Invent Now Kids proudly presents the wonder and excitement of the nationally-acclaimed, weeklong Camp Invention program. Led by local educators, this exciting summer day experience immerses children in imaginative play that reinforces and supplements school-year learning through inquiry-based activities that require creative thinking to solve real-world challenges. Working together, children learn vital 21st century life skills such as problem-solving and teamwork through hands-on learning… disguised as fun! Below is a sample of how your child might spend a typical day at the Camp Invention program*.
9:00 a.m.
After signing in at the Base Camp™ area, your child meets his or her counselor and starts making new friends as they immediately begin building, laughing, and learning cheers as a group to help awaken their inner inventors!
9:15 a.m.
Counselors escort the children in their groups to the first module. Whether children are assessing the weather conditions after crash-landing on Planet ZAK® or designing a safer landfill as they work to “green up” the polluted town of Sludge City, they find themselves immersed in a story that gets them excited to solve problems in the given daily challenges of each module.
10:20 a.m.
It’s time for hand sanitizing and an inventors’ fuel break! (a.k.a. morning snack)
10:30 a.m.
Counselors escort the children in their groups to the second module for more hands-on fun! Whether children are securing their safety goggles and using real tools to take apart a broken machine in the I Can Invent III™ module or redesigning and constructing model roller coasters in the Imagination Point: Ride Physics™ module, the excitement only builds for more afternoon discovery.
11:40 a.m.
It’s lunchtime! Where does time go when you are having such inventive fun? Half of the children gather in a common area to have lunch, while the other half may begin designing and creating their own version of lacrosse sticks in the Global Games™ module in the gymnasium or outdoors, if the weather permits.
12:10 p.m.
Now switch! Just when the Global Games™ children are tuckered out from playing fun activities such as avatar freeze tag or water balloon, it’s now their time to eat lunch. The children who ate their lunches in the earlier shift now get ready for some full-body fun – it’s their chance to play!
1:05 p.m.
Time to head to the next module of the day. Counselors may have children stop along the way to gather bottles, tubing, and boxes from the Recycle Room to construct aqueducts for the rebuild of their virtual world in the Hatched™ module or use working small motors, wires, and batteries to bring their very own robotic creature to life in the Power’d™ module.
2:10 p.m.
Children are escorted to the last module of the day. Children may be challenged to navigate the rugged terrain of the Red Planet in the M.A.R.S. (Moving at Rocket Speed) ™ module or inspired to create mathematically-patterned art in the SMArt: Science, Math and Art™ module.
3:15 p.m.
It’s back to the Base Camp™ area for more fun with friends as the day winds down to a close. They might spend these last 15 minutes brainstorming about what kind of crazy contraption they are going to assemble at home that evening for the following day’s “Crazy Hat Day” theme or thinking about ways that they can add on to their inventions when they get home.
3:30 p.m.
The end of the day arrives, and children await their parents’ arrival at the Base Camp™ area to sign them out. A daily newsletter is issued to parents that contains an overview of what children did in each module that day, along with guiding questions to help engage their children in conversation about what challenges they faced, how they overcame those challenges, and how they worked with a team to find solutions. This should be read carefully, as it also contains important information concerning the subsequent days of the program week, such as daily themes, questions of the day, what to wear/bring, etc. No matter which Camp Invention program your child attends, he or she is bound to come home enthusiastic and excited for yet another day of hands-on fun!
*This is a sample of activities from a variety of curricula; activities and scheduled times are subject to change based on the program running at each individual host location.