Summer in Bangalore

The summer has finally arrived and we can take out and wear some of our summer clothes. Ananya has her summer vacations and we are having the summer-dilemmas. What should she do during her vacation? Is this time for unstructured-play (AKA loitering around the house) or is it time for structured-play (AKA summer camps). I opted for the summer camps and the over-abundance of summer camps around our residence did not make it easy for me to chose where she should go ? Should she learn painting (when she cannot even write alphabets ) or should she try clay modeling (and clothes colouring). Maybe Bollywood dancing is going to be her forte (ruled out by my husband as her current repertoire of bollywood knowledge always makes him uneasy).

Some of the summer camps were too far away and I would end up driving her up and down, and some of them were too long (full day-care substitutes). We wanted her to be busy for 2-3 hours in the morning and then have her day to enjoy too. Finally the summer camp held at Krystal Tiara, just opposite our apartments did it for us. The clinching factor was the swimming classes they had for 4yr+ kids. Ananya loves the water and this would be a good activity with the summer heat on. After hearing about the swimming summer camp, she ruled out any summer camp which did not offer swimming. And so there we were.. summer camp decided.

The first day is generally the deciding day, whether or not she is going to have fun. As I left her in the club house, she looked teary eyed. She said she didn't know anyone and what if no one talked to her. I assured her that it would not happen and she can always go and talk to some of the kids herself. Maybe everyone is waiting for the other kids to approach them. I realized that if I hung around, she would only keep coming back to me, so I said bye to her and came out. But I didn't go away. I wanted to see how her first day was going to be (especially in the swimming pool.. the hygiene and the safety).

As soon as I was out of sight, she became okay. Later all the kids wore their swimming costumes and approached the water. I stood out of sight and watched them kids warm up with some exercises. And then one by one the coaches took the children into the swimming pool, made them dunk their head in the water once and then made them sit on the side. Only 3-4 kids were in the pool at one time and the others stayed on the side, splashing their legs. I felt more confident about the swimming part and by the end of the hour, she was happily playing oblivious to me watching her. Finally I picked her up at the end of the class and she was happily tripping along recounting the days activities to me.

Two days later, she declared 'I like summer camp too much' and I was happy for her.

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