10 Best Summer Activities for Kids in Hong Kong
For kids, summer is the best time to enjoy playing and exploring around. While for parents, it’s the most challenging time to fill their kids’ time with different activities, from developing hobbies to making kids productive around the holiday! Follow our comprehensive guide below and discover the 10 summer activities for kids in Hong Kong!
Outdoor Activities/Sports
1. Swimming Class
Going underwater and rock out the swimming pool is a great idea for summer, to keep your kids active and fit! To avoid your kids from staying indoor and conserving their energy, swimming is a great activity for kids to relax and build up self-esteem. Develop a healthy lifestyle for your kid via a swimming course, and build up your kids’ body strengths, flexibility and muscles this summer.
YMCA and Stanford Swim are both swimming schools that provide a wide range of swimming classes and have great years of experience in teaching kids all over Hong Kong.
2. Basketball
Considering a team sport for your kids? Basketball is one of the greatest team sports for kids to meet new friends and learn about sportsmanship. Kids can experience being a team player and taste the joy of competing. It is also important for kids to learn to embrace winning with humility and losing with grace at an early age, as to develop growth and a positive mindset at an early age. Leadership skills, social skills, and good discipline could also be learned from playing basketball.
Hong Kong Basketball Academy and South China Athletic Association are both popular organisations that offer basketball courses.
3. Bouldering/ Rock Climbing Classes
Wish to discover more unique fun sports for your kid? Bouldering and Rock climbing are some less usual and vibrant sports that can develop kids with general fitness and great balance. If your child is a spirited gymnast, they’re in for a treat at this massive trampoline park for good workout. Lifelong values like resilience, goal-reaching, and confidence can also be developed via bouldering.
***Verm City***at Hong Kong Island and Go Nature Climbing Gym at Kowloon are two of the lovely bouldering gyms located at prime locations in Hong Kong which you can reach conveniently!
S.T.E.M
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning has become vitally important for kids’ future, as STEM careers now make up a huge part of today’s economy. Being technologically fluent seems an essential trait for smart kids, as it also means that the kid is strong at critical thinking, problem-solving, and most importantly, creative! But what are some fun and less geeky courses which your kids might like?
Further Reading: “STEM for Kids“
Further Reading: “A.I. for Kids“
4. ScratchJR and Scratch
Cartoons and mini-games are always the best ways to get young kids to start learning! With simple drag and drop “symbol-only” blocks, ScratchJR (for kids aged 3-5) and Scratch (for kids aged 6-8) developed by MIT are the best engaging tools to get young kids to start their coding projects, and create their animations and games!
Learning Scratch JR/ Scratch, kids’ creativity, storytelling, logical thinking, and problem-solving skills can be facilitated while building their tech portfolio! More international and local schools are now also introducing ScratchJR/ Scratch in their school syllabus to improve the tech sense of students.
With Scratch JR, young children can modify their cartoon characters in the paint editor, add their voices and sounds, even insert photos of themselves! When kids are slightly older, they can use Scratch, to program their own stories, games, and animations with more functions and even human-computer interactions.
With the award-winning curriculum designed by certified MIT Trainers & backed by EdTechX, Preface Coding is reputable in teaching kids coders with fun games and animations, students even have the chance to participate in coding projects with big, international brands such as Warner Music and Asia Miles.
5. App Inventor
Making an app seems cool and complex for you? With App Inventor and the right instructors, kids can create their mobile apps and games easily, and they can even launch their apps at the App Store! App Inventor is a visual, block language for building Android Apps, designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It’s an excellent tool to learn software development, app design, and programming concepts. Some secondary, junior high, high schools, and even universities in Hong Kong have also started exposing students to App Inventor and App Development.
Learning App Inventor, students can gain their satisfaction and self-confidence from programming, storytelling, and presentation skills can also be improved as they will need to explain their app creations to others from peers to other potential users. Key tech skills such as UX/UI design, Prototyping, Human-Computer-Interaction, Agile development, can also be learned in a fun and practical way.
Preface Coding, as a key education partner of MIT, is experienced in providing App Inventor courses for students. In the past, Preface’s students have also had the chance to showcase their creative projects at MIT Global Coding Summit.
Further Reading: “Coding Class for Kids“
Further Reading: “Python for Kids“
Further Reading: “Programming for Kids“
Art
6. Drama and Performing Arts Courses
Learning around drama and performing art isn’t only something fun, but acting can actually help one to overcome their inhibitions and build a strong sense of confidence performing in front of an audience. Social skills and lifelong friendships can also be gained through performing and acting on stage!
***Colour My World***and Centre Stage Studios are two of the schools which provide holiday drama courses and even performance opportunities to students to showcase their learnings.
7.Drawing Classes
As we all know, drawing is a great activity for kids at all ages, which helps children express themselves emotionally and creatively, expressing their feelings and fears.
With a wide range of programs to toddlers, children and teenagers, Creative Kids is a famous experienced art school since 1991, it gives students space, time and freedom to explore our society and the world through the visual language of art, they also collaborate with schools and brands regularly. Anastassia’s Art House is another great option with professional and internationally acclaimed artists if you are looking for great art teachers.
Vocal/ Singing Courses
Singing encourages children to express emotions, and most importantly to destress and relax. For child development, learning music is important as it ignites intellectual, social emotional, language and overall literacy as well, and of course music appreciation, theory and performance skills can also be developed via vocal training.
Both Parkland Music and Yip’s Children’s Choral & Performing Art Centre provide plenty of options for kids to learn around vocal technique with professional vocal coaches.
Language-Related
9. Language Courses
From a study of MIT, it is found that to achieve native-like knowledge of English grammar, it is best to start by about 10 years old, after which that ability declines. While researchers from Boston-based universities also showed children are proficient at learning a second language up until the age of 18.
If you would like to let your kids master a new language at the right timing, the best time might be now! Hong Kong Institute of Language provides a variety of language courses including French, English, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese. If you are looking for specialist courses in Hong Kong, there are plenty of options as well! For example, your kids can learn French at Alliance Française de Hong Kong, learn Spanish at The Spanish Cultural Association of HK, or, learn Mandarin at Mini Mandarins.
Debating Courses
Some might think debate is about winning arguments, but actually it can teach debaters to find common ground and bringing two sides together. It will be a great opportunity for kids to learn both logical thinking, to share ideas and learn to find consensus.
To find debating courses in Hong Kong, The Debating Association of Hong Kong will be a great option, they provide both Chinese and English Debating courses for Primary and Secondary School children. Future Leaders Academy is also an alternative option for kids from 7-15+ to learn around debating and public speaking!
Further Reading List:
Reference:
“The Journey from Scribbles to the Written Word”, Parents.com https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/writing/the-importance-of-drawing/
“What is the best age to learn a language?”, BBC Future https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181024-the-best-age-to-learn-a-foreign-language
“Study defines critical period for language acquisition”, Boston College News https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/science-tech-and-health/psychology/language-learning-years.html
“The benefits of debate can help you succeed in all areas of life, not just competitions”, SCMP https://www.scmp.com/yp/learn/learning-resources/debating-tips/article/3072504/benefits-debate-can-help-you-succeed-all
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