July 21, 2004
NMC offers cool summer school
College for Kids courses range from frogs to computer programming
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Summertime at College for Kids means delving into topics ranging from frogs to Japan, cartoons to computer programming.
These are just some of the classes offered this week during Northwestern Michigan College's annual summer round up of enrichment courses.
Dylan Laase, 9, of Muskegon, is one of the estimated 1,250 children ages 4-18 who will participate in the program this summer. Laase completed a carpentry class three weeks ago, building himself a stool and a toolbox. This week, he was exploring a range of math concepts during Math Camp every morning while discovering the culture and language of Japan in the afternoon.
Spending hot, sunny days indoors at the M-Tech building is fine with him because the experience does not remind him of school.
"This is different than school because we get to do more hands-on things and I like that," Laase said.
With her two children eagerly culling through the catalog of classes this spring, Mary Connors of Traverse City allowed them each to pick one class per month.
"My kids were excited, they were asking if they could take this or that," said Connors, who has a ten year old son and an eight year old daughter. "I think it is good for them to have some structure in the summer."
Learning while having fun and pursuing an interest keep the program popular, with College for Kids enrollment each year surpassing the previous year's figures.
Carol Evans, Extended Education Services director, said that her staff and the instructors strive to grab student's attention and make the schedule parent-friendly. Every year approximately 25 percent of the classes are new, some created by instructors and others by college staff who then find an appropriate instructor.
"We're successful because over time we've really tried to develop a program at every age level so kids can grow in it," she said. "There really is something for every age level and the goal is to have a very balanced program in what I would call an integrative curriculum."
This week's Froggin' Around class, geared to ages 4-6, illustrates such integration. Instructor Linda Lyle has frog books, frog games, frog facts, frog movements and frog stories at her fingertips this week to keep the 18 students interested and learning.
"We slide all that in, the science of what they start out like and their lifecycle," Lyle said. "We have all frog books during story time."
The number of classes offered to this younger age group has grown over the past few years, Evans noted, as well as classes for teens. These two groups each have special interests and needs and the courses are designed to meet them.
Teens, for example, often work and enticing them requires a high-interest topic such as computers or technology. Previous summer's offerings of extreme sports classes did not garner the enrollment that these topics have.
"What we've done is that we focus on more technology, the Java series and computer game programming have done well, even cartoon animation has been very successful," Evans said. "That's where the bulk of our interest has been, in what I would call high-end technical art: perspective drawing, AutoCAD. Kids are quite comfortable on a computer so when they think of playing now they think of computers."
As for the instructors, spending a few hours a day in the classroom during the summer is fun, especially because the students are motivated.
"You have a great group of kids who want to be here," said Lorraine Eklund of Central Lake, who has taught for three years in the program. "What's really nice is the small, more like homeschool atmosphere where you can give individual attention."
A variety of College for Kids classes for all ages will continue through the week of August 16; for more information, call the college at 995-1700.