New summer camp offers kids opportunity to practise French

Charlottetown's francophone community centre is beginning a new camp to enable kids to continue practising their French during the summer months. 

The camp is being offered for one week in August, but Manu Nicaise, community development officer at Carrefour de l'Isle-Saint-Jean, said they hope to expand it in the coming years.

Nicaise said they did a survey in May and parents indicated they wanted summer activities for their kids.

"It's something they really needed because most of the time during the summertime they want to have their kids participating in activities but most of them are in English," Nicaise said.

"So to continue the immersion that they have in school they wanted something also to do in summer."

Rules to minimize contact

The activities will include gardening, cooking, walking in the woods, drawing, painting, dancing and ball sports with new rules to minimize physical contact.

"That was basically the challenge — to come up with some activities that the kids would enjoy, have fun with, but also that are safe," Nicaise said.

There will be two groups — one for kids six to nine, the other for ages 10-14 — with only 13 children per age group.

Registration for the younger age group is already full, with a few spots left in the older age group. 

If you want to master language, you have to practise it.— Manu Nicaise

Nicaise said the summer months can make maintaining the language hard for French students, especially if they speak English in the home. 

And with school out since March, it was more important than ever to offer a French option for families this summer. 

"When they come back in September for school it's not something that is far away. It's still fresh in their heads. And if you want to master language, you have to practise it."

The registration fee is $80 per child. Some of the costs will also be covered by the annual funding the centre receives from the federal and provincial governments.

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