With the festive season weeks away, school holidays are also around the corner. With most parents away at work and home help keeping children occupied especially in a safe environment during the holidays, is a tall order for some parents. In answer to this, various holiday camps for kids are conducted during the holidays. One such place providing stimulating entertainment for children is the Angel Keepers Daycare in Colombo 05 run by three professionals who have children's wellbeing, education and nurturing at heart. Dr. Theonie Anthonisz Chandrasena, one of the founders of Angel Keepers Daycare explains the important of encouraging children to attend holiday camps. 

Why is it important for children to participate in extra activities such as this? 

Children today are held to an unimaginable routine with our focus being academic or sports achievements. We drive our children to achieve because we believe in this competitive environment we need to push them and give them an edge to succeed. There is a very indivualistic sense of achievement we push for children and we tell them to succeed no matter the cost and foster competitive rivalry as opposed to a cooperative rivalry. We forget in all of this that these are children and they need time and space like adults to rest, and recharge their batteries and most importantly enjoy being children. 

How will this camp benefit children? 

I think that activities such as our camp are very important because we focus on social and emotional intelligence such as cooperation, respect, sharing, conflict resolution, communication, handling emotions, fostering and enhancing skills that aren’t focused on in the regular school environment. Our kids totally unplug from technology, and a movie is a treat at the end of the week. There is structure and limits within an unstructured play environment. We encourage all the children to interact with each other, make new friends outside of their school environment and those of the opposite gender. Our children also take part in many activities which enhance their creativity and help them express themselves. Furthermore several studies have shown that creative activities enhance a child’s mathematical abilities as well as a child’s ability to write and do science. It also enhance one’s self esteem and mental health. These are the skills we try to instill in the children who come to our camp as well as our full time children. 

What activities are on offer at the holiday camp? 

This year we have cooking, baking, pottery, fabric painting, bag making, origami, media day, lantern making, jewelry making, little scientist, Christmas decorations and we end with a fancy dress Christmas party. 

How long has Angel Keepers been in operation? 

Angel Keepers Daycare has been in operation for one year now and we are a full service day care facility and care for children aged 3 months to 12 years. We provide all meals which are made fresh everyday, pick children from school and help kids with their homework. Kids have dinner and are ready to go home and spend some quality time with their parents before a sensible bedtime. We provide a home away from home for our little ones. There has been enough research to prove that children who have mothers who work benefit immensely and society regains a huge resource it would otherwise miss out on. We want to provide a safe and secure environment for the kids so that parents are confident to leave their  children with us. 

What is the duration of the camp? 

Our camp runs from the 14th to the 16th of December and from the 19th to the 23rd.  The camp is from 8:30AM to 5:00PM. There is a morning session from 8:30AM to 12:30PM and an evening session  from 1:00PM to 5:00PM. We offer our children snacks for each session as well as lunch for those of who stay with us the full day. We cater to 3 to 11 year olds and we can accommodate 20 children. Parents can bring the children in for the entire duration of the program or for individual sessions of full day or half day. We will have two teachers as well as three caregivers to help the children. 

For information, please call 0717790790 or 011 2505241.