Photos: Moorestown Summer Enrichment Camp Offers Fun, Education

Who wants to go to school during the summer?

Well, if your course load includes building robots with Legos, experimenting with rockets, making papier-mache monsters and theater, you might consider it.

Hundreds of Moorestown students, from elementary up to , flocked to the school district’s summer enrichment program this year—between 275-300, by Assistant Superintendent Kate Burke Reilly’s reckoning. That’s about 90 more than last year.

The district launched the summer enrichment program just three years ago with only a handful of classes. Now it’s up to 20-plus.

“Our courses change, so it’s not like a canned program that rolls over,” said Reilly.

The courses offered—“Cooking With Science,” “Little Scientists’ Laboratory,” and “Essay Writing for High School and College,” to name a few—are designed to stimulate critical thinking and problem-solving, Reilly said, with a blend of arts and academics.  And the classes are small enough that the teachers can offer individualized instruction.

"It's kind of a win-win," she said. "Our teachers love doing it."

There’s a registration fee for each course, and if interest isn’t high enough to cover the cost of running it, the course doesn’t make the cut, Reilly said, so it comes at no cost to the taxpayer.

The only complaint she gets from parents is “they want more sessions … They want the program to grow,” said Reilly. “That’s a good problem to have.”

The third session of the summer enrichment program starts Monday and runs through Thursday. Courses are held at the .

Parents who haven’t already registered can show up around 8:15 a.m. Monday morning to see if there are any slots in the remaining courses, or email Reilly at knapolitano@mtps.com this weekend for information.