JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Chil­dren as young as three years old are learn­ing cre­ative and de­vel­op­men­tal skills, in­clud­ing tie-dy­ing, ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence (AI) and prob­lem-solv­ing, as part of Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land’s sum­mer camp aimed at help­ing young par­tic­i­pants de­vel­op skills be­yond the class­room.

A to­tal of 25 chil­dren gath­ered at Scot­land’s Pic­cadil­ly Street con­stituen­cy of­fice yes­ter­day for the start of the camp, which he said was over­sub­scribed.

Scot­land said the pro­gramme was de­signed to ex­pose chil­dren to ac­tiv­i­ties that would stim­u­late their cre­ativ­i­ty and en­cour­age them to be­come con­tribut­ing mem­bers of so­ci­ety.

“I want to stim­u­late their brain, stim­u­late their cre­ativ­i­ty. We have a slew of ac­tiv­i­ties; we start­ed with tie-dye, we are do­ing AI, we are do­ing tech­nol­o­gy, we are go­ing to do face paint­ing, we’re go­ing to do art, we’re go­ing to do writ­ing, they’re go­ing to do choral speak­ing. I’m go­ing to as­sist in the de­vel­op­ment of these young peo­ple so they can be mean­ing­ful con­trib­u­tors to our so­ci­ety.”

He said more than 200 chil­dren ap­plied to par­tic­i­pate in the camp, and the pro­gramme may have to be ex­tend­ed in­to next week to ac­com­mo­date the num­ber of in­ter­est­ed ap­pli­cants.

“Thurs­day we may do the choral speak­ing. To­day they start with the tie-dye; they start with their hands to­day. Then to­mor­row they work with their brains, you know, we do a lit­tle AI, we do a lit­tle trea­sure hunt, we do prob­lem-solv­ing, a lit­tle math. But the main thing is they must have fun. That is what I want them to have, fun.”

Scot­land said he de­cid­ed to host a sum­mer camp in­stead of his usu­al back-to-school dri­ve be­cause he recog­nised a need for chil­dren to have con­struc­tive ac­tiv­i­ties dur­ing the hol­i­day pe­ri­od.

He added that the camp al­so pro­vides par­ents with some re­lief while their chil­dren re­main in a safe en­vi­ron­ment.