If you are thinking about signing your kids up for a summer enrichment camp, now is the time.
Two or three weeks at a summer enrichment camps generally costs a fraction of the price of a traditional summer camp. They offer a great time, and some education to boot!
Lucy will be attending Concordia Language Villages for the fourth summer this year. She's attending Lac du Bois, which is the French village at Bemidji, Minn. They also offer programs at Hackensack, Minn., but my understanding is that the facilities at Bemidji are better.
Concordia offers language immersion camps for all ages, from one-week camps for 7-year-olds to month-long camps offering high school and even college foreign language credit. In addition to common languages like French, Spanish and German, Concordia offers such languages as Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, and Swedish.
The only bad thing I can say about Concordia is that it shouldn't have to exist at all. French, German, Chinese and Japanese ought to be available at every elementary, jr. high and high school in the country. But since that is not going to happen, Concordia is the next best thing.
You owe it to yourself to visit the Concordia Language Village website. Each village is designed with architecture designed to reflect that of the country whose language is being taught. There are some videos and photos from last year posted as well. Lucy has had a blast every year and is looking forward to another year of fun.
A couple of years ago Lucy also attended Jr. Vet Camp at Auburn and really enjoyed it. Last year we waited too late to sign up and got shut out. This year the dates conflict with her language camp, so again she can't go. But she highly recommends it. Auburn has a beautiful campus, and the grounds around the residence halls are actually far prettier than at Ole Miss.
Ash has not been interested in Concordia because he's been afraid he might learn something. But Ole Miss is offering a Summer Academy this year that offers actual high school credit to rising eighth-, ninth- and tenth-graders that is attracting his interest. Among the courses offered for his age cohort are Mississippi Writers, Environmental Chemistry, and Astronomy.
Admission to the Ole Miss program is limited to students with a "B" or higher average in their four core subjects for the past three years and the Fall 2011 semester. They must have permission from their school principal and two teacher recommendations. The cost of the three-week program is $695 for day students and $1,460 for boarders. Ash told me he wanted to sleep in his own bed, to which I said, "Hooray!"
There are lots of other academic programs out there, but you have to look a bit harder for ones that serve in the middle school bracket. But they are out there and worth looking for. If you are interested, sign up SOON! These programs tend to fill up quickly.
Oh, and if anyone knows of a good creative writing program for rising seventh-graders, please let me know. I think Lucy is a star just waiting to shine.
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5 comments:
So, you think that Latin is a "dead" language?
Mrs. A.P. Miller at ole S.D. Lee High must be rolling in her grave.
In addition to Latin I an II, French, Spanish and German language courses were offerred at that time. And to enter engineering studies at State, a leat one foreign language was required.
As Life of Brian was banned in most parts of the State, you might have missed this one.
A side note to the filming and production of Brian:Judea-Christian groups attempted to can this film before its completion and many sponsors dropped their support. "Brain" survived only because Beatle George Harrison put something like a million British pounds into the coffers to keep it afloat.
My favorite "Biblical" film. I think that Miss Miller would have liked it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmwgz0yxtns
Pugnatious,
Actually Oxford Middle School offers Latin to 7-9th graders and my son is enrolled in Latin I. He is "iffy" about whether he wants to take Latin II, but he may not get a choice.
But I still think a modern language option ought to be available in the early grades for those students able to handle the additional work. Of course, if you do this then everyone isn't the "same," because clearly a substantial portion of the student body has all it can handle and certainly couldn't handle the addition of more work. But the better students could.
On a downbeat note, my son's Latin teacher told me that enrollment in her classes has dropped by about half since the state or school district imposed a mandatory P.E. requirement. Now a student can take only one elective, and if he takes Latin he can't take band, orchestra, choir or gifted.
Colonel~
I got my PE after school,wading around in the sticky buckshot soils of the Prairie.
Taking Latin I & II prepared me for my overseas tour in Libya in the early 60s, touring the ruins of the Rome's "breadbasket" in North Africa. Wheat is grown along the coast of Libya and Tunisia.
Love the Italian people and their culture, but what the Caesars did in Libya was akin what Obama and Hillary did to Khaddafi and his family: "We came, we saw and he(Colonel Khadaffi) died." Hillary and Barack should be sitting in the dock at the Hague.
If you get a chance, check out Anthony Quinn in The Lion of the Desert. Quinn plays the part of the "Lion" Omar Makhtur, Khadaffi's hero.
Your son might like the movie, too.
There is a new "Lion" to be tamed in Central Africa and in Obama's crosshairs:Joseph Kony(LRA leader) of Uganda. Special Ops are already on his trail.
Mississippi 155th boots will be on the ground in the Uganda--Pearl of Africa-- come 2013.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL1qnfUD9BA&feature=related
On the 155th BCT moving into The Pearl of Africa. The Mississippi press has never addressed the news that Mississippi guardsmen are already in Africa on survey missions for the future deployment there in 2013.
We should take Rep. Ros-Lehtinen's threats of killing Joseph Kony and his followers seriously--she is on record of supporting the murder of Fidel Castro. Her committee members and advisors are also members of the AIPAC.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/302290-1
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