Kids’ College offers a wide variety of offerings

The list of classes offered this spring and summer at the Community Enrichment Center’s Kids’ College covers a variety of subjects, ranging from video game design to cooking to etiquette class.

 “Kids College is full of enrichment opportunities for children ages 3 to 15 and include exploration of science, computers and foreign language and culture,” said Dana Thorp-Patterson, assistant executive director of the center.

 Registration is on now for some of the classes that start over the next month while some summer offerings are still being developed.

 Spring courses include “Creepy Crawly Ecology: Birds & Beasts,” a class on making cookies, brownies and muffins, Irish Celtic dance instruction and classes in both archery and golf.

 While most of the classes are designed with the single student in mind, some of the classes pair the student with an important adult in their life.

 “It allows the student to share the learning experience with a parent, grandparent or other significant adult in their life. These include cooking together, cake decorating and even family sign language,” Patterson said.

 “In addition, if an adult takes a foreign language class, they may also enroll their children ages 12 and up to take the class with them – the assumption is that learning the language together creates bonds as well as an opportunity to use what they learn.”

The annual summer camp for kids will be held again this year and includes classes in cooking, sign language, art, and woodworking and ends in the creation of a giant, 20-foot banana split for the campers and their guests on their final day of camp.

Some of the upcoming summer courses include:

• Painting for preschoolers

• Printmaking class

• A study of the Middle Ages

• A study of Native American and South American crafts and culture

• Childcare training for tweens and teens on babysitting that includes a CPR class

• A three-day computer camp for kids to learn all about computers

• A one-day weather workshop to learn how to forecast the weather

For a list of upcoming spring Kids College classes, go to www.otc.edu/community and click on Kids College. To register, call 447-8888.

Look for upcoming class announcements, special offers and discounts on the CEC Facebook page at www.facebook.com/otccec.

Steve Koehler is coordinator of publications for Ozarks Technical Community College. Contact him at koehlers@otc.edu