Time has come for Greek Australians to enjoy a Greek Summer after two years of lockdowns and closed borders.
This is an opportunity to register your kids to a Greek-language summer camp. Greek Australian kids will attain great skills. Below are some of the tremendous benefits of participating in this language school’s summer camp.
Friendships and Social Skills
Children who participated in the 2019 Greek Online School Summer Camp talk about horse riding and the activities. Yet all of them talk of the Greek friends they made, and the bonds they created.
“I can’t wait to see Alexandro from the Cayman Islands again,” says nine-year-old Konstantinos from Greece. The two boys developed a strong friendship. Konstantinos is fluent in Greek while Alexandros was a total beginner.
“For us it felt like Konstantinos was a buddy and a teacher to Alexandros, helping Alexandro with writing and with his language tasks — it was amazing,” says Stella Bompotsiari, the founder of Greek Online School Summer Camp.
Kids develop important social risks by making new friends. This can feel a bit uncomfortable in the start, however they soon become independent, and get a real boost in self-esteem. Importantly, they share the whole experience and create memories which bond them for life.
Like Zsuzsi from New York says, “When your child leaves a camp crying because they did not want it to end… you know that they created memories for a lifetime. Our kids can’t wait to go to the Greek camp again.”
Fitness and Health
We love technology and the perks that come with it, however, kids now spend much of their time physically inactive.
The summer camp is the perfect way to awaken a child’s natural craving for activity.
Through activities like movie adventures, and like treasure hunts, children who take part in summer camp use all their senses and muscles in nature and become fit and active. This can inspire them to remain active after the summer camp.
Ektor, 14-year-old, from London spent his summer at the Greek Language Camp in 2019.
“I love horses, and it was awesome that we went horse riding almost every day. I even had private lessons included in my camp fee which is very expensive to take in London. Loved it!”
Or 13-year-old Greek-language camper Anna. “It is so difficult to convince a teenage girl to stay physically active once she decides she does not want to do it anymore, so I was so happy when Anna told me that she spent a lot of time playing volleyball at the Camp. What made it even better is that she decided to join a club back in London,” says Nelly, Anna’s mother.
Connecting with nature
When was the last time your children spent a day of learning embedded in the natural world? Summer camps provide opportunities to kids who spent most of the last two year in front of screens, to be closer to nature as well as become more physically active.
We do love our computer screens, however, a break is great. Especially when this break means learning Greek, while taking part in climbing, archery, swimming, dancing, and arts and crafts in between Greek classes.
Zsuzsi, who lives in New York with her Greek husband and their twins, Gabi and Alex, said “Living in a big city like New York means that spending time closer to nature is always a special occasion, so we loved the idea of our twins spending time in Greek nature, doing outdoor activities for 13 days!”
Authentic Language Learning Opportunities
The aim of any language summer camp is to provide students with the opportunity to produce and hear authentic language in an immersive setting. Attending Greek Summer Camp means that your children will be speak and hear Greek all day in class and outside.
They will hear authentic dialogue between native Greek speakers and will have to express themselves in Greek to ask for something. They will play in Greek with local Greek children and by the end of their stay, they will be more confident in Greek.
Alexander and Gabi’s father Alex, who is a Greek physician living in New York City, told us how amazed he was by his children’s improvement in spoken Greek. “It seems like their Greek self has emerged all of a sudden, I am so happy and proud.”
After attending the Greek camp, his children could order food, buy tickets, and ask for directions in Greek, with ease.
Pavlos Ksinas, the co-founder of Greek Summer Camp said, “Parents send their kids to Greek school or Greek camps but if they do not interact with Greeks and if they are not exposed to Greek 24/7 they eventually end up speaking English the whole day.”
Kids really do need to have fun and enjoy themselves in the summer, so if this is combined with a fun learning experience, what else can you ask for?
This year’s summer camps will take place on 3-13 July and 4-14 August.
For more information visit The Greek Online School – Summer Camp