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The Weekend Sun
Fun at summer programme The YMCA holiday proAn Amazing Race, Teen DIY programme and Masterchef run from December competitions are among the stream of activities planned for grammes 17 to February 1 from 7.30amthis year’s YMCA Tauranga summer holiday programme. 6pm across all centres.
Children play in the sun at last year’s summer holiday programme.
Programme spokesperson Braden Clark says there will be a lot of fun activities around Tauranga for kids in this year’s programme. “Our new exciting Classic Flyers Holiday Programme is going to be aviation-themed for children aged 8 to 13 years.” Other activities include Weird and Wacky Olympics, Christmas crafts, Masterchef competitions, and a trip to Hamilton Zoo. “The YMCA’s programme will be fun but also educational for the children.” The Teen DIY Programme, for children aged 11-15 years
old, is a great new programme, says Braden. “Children will be set the task of planning what they would like to do over the holiday period, be given a budget to work within and then the opportunity to organise the activities themselves. “Two days a week they will be heading out to do these activities, the rest of the time they will be joining in some awesome trips with other programmes.” The programmes start at $32 per day, with WINZ subsidies available. A week of holiday programme care starts from $3.60 per week with a full WINZ subsidy. For more information visit YMCA Tauranga’s Facebook page.
Holiday reading is the key to good education Jerry Tasi, 7, Hurikayne Takamore, 7, and Mutu Smith, 7, will keep up with their reading during the school holidays.
A Tauranga resource teacher is making an effort to keep children reading during the school holidays with a new book borrowing service based at local community centres. Kerri Friar knows how important it is for children to read during school breaks. “What I am trying to do is get books into low decile areas where children may not be using their local library service.” According to recent research, children lose up to six months in reading age during the school holiday period. “Reading six books over the holidays can really make a difference to children’s reading.” Kerri is currently looking for donations of unwanted books in a moderate condition for the lending service. A
range of books are needed from junior level up to Year 8. “The public library does a brilliant senior reading programme but some families don’t use the library. There are a lot of transient families - people move, the books don’t go with them.” She intends to set up the book borrowing service from local community centres, including Merivale Community Centre and various health providers in Tauranga. If you have books to donate please contact Kerri on kfriar@gatepaschool.co.nz By Phillipa Yalden
Young page-turners Places on Tauranga Library’s annual summer holiday programmes are fast filling up. Over the summer break, two programmes to encourage young readers to keep up the habit will be run. The summer reading programmes for five – 10-year-olds aim to help primary students maintain their reading level over the break. The Tweens/Teens Means Reads programme aims to broaden the reading interest of those aged 11-18. Programme participants can earn rewards for their reading. Registrations can be made for the programmes at any library.
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