Camp can be the highlight of the year for kids. But they don’t have to wait until the summer to get the fun to begin.
This year many places are running themed camps to make spring break more exciting for kids. From the Miami Children’s Museum’s exploration of the 50 states, to North Miami’s tennis camps, there is a camp to match every kid’s interests.
Here are a few examples.
Museum experience
The Beaux Arts Children’s Pavilion at the Lowe Art Museum will run an arts camp for children ages 5-12.
The kids will work with different media of art, from painting and drawing to papier mache and ceramics.
“It’s a constant moving machine,” Ebbert said. “You do three different projects a day. If a kid is bored of one project they can move onto the next. There’s kind of something for every child.”
The campers will walk through the museum, examining different works and learning about how they were made so that the art is no longer “just a painting on the wall,” she said.
“A lot of kids aren’t exposed to art a lot because of funding, and this is a way for them to kind of get that back,” she said. “It’s just another piece to get them a little more well-rounded.”
Another draw of the camp is also the instructors, who are all Miami-Dade art teachers, Ebbert said.
“We have some amazing teacher. They make it come alive and the kids love it,” she said.
One new project the students have begun working on is using recycled materials for projects. One teacher visits a recycling centers and picks out interesting pieces, which she brings back for the kids to use.
“It’s a way to teach them that they can reuse and recycle, and that something that is trash can be made into something that is beautiful and art,” Ebbert said.
Beaux Arts is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1952, and is committed to promoting art throughout Miami. It has been running camps for children for over two decades, Ebbert said.
The camp will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 25 to March 29 at the Lowe Art Museum located at 1301 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables. Registration costs $220. Visit beauxartsmiami.org for more information.
Road trip across the 50 states
The Miami Children’s Museum is taking a trip across America this spring break. The camp focus on the museum’s new Weebles Coast to Coast exhibit, using it to explore the 50 states with the kids. The exhibit focuses on states, their major cities and important information about each, such as Chicago being the birthplace of pop art.
“The campers will go on little mini adventures,” sales manager Yanet Fernandez-Gonclaves said. “It’s all very interactive. So when they walk away from it they can say, ‘Oh I really liked Georgia, because that’s where they grow the peaches.’ ”
The focus of the camp is part of a push at the museum to have more culturally-focused activities, Fernandez-Gonclaves said. The museum usually focuses on general topics such as spring for their camps.
“The best part about the theme is that the kids learn about the richness of America,” she said.
The camp incorporate what the campers have learned through arts and crafts, learning American songs and cooking demonstrations.
