With the school holidays shortly upon us, it’s time for those of you with kids to start thinking about how best to keep them occupied throughout July and August.
For those of you not working, Summer camps may seem like an expensive indulgence, so cost will play a significant part in the choices you make. Working parents, on the other hand, will view camps as an essential part of “getting through” the Summer and many of you will be keen to vary the types of activities that your kids are involved in throughout the school break.
Fortunately, the number of organizations offering activities for kids in Geneva, Vaud, and neighboring France appears to be on the increase. All kinds of tempting courses are now available, targeting different interests and budgets. Kids have no excuse to be bored this Summer with courses dedicated to soccer, cooking, sewing, music, art, languages, and drama, not to mention the vast range of multi-sports and multi-activity camps also on offer.
Sport
Top of the list for many young kids this Summer will be Gordon Nunn’s and Steve Long’s InterSoccer camps. This year, they are running a series of Mini, Junior, Academy, Girls-Only and Goalkeepers soccer camps, to suit all ages and abilities. Camps are being run at various locations throughout Switzerland including Geneva, Founex, Versoix and Vevey. For those who don’t want to commit to a week long camp, InterSoccer also offers Fab Friday, which is a multi-sports day running on most Fridays throughout the holidays for children aged 5 to 13 years old. A number of tennis schools will be offering camps over the Summer holidays – just pop down to your local courts to see what’s going on in your area. Joto Tennis is one of the more popular schools in the expat community.
Basketball camps are another favorite with kids of all ages. The International All American Basketball camp in Geneva includes the option to stay overnight, with lots of great activities to amuse kids beyond basketball, including barbecues, bowling, and camp discos!
Although the Playball programme normally focuses on younger children aged between 2 and 7, the organization is offering a series of camps throughout the Summer including older kids up to the age of 13. All camps are age specific and the curriculums follow a progressive pathway from the basic building blocks of jumping, throwing, rolling, hitting, catching, kicking to learning a variety of sports skills, to having fun with mini games of tennis, hockey, cricket, football, basketball, baseball, volleyball and much more.
Cooking
Safrane Cusine’s special cooking classes for teenagers are a great idea for those of you with kids heading off to University after the holidays. This course, run by Fiza Khan, provides some useful tips for surviving away from home. For younger kids, Fiza is also running classes where the emphasis is on having fun, but children will also learn essential rules for safety in the kitchen. Please note that Fiza is offering a special 7% discount on the price of her courses for this Summer, exclusive to knowitall.ch customers, when you present a copy of this article to her.
Multi-activity
Many multi-activity camps include cooking within their Summer program. Edukids and Bricolos are just two centers where you can choose from a long list of interesting themes, designed to challenge your child’s imagination! The International School of Geneva is also running a number of different camps at its La Chataigneraie and LGB campuses, covering sport, nature, drama and music. Contact The Little Gym to find out more about their “Coastal Cowabunga” and “Ice Cave Pirate Adventure” activities!
Music
Summer camps provide a great opportunity for young kids to have fun through music, whilst older kids can use the time to learn a new instrument. Mubabil and Gymboree are popular choices for the young ones, whereas Julie Wagner’s 2-week Summer Music Program and Sue Lake’s weekly courses at Notebynote are increasingly popular with older children. Kindermusik is another possibility and there are several places around the area that propose once-a-week courses.
Arts and crafts
If your child likes arts and crafts, there are numerous opportunities in the region for your kids to get creative with their hands. Lisa Cirieco-Ohlman’s Creative Camp in August includes a vernissage on the last day where parents get to see all the unusual activities that have been made during the week – last year’s creations included travel desks, secret sand jars, painted doormats, and bottle boats, not to mention some delicious culinary delights! Places are limited, and are targeted at children aged between 8 and 14 years old, so you really need to book now to ensure a place on this one!
Older kids, on the other hand, may like to try their creative hand on the Allminds Summer Art Camp. This camp will introduce young teenagers to a variety of key techniques and will include individual and joint projects designed to encourage the kids to have fun together. On the last afternoon there will be a BBQ and exhibition for family and friends.
Theater
If acting is more your child's thing, then why not try Bright Lights’ Creative Drama classes, designed to develop children's creativity, self esteem, sociability and communication through a variety of fun theatre activities. These include mime, physical theatre, drama games, narrative pantomime and improvisation. For further information, email Mags Sheldon at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Sewing
Those of you keen to develop new skills for your children might like to sign them up for Nicola Ogilvie’s sewing workshops for kids. Running on various dates throughout the Summer holidays, children can learn several new skills, making items such as soft toys, clothing and accessories, depending on their age and ability. Nicola also runs sewing classes for adults if you are interested. For more information, just drop her a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Languages
Summer is also a great time to brush up on your language skills and there are a number of classes on offer this year. Active Languages is targeting older children with a range of different ability courses for adolescents, while Key English School and Bell Switzerland are targeting younger children, where the focus is very much on having fun. Some camps, such as the Champittet Summer Camp, combine language lessons in the morning, with fun activities in the afternoon, whereas others such as Edukids, offer an intensive English course during one week of their Summer workshop series.
Don’t forget that many of the communes in this region also run special programs for kids throughout the Summer. Since these are often subsidized, the prices can be very competitive. With the added bonus of being run in French, your child may also pick up some useful language skills whilst he or she is having fun! It’s important to note that many of these programs favor local residents first, by offering discounted prices and an early sign-up option – so if you find one that interests you outside your commune you should take a note of the sign-up dates for those living outside the commune to increase your chances of getting a place. Information on these programs can usually be found on the website for each commune or by popping into the town hall. The Service des Loisirs de la Jeunesse in the Canton of Geneva have an extensive program of activities for youngsters. Click here to download the full program.
The above represents just a small selection of the courses that are on offer in this region for your kids. Click here, to see the full list of activities we have posted on our ACTIVITIES CALENDAR. To fine-tune your research, remember to select the type of activity you’re looking for at the bottom of the calendar. Please note that this list is not complete – it represents just a handful of the camps that have been recommended to us throughout the last couple of months. Further information is available on our fast-growing database of clubs and associations, and a whole chapter has also been dedicated to Holiday Camps and Workshops, in our sister guidebook, Know-it-all passport® 2011/2012, starting on page 323. If there are any other camps that you think we should include on the site, please let us know by submitting our special Activities Form.
Useful Links:
Activities Calendar
Clubs and Associations Database
Know-it-all passport® 2011/2012
