Apart from core subjects such as maths and science, simple creative activities form some of the building blocks of child development. Some regard it even more important that children be able to learn to create and appreciate at a very early age.
Music Lounge, a cultural centre with a focus on 360 degrees personality development through music, art and culture situated in Al Wakrah, is providing the same opportunity to the children at their summer camp this year.
A packaged programme for children to get in touch with their cultural sides, the camp incorporates music as one of its components of learning. Children indulge in interactive learning through art and craft, singing, dancing, yoga, games, general knowledge quizzes, public speaking exercises and field trips to museums.
“One of the problems that we are facing today is that we are abandoning hobbies. The interest in art, culture and music develops the strength of character. When this hobby becomes your passion and the passion becomes your work, you excel at it,” says Jaisen George, director of Music Lounge, at a recent talk with Community at the camp.
From the time the children arrive at the camp, he says, they become a family and when the time comes for them to leave, there are a lot of teary eyes around. What happens is that they do not expect a cultural enlightenment like this when they first arrive at the camp, says Jaisen.
They do not expect singing in the morning for instance or having a yoga session or dancing to their favourite songs in a learning environment. The theme for the camp is ‘bare necessities,’ where they teach the children not to worry about things that they are not getting as long as they are getting the bare necessities.
Children come in and get an explosion of activities, while the theme message keeps going into their heads — they become lighter, happier and more expressive. Jaisen reveals he has seen students who when they joined were reserved and within days they were talking to everybody, made friends and wanted to come to the front rows, taking part in activities.
“Culture is something that we undervalue a lot. We think the professional career and earning money comes first, but when we look back into history, what remains for us to look back to is the cultural part,” says Jaisen.
“Look at the artworks, sculptures, paintings and the music. They might not have an apparent economic significance, but all our financial aspirations will only flow through when we are aspiring to better our culture,” he explains.
It opens up minds, he says. You look for solutions to problems that would benefit you and the society at large. It develops the society on the whole and children start looking into ways on how they can make things beautiful.
“My daughter has been attending Music Lounge for the past three months which I personally feel has been a very enriching experience for her. She was initially confused as to what activity to choose but every teacher took the pains to let her try each instrument,” says Dr Baby Sailaja, mother of Alisha, a student at the camp.
She says they gave her on-the-spot quick analysis of her child’s potential. “Since then she has been enjoying her classes and I have seen an overall personality and cultural development in my child in these few months,” she adds.
Jaisen says one month is a very short time to completely asses the children but their teachers, who are experts in their own fields, do assessments of the students and ascertain their requirements. At the end of the month, they give a report to the parents advising them on what faculty their child is interested in.
“In a way it is a bit of career counselling as well. The child gets to know what he or she is good at and that gives them strength to work on it. It might give the children something new to explore other than the regular fields such as engineering, medical or accountancy,” says Jaisen.
“We came to know about the summer camp through the Internet and we visited Music Lounge. We were impressed with the set up and we decided to enrol our daughter for the July camp. We realised that our decision was not wrong,” says Syed Asher Laeeq and Sidra Asher, the parents of one of the camp students, Waaniya.
In music, the children learn to play musical notes and basics of playing instruments like piano, guitar and drums. This knowledge is aimed at enabling them to not only play a little bit of music for fun but would inspire them to find their true calling for music and art in the future.
The summer camp is for children aged 5 to 14. Five to nine-year-olds are placed in the junior category, while 10-14-year-olds are placed in the senior category. They go through four different sessions in a day with a 15-minute break after each session.
Besides learning music and art, the children are also taught public speaking and are allowed to improve their general knowledge through different activities. At the end of the month-long camp, all of them would present their works at exhibitions. The seniors will also get a chance to show off their newly-learnt public speaking skills.
Jaisen says they have received an “immense response” from people this summer. Their Facebook page has gone from 4,000 to 12,000 likes in three months, mostly from the community in Al Wakrah.
At the camp, they recently held a fashion show, where the children showcased different outfits. The pictures were uploaded to Facebook and some of them attracted thousands of likes. The pictures with the most likes were declared the winners. 
 “It gives boost and confidence to the child. They improve and develop themselves when they see that they are being noticed,  they started behaving in a certain way and it develops the personality of the student at the same time,” says the director of Music Lounge.
What attracts more children, Jaisen says, is the good feedback that they get from the ones who pass out from the camp. When they see a change in their friends’ confidence level and see how good they are singing or playing an instrument, they are inspired. The camp essentially teaches the children to grow out of the fear of making mistakes. They get to know their own talents and at Music Lounge they sharpen those abilities.