By Ariel Teplitsky
Beginning March 15, thousands of Ottawa elementary and high school students will have no classes for an entire week. They call this phenomenon “March Break.” During this forced vacation, many may find they have nothing better to do than, say, watch tv, play video games, or hang out at the mall.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
There are plenty of camps and activities planned to keep the kids occupied during their week off. Apart from the traditional camps offered at City of Ottawa community centres and the YMCA/YWCA, there are a number of more unusual activities going on. Here’s a sample of what’s on in and around Centretown:
Get whipped into shape at the Tae E. Lee Tae Kwon Do school, which offers a full week of tae kwon do training for 5 to 12-year-old boys and girls. But don’t expect easy treatment. This is a serious school — the only one in the region certified to train its students for the Olympics.
Grandmaster Tae Eun Lee, a ninth degree black belt (the highest honour), teaches his own Moo Kwang system, balancing tae kwon do with work, school and family.
“They learn good discipline through exercise, that is very useful at home and school,” Lee says. In cub-scouts fashion, students earn points for performing various household chores and homework. Mom or dad keep track of these points, regularly updating the instructor.
“We’re a different kind of scouts,” Lee laughs.
If martial arts aren’t your discipline, maybe you could try the art of modelling.
Models International Management has a teen modelling course for girls aged 11 to 15. For $295, students get a crash course in everything there is to know about modelling – at the beginner level, of course.
Fashion, make-up, fitness, colour theory, and catwalk technique are all on the agenda for the week.
A professional photo shoot is included in the package, and students will participate in a fashion show for family and friends on Saturday, the last day of class.
Just don’t expect to be hired as a spokesmodel at the end of the week.
Owner Julie Pellerin emphasizes that the program is just a beginner course “for anybody who has any interest at all in self improvement.”
“I can’t pick anybody up from this program and say ‘you’re a star,’ ” Pellerin says. “They all need some polishing.”
Besides, she says, “I don’t believe in turning 11-year-old girls into 20-year-olds. We wait and see how they do in a few years.” She notes, for example, that three out of 10 alumnae from the 1996 program have continued on to modelling careers.
For a different kind of catwalk — or dog walk or iguana walk — the Humane Society of Ottawa-Carleton runs a petsitting workshop.
Christine Thurgur, the program’s coordinator, explains, “It’s for teens who want to do petsitting for their friends and neighbours. They could be helping out, watching somebody else’s pets for a week, or taking them out for walks from time to time.”
The workshop, which lasts five mornings, has a different theme for each day, taught by an expert in the appropriate field.
Monday, students will learn the basics of petsitting and veterinary care, such as how to deal with an animal emergency. Tuesday is for cats, caring for them and “learning to recognize cat behaviour.” Wednesday is exotic pets day — no tigers, just small creatures like snakes and iguanas. Thursday, students will learn the basics of training and walking dogs. Caring for caged animals is on the schedule for Friday.
Thurgur encourages those who attend to bring their own pets on the appropriate day.
If pets aren’t your thing, the Cirque du Soleil might appeal to the animal inside you. Perhaps you just want to master trampolining, or the art of juggling.
Great, you’re off to circus camp. While you’re at it you’ll learn the unicycle, trapeze, tightrope, stilt-walking and other nifty acrobatics. Fire-eating is out of the question though.
The Spring Action Trampoline and Circus Centre offers beginner to advanced workshops. Serious students can get sufficient training to audition for the national circus school in Montreal.
Heather McManus runs the centre with her husband. Both have a background in acrobatic performance.
“Many of our friends at the same competitive level went on to the circus,” she says during a phone interview, as screams of excitement echo behind her. “We chose to settle down instead.”
Finally, if these specialty camps don’t appeal to you, Ottawa’s 30 community centres will be taking up to 1,500 kids in their week-long March Break camps, with activities such as swimming, skating, movies, educational activities, crafts and field trips.
If all else fails, there’s always the mall.