Summer Day Camp

 

SUMMER DAY PROGRAM

 

Summer Day Camp = OUR CAMP!!!

 

Dear Prospective Chess Camp Attendee, or Parent of said Attendee,

 

As a former kid I fully understand what a child might feel if he heard the following words coming from you the parent 2 days after the school year ended, “-insert name- your going to chess camp!”  Now barring the 5% (perhaps too optimistic?) or so of kids that actually get excited when they hear these words, try to imagine the image your kid gets when he realizes chess camp will be his “second home” for the summer(prepare for reading aid now): boring, Boring, and BORING! 

 

Is this a fair assessment to make of the whole game?

 

Perhaps it is if your extremely unreasonable, but for instance is it also impossible to imagine say a “boring” Basketball camp?  Ultimately that depends on your kid, and your imagination, but I would say the organizers of any camp, if they try hard enough, can make ANYTHING boring, and what is probably even worse simply just NOT FUN!  Can you imagine your kid staring at his shoes for 6 hours and trying not to fall asleep so as not to draw attention to him/or herself, irregardless of whatever camp you send him/her to?

 

That is precisely what we at the International Chess Academy try to avoid.  Boredom is a horrible thing to put any person, much less your child through.  How many summers of freedom does a person have to begin with anyway?  And why should he or she spend them wishing they were doing anything but whatever it is that makes them wish they were doing something else?

However at the same time, putting your kid in front of a Playstation or an X Box video game system, may cure boredom, but  ask yourself what true benefit that video game system has for your kid’s future?  Unless he or she plans to design video games, and is using the system to study different game function (yea right-insert sarcastic smilie face here), I say beating the latest version of Mario on Gamecube is pretty useless.  Now I’m not looking down on playing video games, because as a former kid, I remember how much enjoyment I got out of it in the first place, but if your kid is exercising his thumbs 6 hours straight, then I gotta say I think it’s a waste of valuable time.  

 

So if you’ve read this far, and are a bit confused as to what I am getting at, hold on to your keyboard cause here it is.  Our summer camp staff at the ICA tries to not only add something valuable to your child’s general field of knowledge, but also cures BOREDOM!

 

Honestly that is a pretty bold statement.  Not in the sense that it is unique, because any and every camp you look into for your child will claim that (and the good ones usually do), but we actually try to do it.   Logically your next question has got to be, HOW?

First of all we understand the importance of an all around exercise for the body, as well as the mind.  It is quite logical to assume that in a chess camp, kids sit for 6 hours straight learning chess, which is not quite a logical assumption, although that is not out of the realm of possibility for expert chess players (see our advanced camp for instance). For a normal kid however, that is the equivalent of being punished in a cruel, merciless way.  So what we did, in order to solve this problem, is organize an effective physical activities program, in between the chess part of the camp.  The person mostly responsible for this would probably be Sergei Grabuzov (read about Sergei here: http://icanj.net/post.php?id=70).

 

The program here revolves around something that pretty much all kids, as well as a lot of adults are addicted too.  In a word that something is, COMPETITION!  Surely as a kid, or perhaps as an adult, you the reader know what I am talking about. For instance, who can burp the loudest, or who can eat the most potato chips, or who can whistle the longest, etc.

Now although the above are pretty darn “fun” ways to compete, doing push ups, running the fastest, and jumping farthest, don’t fall far behind.  Furthermore it is good exercise, and has a lot more benefit then say beating Super Mario brothers in 10 minutes.  The idea also transfers to the learning part of our camp.  So the kids compete to see who can solve the most chess problems, and who solves them faster, and who answers the most questions and so on. Now what if your kid is lazy you ask? 

Don’t worry most people are, in fact I have been known to dabble in laziness myself, but what kind of a camp would we be if a little thing like laziness stopped us?  In order to combat the evil forces of laziness we buy a bunch of prizes and hand them out at the end of the week, to the kids who do the most push ups, solve the most chess problems (correctly ofcourse), and all that other good stuff.  Now we can’t give them gold rings, and digital cameras, but stuff like water guns, or slinkies, are still kind of interesting to most kids.  Also we like to throw in educational prizes once in a while, like books (don’t tell the kids that though), or chess notation notebooks, and so on.  Best part is usually your child, provided they win, gets to pick what they want. 

If after all that your kid is still not willing to give up his lazy ways, then I can personally give him/ or her a chat to chat, but truthfully that only works 50% of the time.  Anyways in all our time working here, very few kids get to the speech stage of the “un-lazy” rehabilitation program.

 

 

 

Now some people may still require further convincing.  However I anticipated that.  So take a look at our chess camp gallery  (here: http://icanj.net/gallery.php?id=45) and schedule your kid for a week or five of chess camp. 

 

 

Regards,

Slava:

 

Our rates are very reasonable: only $300 a week. We also offer discounts for siblings and discounts for extended enrollment. Every week’s ending is marked with award ceremony: prizes are given for outstanding achievements and efforts. In addition we provide T-shirts and snacks. For more information contact us through the internet or call the phone number above and leave a message. We will get back to you promptly.

Hurry, our space is limited!

 

 

SUMMER PROGRAM

Schedule:	Cost and discounts*:
9:00 – 11:00  Chess lessons         11:00 – 12:30  Recreation      12:30 – 1:00 Lunch      1:00  – 3:00 Games	$300 – one week**   $550 – two weeks $800 – three weeks $1000 – four weeks***

 

6/27–7/1; 7/5–7/8; 7/11–7/15; 7/18–7/22; 7/25–7/29; 8/1–8/5; 8/8-8/12; 8/15-8/19; 8/22-8/26              

We promise 5:1 student - teacher/instructor ratio, prizes and trophies for tournaments and competitions, camp T-shirts and FUN! To register please fill out the form below and submit with $50 registration fee (please keep the top portion of this form with you.) If you register before May 1, 2005, the $50 fee will be applied toward your tuition. After 5/1 the $50 fee will be charged in addition to tuition.

 

 

Mail the registration form to Diana Tulman, 28 Canterbury Lane, New Milford, NJ 07646

 

*     only one type of discount will be applied per  each  account

**   ask about our one week family package

***  If your child is registered for more than four weeks ask us about an additional discount