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Colonie de Vacances can be exciting for children. However, they tend to be different compared to ordinary summer camps. For instance, while traditional summer camp involves engaging in fun activities, French summer camps are more engaging in various French learning activities. These come in handy to help children master the language and gain the confidence they need to speak French well.
What will Children Engage in while on Colonie De Vacance?
French summer camps offer a wide range of fun and exciting competitions, tasks, projects, quizzes, and games specially designed to stimulate interest within the children and ensure each camper is well involved during their French lessons. Collaborating as a group is fun for the young campers and within no time they begin using the new French words they have been learning while on camp.
Learners will be Exposed to Advanced Language Learning Methods
Colonie de vacance allows learners to engage in different french language programs in an interactive, entertaining, challenging, and engaging manner. Often, the campers will enjoy a combination of fun and learning which eases their brains to guarantee ultimate concentration. Unlike in the classroom, campers will be exposed to new learning materials which will take them out of their comfort zones.
Usually, young campers are fascinated by new things and have a strong desire to learn more. Putting them in a new environment is essential when it comes to instilling in them new knowledge and skills. The skills they gain will not only be essential during their Colonie de vacance, but they will benefit from the same in various other settings after camp. If you’re a teacher, you understand that campers are always excited about making discoveries.
This is the same with learning a new language and the campers will stop at nothing to learn how to speak fluently in the French language. Another thing that sets French summer camps away from the traditional summer camps is the fact that the campers can choose their activities and projects of choice while on camp.
Of course, these have to be tailored towards helping them enhance their vocabulary and gain confidence in a bid to: interact with both their peers and seniors in conversations, be fluent, and acquire sufficient skills to make a presentation in front of an audience.
How are the Topics and Projects Chosen?
One of the interesting things about Colonie de vacance, as we have mentioned above, is that campers can choose projects to tackle in their discussion groups. This makes the idea of learning and mastering a new language more personalized and interesting.
Sometimes, however, the camp coordinators and supervisors come up with projects from an innovative point of view for the students. Many times, the campers will select topics touching on things they’re interested in such as the culture or history of their country.
What Topic do Campers Engage in during the Colonie de Vacance?
There are numerous topics that young campers will engage in during French summer camps and camp coordinators are keen to come up with new topics every summer to maximize camper’s experience. Each project comes with varying levels of complexity and the vocabulary is customized to fit different levels in a bid to accommodate the varying skill levels. Here are some of the topics that your children will engage in Colonie de vacance.
Personality Placards
At the beginning of camp, the young campers design personality placards describing their personality the best way they know-how. This is an ideal way of engaging with and understanding their newly found friends. This topic is also significant to the campers as they venture in new language learning.
The How to Survive Discussion
Young campers gather in groups and discuss some of the ideal equipment to facilitate survival in the desert. Each camper is tasked with coming up with a relevant topic of discussion and learning new vocabulary in the process.
Food Tasting
This activity comes in handy to help the young campers learn new words that describe the different food flavors, texture, and smell. Bright students are rewarded with tasting some of the sumptuous exotic dishes in the region served by their coordinators and supervisors. This can be quite exciting for the campers.
Holiday Pamphlet Making
Camp coordinators can divide the campers into groups and task each group with deliberating on and choosing holiday destinations they would be interested in visiting. They can then create their holiday pamphlets according to their selection.
Songs
Campers can select a popular song and collaborate in forming interesting new words to transform the lyrics and the entire song in general.
Film Project
The campers will be tasked with coming up with an original plan, write down the script, design a film placard, and eventually proceed to shoot a real short film.
How do Campers Achieve Success in their Projects?
The campers will start their day by holding discussions with their fellow campers and their tutors using the few words they have learned in their new language. Often, a French song will slowly be playing in the background. The tutors will leverage on this time when the campers are fresh and focused to introduce word games and tongue twisters.
Eventually, the campers will be classified in groups where their tutors will initiate conversations regarding the things they appreciate most from the activities of the previous day and the activities they look forward to engaging in the time they have remaining in camp. Holding these discussions in groups is an ideal way of ensuring that the campers master the language with ease and gain the confidence they need to work on future projects together as a group.
When the campers are done executing all the projects, they hand over their results via one of the products from their projects which in this case can be a holiday pamphlet, a film, or a song.
How are the Language Lessons Executed?
On their first day in camp, the camp coordinators take time to assess the campers and classify them in groups depending on their age and skill level. The skill levels are divided into four. They are the elementary or beginner level, pre-intermediate level, intermediate level, and advanced or upper intermediate level. Campers will need to take a continuous assessment test to evaluate their progress.
Often, campers will have full French lessons for three to four hours each day. To break any boredom and guarantee ultimate concentration, the campers are given a twenty-minute break in between the lessons. When the camp comes to an end, each student is awarded a certificate. Their progress reports are sent directly to their guardians.
Where do the Campers Stay?
There are various camping areas in Switzerland offering French camps. Camp organizers are careful when it comes to choosing the location to ensure it’s convenient for the campers and conducive enough to allow them to concentrate on their lessons. What’s more, the area of choice should allow campers to engage in other exciting activities.
Many of the French camping sites in French are not only spacious, but they feature en suite bedrooms for the convenience of the campers. Further, they feature play areas, lounges, and great dining facilities. Depending on their camping location, campers can engage in other exciting activities such as chocolate tasting at the nearest chocolate factory, water-related games in various water parks, sports-related activities such as tennis and archery.
Adventurous campers can also go mountain climbing or even hiking when the lessons are over for the day. Other fun activities that campers can engage in during their Colonie de vacance include beach volleyball competition, talent shows, and cuisine sampling nights. One of the fun and exciting activities that campers look forward to participating in is the farewell faun filled evenings.
Benefits of Attending Colonie De Vacance
While learning the French language is the topmost purposes of attending a French summer camp, numerous other benefits can be of help to your children now and in the future. First, however, it’s worth noting that learning a new language in a new environment, under different settings, and in the company, on many campers, many of whom are strangers stir a desire for success in the young campers. You child will master the language better while on summer camp than they would in a class setting.
This is because there are numerous fun activities to engage in and these stimulate the children’s interest in learning and mastering the new language. Other benefits of going for French summer camps include: your child will gain leadership skills, they will interact with other campers from across the world and make many friends, they will understand the world from a different perspective, and the entire experience will be eye-opening.
Finally
Learning a new language is critical for your child. Where possible, send your child for French summer camp and it will give them a good foundation for their future, especially when it comes to careers. It’s worth noting that the world is fast becoming a global village and more people are traversing the world in search of better job opportunities. Understanding more than one language, therefore, maximizes your chances of getting hired.
