Heritage Camp

Children ages 7-12 participate in one-week sessions of the Tubman Heritage Summer Camps that features arts and crafts activities, character building, physical fitness, math & literacy exercises, African American history and creative writing. The children also enjoy a tour of historic Macon sites including famous African American neighborhoods, churches and cemeteries.

Who Benefits:
– Any child: between the ages of 7-12 will have something constructive to do during their summer
– Working parents: who want their child engaged in a learning environment during the summer
– The community: Children who are engaged in the summer have the opportunity to interact with others who may be different from themselves and they are more likely to be successful in school.

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Sample Schedule of Activities include:

Monday – Introduction games and camp rules; guided tour of the museum; campers will create a mission statement for their camp week, self/esteem/character building and team-building exercises

Tuesday – Morning physical fitness; art projects; character building games and literary exercises

Wednesday – Trip to Dauset Trails Nature Center in Jackson, Georgia (mammals, bird of prey, reptiles, barn animals, hiking and picnic); science and math activities in the afternoon

Thursday – Yoga, trip to Ocmulgee National Monument, First Baptist Church and Linwood cemetery (all points of interests, the latter two for local African American history); drawing/painting to express the day’s experience

Friday – Morning physical fitness at Central City Park; math and science activities; preparation for end of week presentation to parents

Impact on the community
Strengths:
Participating in camp helps combat summer learning loss. ~ From the National Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University

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Facts:

Two-thirds of the achievement gap between lower and higher income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities. As a result, low-income youth are less likely to graduate from high school or enter college (Alexander et al, 2007.)

Most students lose about two months of grade-level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months. Low-income students also lose more than two months reading achievement, while their middle-class peers make slight gains (cooper, 1996.) When this pattern continues throughout the elementary school years, lower income youth fall more than two and one-half years behind their more affluent peers by the end of fifth grade.

Most children – particularly children at high risk of obesity – gain weight more rapidly when they are out of school during summer break (Von Hippel et al, 2007)

Parents consistently cite summer as the most difficult time to ensure that their children have productive things to do (Duffet et all. 2004.)

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