MAKING CAMP : There’s Still Time to Sign Up for a Whole Range of Summer Programs and Workshops

As a coastal-dwelling kid ( humanus snow coneus ), my summer aspirations were simple and unchanging: to burn the maximum layers of skin off my nose (what did we know?) and, just once, to get my dinged-up Sabot out of a dead luff and back to shore without swimming it in.

Now, kids have a few more options. Throughout the county, children can find day camps, workshops and activities suitable for any number of interests and incomes. While the following list is by no means comprehensive, it does provide a sample of what’s available in the arts and the great outdoors.

Theater Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. (714) 494-0744, Ext. 203. Budding actors age 4 through 17 can take part in a variety of summer classes presented by the Laguna Playhouse Youth Theater. Depending on the age group, classes meet two to five days per week. Classes for older children culminate with student-written performances at the Festival of Arts. The schedule: Preschool Creative Drama (ages 4 to 6), Tuesday, July 6 through 22; Creative Drama (ages 7 to 10), July 5 through 27 with performances July 28 through 30, and Summerstock Workshop (ages 11 to 17), July 5 through 30 with performances Aug. 2 through 13. Fee: $85 to $360.

South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. (714) 957-2602. A sort of Whitman’s Sampler of theater, SCR’s Summer Theatre Workshop includes behind the scenes tours and talks with professional theater artists, theater games and exercises. Classes for 8- to 11-year-olds are filled; some openings remain for 12- to 14-year-olds. Begins Aug. 2, ends Aug. 14 with a recital. Fee: $175.

Broadway On Tour, The City Shopping Center, 20 City Drive, Orange. (714) 385-1555. In its newly opened storefront theater, BOT will host four one-week sessions of its Performing Arts Summer Camp. Geared to children ages 7 to 17, the camp provides an overview of musical theater, including instruction in dance, music and technical production skills. Sessions begin July 19, 26, Aug. 2 and Aug. 9. Fee: to be announced.

Visual Arts

Newport Harbor Art Museum, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. (714) 759-1122. NHAM summer classes run the gamut from basic clay squooshing to figure drawing. Most meet twice weekly for two weeks. Classes include: Mini-Masters (ages 2 1/2 through 5, parent participation optional), with sessions beginning July 12, July 13, Aug. 9 and Aug. 10. Scratch Art (ages 6 through 8) begins July 12. Printmaking (ages 6 through 9) begins July 14. A mixed-media workshop, Travel Via Art to a Magical Land (ages 6 through 8) begins July 27, as does Dream of Being an Artist (ages 9 through 13), in which kids design their own art studios. Learn to Draw (ages 9 through 12), begins Aug. 9. Fee for each class: $40.

Off-site at Fashion Island’s Black & White exhibition space, NHAM sponsors “Instant Photography at the Island” (ages 6 through 12). Sessions July 8 and July 13. Fee: $15 per session.

Laguna Art Museum, 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach. (714) 494-8971. If you have an art-wary kid of the pre-adolescent male variety in your house, LAM dangles this carrot: Sculpture Culture, a new class inspired by their “Custom Culture” exhibit that invites kids to use traditional media and wrecking yard finds to create sculptures and assemblages of, you guessed it, hot rods. Two-week sessions begin on Aug. 3 (ages 7 to 9), and Aug. 17 (ages 10 to 12).

Also offered at LAM is the continuing architecture-based Vitruvius series (ages 6 to 12). The next session meets Saturday mornings, July 17 through Aug. 14. Fee: $65. The museum’s Art In and Out introduces students to collage and mixed-media work in LAM’s galleries and on the beach. Classes run Tuesday through Friday mornings; Session 1 (ages 7 to 9) is Tuesday, July 6 through 16; Session 2 (ages 10 to 12) is July 20 through 30. Fee for each session: $80.

Children’s Museum at La Habra, 301 S. Euclid St., La Habra. (310) 905-9793. Practical instruction and lessons in art history are intertwined in the museum’s Vacation Art Camp. Introduced last spring, the sessions are designed to excite and develop children’s interests in visual art in an era of slashed school art programs. Art campers will also have access to the hands-on museum’s latest exhibit, “Garbage--And All That Trash,” which opened June 28 (see “More Kid Stuff,” this page). The two-week sessions meet Monday through Friday. Classes for ages 6 to 9 meet in the morning; classes for ages 10 to 13 are in the afternoon. Sessions begin Monday, July 5, July 26 and Aug. 16. Fee: $120.

Anaheim Museum, 241 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim. (714) 778-3301. From Japanese fish kites to American Indian sand paintings, children ages 7 to 12 take a world tour of traditional crafts and symbols in one-day workshops at this historic downtown facility. The Multicultural Arts & Crafts program runs Friday afternoons, July 2 through Aug. 27. Fee: $3.50 per workshop.

Irvine Fine Arts Center, 14321 Yale Ave., Irvine. (714) 552-1018. Artabilities: Art for Disabled Kids is a new addition to the lineup this summer at IFAC. The multidiscipline class is open to children ages 6 to 12 and is geared to accommodate individual needs and abilities. Meets Wednesdays, through July 28. Fee: $45.

Among other IFAC offerings are Exploring Art (ages 7 to 10), through July 28, and Art Works with Nature (ages 8 to 10), through July 27. Fees vary. The Summer Arts Camp (ages 6 to 10) combines art activities with field trips and outdoor recreation. Full or part-day sessions begin Aug. 2. Fee: $65 to $235.

Long Beach Children’s Museum, 445 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach. (310) 495-1653. Kids in search of instant fame may find it at LBCM’s Exploring Fine Art series (ages 6 to 11). The Wednesday afternoon programs meets July 7 through 28, and conclude with a special display of student work in the museum’s Children’s Art Gallery.

Also for the 6-to-11 set is LBCM’s Art of Making Puppets, which uses unusual materials to teach puppetry styles from around the world. Runs Wednesdays, Aug. 4 through 25. Fee per session: $45.

Flora, Fauna, Foam

Oak Canyon Nature Center, 6700 E. Walnut Canyon Road, Anaheim. (714) 998-8380. Although its popular Indian Summer day-camp program is filled, spaces are available in Oak Canyon’s ongoing Saturday morning family workshops. The one-hour programs are geared to ages 5 and up, and may include a naturalist-led slide show and/or lecture, a nature hike and time with the center’s resident critters. Free.

Upcoming topics: Flutter of Feathers (July 3), Ripply Reptiles (July 10), Big Cats (July 17), Chaparral (July 24), and Circle Game (July 31). Parent-child workshops (ages 6 to 10) include: Pole to Pole (July 10), and Dynamic Dinosaurs (Aug. 14). Fee: $5 per child, accompanying parent is free.

Fullerton Arboretum, 1900 Associated Road, Fullerton. (714) 773-3579. Tucked between the Cal State Fullerton baseball diamond and the Orange (57) Freeway, the arboretum is an urban oasis where visitors can stroll from desert to mountain settings and other natural environments in less than an hour.

In July and August, preschoolers (ages 3 to 6) and their significant adult can take part in the arboretum’s Backyard Botany series, an introduction to gardening and plant life led by horticulturist Phylicia Bernstein. Held in the shade of a towering ash tree, sessions may include the reading of a garden-themed children’s book, hands-on activities, a nature walk, songs and take-home crafts. Programs run one to 1 1/2 hours.

Fee: $7.50 per child; adults are free. Reservations required.

On July 20, 21 and 22, the session focuses on Isabel Wilner’s book “The Garden Alphabet.” On Aug. 17, 18 and 19, it’s “Growing Vegetable Soup” by Lois Ehlert.

Orange County Marine Institute, 24200 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point. (714) 496-2274. A popular stop for school groups, the institute is expanding its public programs this summer to include a broader range of ages and interests. Programs, which include everything from 50-minute living history presentations to day camps, are held on the tall ship Pilgrim (a full-scale replica of the vessel featured in Richard Henry Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast”), in the institute’s teaching lab or on board their Sum Fun research vessel.

Choices include a trio of sea-life and nautical history programs each weekend afternoon, a Floating Lab Dusk Cruise, old-fashioned chantey sings and a parent-and-me program for preschoolers. Camp sessions begin Monday, July 5, and continue through Aug. 27. They include the Junior Sea Camp (ages 5 to 7), the Sea Adventure Camp (ages 8 to 10) and Traveling Sea Adventure Camp (ages 10 to 13), which features a Sea World trip, lab activities on shore and at sea and liberal amounts of boogie boarding and snorkeling.

Multi-Interest

Discovery Museum of Orange County, 3101 W. Harvard St., Santa Ana. (714) 540-0404. Although this children’s history museum recently opened a sister facility, the Launch Pad science center in Crystal Court, here the focus is on less technological times. Most summer classes, which are held in and around the museum’s Victorian-era Kellogg House, encourage kids to use simple materials to create pre-Nintendo fun.

Sessions meet twice weekly and are recommended for ages 6 to 12. Here’s the lineup: Kids in the Kitchen (July 6 and 8 and Aug. 10 and 12); Arts and Handicrafts (July 13 and 15); Cultural Arts and Languages of Other Lands (July 20 and 22 and Aug. 17 and 19); Wind, Water and Recycling (July 27 and 29), and Puppets, Grease Paint and Clowning (Aug. 3 and 5, Aug. 24 an 26). Fee: $40.

Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona, Fullerton. (714) 738-6545. Dinosaurs, mummies and “movin’ pitchers” are among the topics covered in FMC’s Super Tuesday workshops for ages 8 to 12. Programs run from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and generally include hands-on projects, gallery tours and films. Upcoming sessions: Animation (July 6); On Stage! (July 13); Mummies’ Day (July 27); Magic Carpets (Aug. 3), and Dinosaur Day! (Aug. 10). Fee: $3 per session.

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In addition, day-camp programs and kids’ classes can be found at just about every community college or university.

The UCI Extension Summer Youth Programs, for example, has a wide-ranging curriculum for first-graders through high school students ((714) 856-5414); in Mission Viejo, Saddleback College’s day camps flaunt intriguing titles such as “Battle of the Brains” and “The Jetsons Go to Camp,” as well as musical theater and academic enrichment programs ((714) 582-4646).