round waltzed in, everyone was trying their best to think of synonyms, places, dates and other details to come up with one word in the end. Team Cham Cham led by Mishal Faiyaz excelled in the quiz, primarily due to the two tiny readers in their team.
The "Minute to Win It" games were the most exciting. Four ‘stations’ were scattered around the room with a particular game. Every team had to go through all the games and they were judged on their collective team effort. At Station Cotton Nose each participant had to apply vaseline on his or her nose and carry a cotton ball to a cup. Balancing the cotton on their noses, they had to place it gently in a paper cup. At the Backward Alphabet Station, the alphabet had to be recited backwards in under a minute. A first timer, six year old Jiranya Poonprasert, recited the alphabet the fastest among kids double her age. The Cup Pyramid Station presented the third challenge of stacking and unstacking paper cups using one’s non-dominant hand, which looked easy but was tricky during its execution. The last Station Breakfast Scramble had a cereal box that had been cut into 20 pieces like a jigsaw puzzle and had to be arranged to its old form again. The teams battled it out with Gulab Jamun and Fruitella being tied at 17 overall.
After an intense "minute to win it" game (which lasted a lot longer than a minute), and a tetrapak of Maaza, we moved on to a leisurely activity, the Literature Crossword. The crossword had been created by Uncle Leslie with clues from Kids Literature. It had clues about the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and even classics like Black Beauty. This was a bit of a struggle for the kids but they didn't let their competitive spirit down. They all agreed that they needed to read more - for which we have the Library, Books@DI. You can try your hand at it, dear reader. Right Click here and open in a new tab.
An unplanned break found a bunch of kids grab the hula hoops and display their skills - Jiranya, Ariyanah, Vivana, Diya and Priyaansh. Some skills are still alive and well.
The last activity was a fun Karaoke session hosted by Christabel where everyone chimed in to sing Abba classics, Imagine Dragon and even Queen! Kids really enjoy karaoke and we might have an evening of kids karaoke soon.
After the declaration of results, the winners Cham Cham had the honour of cutting the delicious EduCamp Cake from Saldanha Bakery. Each child was also well-fed with a sumptuous box of goodies and a tetrapak of Maaza before they bid farewell to the EduCamp till the next time!
This EduCamp was planned and executed by the Team Library which comprised Rajashree Kundalia, Debjani Basak, Roshan Choudhury, Shreya Datta, and the D’Gamas Beatrix, Christabel and Leslie. More pictures are available here. (Right Click and open in a new tab)
Some Feedback
Thank you so much Uncle and to the Whole Team for having such beautiful Camps. - Nitya
Kids had a wonderful time yesterday . Thank you so much for all that you do - mother of Ariyanah and Vivana
Thank you team for a evening of learning.
The camp was supported by Caring Minds, Cafe Icanflyy and Nature Cure Yoga Centre.
