The weeks away from school for Winter break followed by some unexpected days off due Charlotte’s recent snow storm may have many parents thinking: how will I keep my kids busy all summer long? Most organizations don’t publish their summer camp information or begin registration until at least February or March, but if these long winter days at home already have you thinking about summer, here are some options to look into in and around Mint Hill.
Spotlight Performing Arts Academy located in downtown Mint Hill offers summer camps for children ages 7-18 focused on the performing arts. Musical Theater Camps will teach students skits and songs from popular musicals as well as provide guidance on how to audition for solos and speaking roles. Musical Theater Dance Camps will introduce students to dance basics and terminology in order to help them build a solid foundation for dancing on the musical theater stage. Students will also learn and perform choreography to different Broadway Songs. Broadway Boot Camp will be a more advanced camp where students will audition for roles in a full Broadway revue. Show Choir Camp will feature dancing and singing of showtunes. All camps will end with a performance. Spotlight Performing Arts also has plans in the works to offer half day camps for younger children between the ages of 4-7. More specific information will be available by February 1: http://www.spotlightacademyonline.com/home.html.
In addition to Monday, Wednesday and Friday Tae Kwon Do classes, KTA Taekwondo plans to offer themed, weekly, all-day camps. Drop off begins at 7:00 am and pick up ends at 6:00 pm. Children pack their own lunches for all-day camps, but KTA provides snacks during the day. Past themes have included “movie week,” where the children write, act and produce their own movie – usually an action movie featuring martial arts – “animal week” where animals visit the school, and “spartan week,” where the kids train and run a mini-spartan race. KTA also offers plenty of weekly outings to places like parks, bowling alleys, the library, the zoo, the movies and swimming. More information will be available on KTA’s web site in February: http://ktataekwondo.net/.
Though it is a bit farther from Mint Hill, the Siskey YMCA in Matthews is a popular destination for summer recreation. The YMCA offers summer day camps that focus primarily on three areas of childhood development: friendship, accomplishment, and belonging. Weekly camps begin on June 12 and run through August 25. Each week offers a variety of options for campers around themes like “Aloha Summer!,” “Wild Wild West” and “Superheroes.” Tuition for the week-long camps ranges from $150-$335 depending on a variety of factors. Additionally, the YMCA offers Camp Boomerang, a unique inclusion-based day camp for both typical and autistic children ages 5-15. In Camp Boomerang, all campers participate together in age appropriate activities like field sports, low ropes, fishing, swimming, devotions, and arts and crafts. You can find complete information about all YMCA summer camps, including Camp Boomerang, on their web site: http://www.ymcacharlotte.org/branches/south/siskey/camps.aspx. Registration for YA summer camps will begin February 1 for YMCA members and February 15 for other program participants.
The International Sports Center in Matthews offers several options for keeping your kids busy during the summer. ISC offers a preschool mini-camp for boys and girls ages 3-5. The camp meets from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm Tuesday-Thursday and features gymnastics, arts and crafts, storytelling and more. For children ages 5 and up, ISC offers half-day, full-day, and extended-day week-long camps focused on gymnastics and cheerleading. ISC also offers a summer session of classes for children ages 3 and up. Information about last year’s summer camps is available on ISC’s web site: http://charlotteallstars.net/summer-camps/. Information on 2017 camps, classes and clinics will be available in March.
