Literacy is so important in the Seine River School Division that they offer summer day camps for 5-8-year-olds at no charge at various schools throughout the Division.

Elaine Lochhead is the Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, she says parents can register their child at their school in June. When camp starts, the children are dropped off at 8:30 am and are picked up again at 4 pm. "There is no registration cost or cost for materials, they just need to bring a lunch and a snack. The rest we provide from the School Division."

Lochhead says they try to keep class sizes to 25, but because they are so popular and children have such a good time, that number tends to creep up to about 27.

The camps run for seven weeks at different schools with most of the activities being held outdoors, weather permitting. Lochhead says the camps are run by qualified educators with an interest in maintaining the literacy skills the students already have.

"The children participate in lots of arts and crafts but the base is in literacy. The students read about things, write about things, it's to give them that opportunity, but it's certainly not like going to school."

Lochhead says the camps are much more relaxed than a regular school setting because there aren't any structured periods of time for certain subjects. It's more of an open general inquiry with fun learning for a week. "We always have such a good time with the kids, we are already looking forward to next year."