La Mesa’s summer camps return with traditional to obscure themes
The city of La Mesa is again putting on summer day camps for local children with a higher volume of registrations already than past years Last year s camps had attendees While multiple will enjoy the typical summer camp experience with sports games crafts and field trips the city also offers dozens of themed camps from jump rope and dodgeball to LEGO engineering and a cooking competition The summer camps have grown year over year with this year debuting more specialized camps than ever before The new themes were picked based on surveys and past interest Specific of them are put on by parks and recreation staff while others are through contractors such as Sticky Fingers for cooking camps ClicBitz for sewing camps and SD SkateLife for skateboarding camps City staff announced that unlike a traditional extracurricular class where a child might spend an hour on a new skill once a week then need to review it a week later these day camps are immersive allowing students to learn deeply over a short period of time Our summer programs provide a unique and functional way for children to learn new skills they can later translate into their regular school work and lives city staff stated in a comment Our camps also encourage children to explore hobbies like art sports fitness and more which can spark lifelong passions In addition to staying current outside the school year building skills or finding a lifelong hobby the camps are ideal for socialization With the isolation of COVID- revealing how key social interactions are to child expansion in-person interaction can rebuild rusty social skills lost to screens Lasting friendships can be formed as students from across schools and ages spend time on shared programs The pandemic underscored the importance of youth initiatives not just for continued learning during school breaks but also for maintaining social connections Our programs give La Mesa s youth the opportunity to learn connect and grow into confident well-rounded individuals the city reported For city staff one of the highlights is starting each week greeting new children and directing them to the location of the camp Seeing kids excited and ready to start sometimes even dressed in themed outfits serves a reminder of why we do this work they declared Registration opened on April with more enrollments already than this time last year A catalog of summer offerings and instructions how to register can be discovered here Weekly costs start as low as scholarships are available for qualifying families thanks to a donation from the Ripples Ever Fund Anyone can also choose a payment plan With questions call - or email recreation cityoflamesa us Online registration is typically allowed through the second class date If a class is full there will be a wait list
