What to Do With the Children? How About Camp, or . . .
School is out, which means many parents are looking for ways to keep children busy during the summer months.
There still is time to register for day camps throughout the San Gabriel Valley. Most of the summer programs begin on Monday and end Aug. 31.
All of the YMCA branches in the region will offer day-camp programs, said Jack Tillman, executive director of the Pasadena branch.
The Pasadena YMCA will also sponsor summer basketball and a camp for teen-agers throughout July. The West San Gabriel Valley YMCA in Alhambra will feature field trips every Wednesday. The facility also has a heated pool, movies, arts and crafts.
“We want to turn summer into something fun, instead of just providing day care,” said Judy Larman, program director for the YMCA in West Covina. “We give swimming lessons for all ages, from 2 months to adult.”
The Covina YMCA still has three two-week day-camp sessions open. The daily activities will include arts, crafts, swimming, and trips to museums, beaches and Universal Studios.
For youths on the wild side, the Eaton Canyon Nature Center, a wilderness park in Pasadena, will offer two one-week sessions of day camp starting in August. Children ages 9 to 11 will attend six-hour days of indoor and outdoor crafts involving nature walks, animal tracking, and creating magnifying boxes. The cost is $60 per week.
The La Canada Youth House Community Center in La Canada Flintridge offers day-camp programs at the La Canada Elementary and Palm Crest Elementary schools. With the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the center will provide science classes for children ages 4 1/2 to 8.
“Creepy Crawly Critters,” and “Jumping Jitter Bugs” are two of the many weekly classes, said Barbara Corsino of the center. These classes begin July 2.
Although some classes for 6-, 7- and 8-year-olds already are filled, there are still openings in geology, math and archeology classes.
On La Canada’s weekly activity list, there are classes for all ages in cooking, acting and karate. For children and adults, tennis classes will be daily. Registration began last month, and will continue until classes are full.
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