Children explore talents, creativity during holiday

Agnes Winarti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 06/18/2008 10:44 AM  |  City

For some children, the school holidays have arrived. For others, it will be some time before they are free of a routine.

Plenty of creative activities on offer during the holidays are designed to help children discover their independence and explore their own imaginations, as well as build closer bonds among family members.

FEARLESS FOX: Outbound adventure games, like the flying fox, are among the attractions offered for children on school holiday at the recreation center in Ancol Beach, North Jakarta. (JP/ Arief Suhardiman)

"Basically, we are offering holiday activities where children can learn to do things independently without their parents' help and can have an opportunity to make new friends," said Bobo Magazine Creative Holiday project officer, Johanita Cekli.

This year, the children's magazine Bobo is offering elementary school children the opportunity to experience a ride on the presidential train, leaving Jakarta for Bandung on July 2 and returning July 4.

In Bandung, the children will participate in various workshops including making wooden puppets, angklung (traditional Sundanese musical instruments), pottery and lanterns.

Up to 60 children will participate in the three-day event.

"Although parents are not allowed to accompany the children, they can still monitor them by telephoning the adults leading each group," she said.

Bobo magazine has been organizing similar events for the past 10 years. This year, Bobo chose the presidential train ride, which costs Rp 1.9 million (US$204) per child.

Other children might prefer to ride ponies, which they can do at the Arthayasa Stables in Grogol Limo village, Depok, south of Jakarta.

At the summer camp, designed for children aged between eight and 15, children not only ride ponies but also learn to take care of them and prepare horse-riding equipment such as saddles and horseshoes.

"Besides building independence, learning the daily activities in a horse ranch can develop children's sensitivity to other living creatures and to nature," ranch assistant marketing manager Nina Widar said.

The horse ranch summer camp started Tuesday and will end Thursday, at a cost of Rp 1.3 million per person.

Elementary school third to fifth graders of a more intellectual bent can enjoy the Science Camp, whose theme this year is getting children closer to the universe.

"Parents do not accompany the children on the three-day camp from July 1 to 3 because this camp is also about teaching them to be independent," said Wahyu, a promotions officer for Elex Media Komputindo, which organizes the event with the KlubSains community.

The camp, which will be held at the Sentul Leadership Development Center, costs Rp 1.1 million per child.

On the program are a visit to the National Aeronautics and Space Institute (LAPAN), screening of a film about outer space, science experiments, such as building hot air balloons and rockets, and outdoor games.

Up to 100 children can take part in the camp.

An option for children and families who are overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the city is to take a look at modest village life in the Tour Village Cinangneng, in Jl. Babakan Kemang, Ciampea, Bogor.

"Our most popular tour is called the Poelang Kampoeng Tour," village operational manager Yulita Ariyati said.

Poelang Kampoeng (the former spelling of pulang kampung) means "homecoming".

The tour is a walking tour through the village, where villagers will teach visitors skills such as cooking kue bugis (traditional cake) and traditional ginger drink, making puppets from cassava leaves, planting rice and bathing buffalo.

Visitors can also learn gamelan (traditional orchestra) and traditional Sundanese songs.

The Cinangneng village, which is open to visitors everyday, is home to 350 families who work as farmers and vegetable vendors.

The tour, which costs Rp 95,000 per person, usually takes about six hours, between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

"Although there is no live-in program in this village, visitors can still interact with villagers because many of them work as our tour guides," Yulita said.

Another tourism site that offers holidayers the chance to get close to nature is the Mekarsari tourism park on Jl. Raya Cileungsi, Bogor, soon to open its lake, which is 30 meters deep and covers an area of 27 hectares.

"Children, who usually come to our park with their families, tend to prefer the Green Land Tour, the Water Adventures and the outdoor activities," park marketing manager Indradewi Triratna said.

The Green Land Tour, which costs Rp 40,000 per person, takes visitors to watermelon, salak and star fruit gardens, to name just a few, where they can pick and taste the ripe fruits on the spot.

Children can also have water adventures on the new lake, including walking on water inside a floating doughnut or a giant bubble, banana canoeing and aqua biking.

Indradewi said lifeguards would be positioned at 10 spots around the lake, with between five and 10 guards at each station, to look out for visitor safety.

But the great outdoors is not the only place where children can explore their creativity.

In Rumah Semut (House of Ants), a small art studio on Jl. Bumi No. 7 Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, children aged between five and 11 can explore their imaginations through craft.

This year, Rumah Semut will ask children to imagine they are looking through a granny's old house and finding things such as a wooden spoon, a talenan (cutting board), a kukusan (conical bamboo basket for steaming rice), oil paper, old magazines and newspapers, a piggy bank, batik cloth and a sapu lidi (broom made from coconut leaves).

"Children will learn to imagine and invent things by combining the rare stuff from granny's old house with the common things they might find at home, such as shoe boxes and milk cartons," Rumah Semut principal Freta Oktarina said.

The craft workshops will be held between June 23 and July 11 for groups of about 20 children.

Freta said not many people understood that craft enables children to use their fine motor skills and develop greater sensitivity toward their surroundings, thus letting their creativity and imagination grow.

Each session, of about three hours, ends with a review, where children present their inventions to the rest of the group.

"The aim of presenting their work to their peers is to raise a sense of appreciation of others' work," Freta said.

Freta said it was also important for parents to praise their children's work, as trivial as it might seem.

Freta, a graduate of the school of fine arts at the Bandung Institute of Technology, said she hoped parents would spend more time with their children doing creative activities such as these, which could be done not just in her studio but also in their own homes.

Registration for workshops is open until June 19. Several packages are available, including a one-day session (Rp 80,000), a three-day session (Rp 225,000) and a five-day session (Rp 350,000).

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