Dubai: Would you pay Dh110 per class or up to Dh1,350 per week for a back-to-school boot camp?
Some parents are doing just that to revise reading, writing and maths skills of their children at a summer boot camp.
Wisdom Warehouse, a learning centre run by a US-based academician, Jamie Mussachio, and South African educator Lennah Clio Te Nobrega have been running a boot camp in Al Quoz.
The camp, which began on July 31 and ends on September 1, helps children from Grade 1 to 5 revise their previous year’s maths and literacy skills and prepare for the new academic year. Much like the boot camps held to get back into shape, this one assures parents of getting the brain muscle up and running!
“We were brainstorming about how there were no learning platforms for children during summer and we came up with the idea of a boot camp as we perceived a gap in the market. Children in these groups need to refresh their numerical and literacy skills and be prepared for the new academic year,” Nobrega told Gulf News.
The institute has classes for younger children from 10am to 1pm every day, while older children stay back till 4pm. The camp has 15 students overall from the ages of 6 to 12. The parents are given a choice to either take the entire four weeks or three, two or one week and also choose the number of classes.
“We have three hours of reading, writing and numbers classes which are hands-on. Children learn one skill and then they play game which uses that skill so there is fun learning. We also focus on critical thinking.”
Does your child need a boot camp?
“Absolutely,” says Dana Slusarenko, a US expatriate who has lived in Dubai for eight years. “My boys — Max, 8, and Cole, who turns six next week, are a handful who need a lot of variety in life. We took our annual holiday and went to Disneyland and then they went to a sports camp. My boys had worked incredibly hard last year and they changed school this year. I really do not want them to lose momentum in their learning and this boot camp for two weeks seems just the right thing to ease them back into the routine. Initially my children protested saying they did not want to go back to school right then. However, after a day here and meeting other children they loved it so much that they wanted to be here.”
Watch: Do we need back-to-school boot camps? Gulf News Senior Reporter Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary discusses.
Another parent who did not want to be named said: “The weather here does not permit children to play outdoors or hang out with friends. All they do is get bored or get hooked on electronic games. Dividing time between sports, studies and an overseas trip seems the best way to manage these long summer vacations for working parents.”
Amnah Hussain, a Dubai-based psychologist specialising in parenting skills, told Gulf News: “The long summer holidays were given for a reason so that children get time to ‘decompress’ and have time to break from a structured routine, indulge in imaginative play, learn through nature and interpersonal skills meeting grandparents, cousins and extended families and experiencing the outdoors. So, it is expected that the child will forget a bit of what he has learnt and he will need time getting back. That is built into the school system. While I can understand children in higher classes requiring summer coaching as they get into competitive brackets, for younger children it is important as they also feel bored. It is only when they feel bored that they will use their imagination for role playing.”
However, she says, for working expatriates who have limited leave and no extended family, sending children to sports, education and other boot camps perhaps is a manner in which to survive parenting during the long vacation time. “Parents have more performance anxiety than kids and they worry when their child seems to have slid back in his academic skills. It is a cultural thing and perhaps these boot camps will help allay their anxiety.”
