SUMMER LEARNING PROGRAM SPELLS OUT FUN FOR KIDS

The only way Kylena Flemming would enjoy her summer more is if she could go swimming every day.

Flemming is one of 40 students enrolled in the Rainbow Village summer education program at the Cape Girardeau Civic Center.

The seven-week camp is designed to exercise children's minds during summer months while teaching them values and social skills they will use every day.

While it rained Thursday morning, 7-year-old Fleming sat on a huge floor mat with some paper, a jar of water and water-color paints, making a painting of her house beneath a rainbow.

"This is fun," she said. "It's much better than sitting at home and watching television. I just wish we could go swimming more."

The rainbow in Rainbow Village is an acronym, spelling out the objectives of the classes. Respect, attitude, individuals and their differences, nurture, belonging, order and work ethics will be taught to the children in the course of the program. This week, they are studying nurture.

The village part of the name stems from the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." In the camp, children are taught that everyone is responsible for them, and they, in turn, are responsible for one another.

"But the main objective of this whole program is to have a lot of fun," said Sheldon Tyler, director of the summer camp. "The kids are taking their summer time to be here, and we want to make it worth their while."

Teachers from May Green and Jefferson schools in Cape Girardeau volunteered to supervise more than a dozen teenagers who act as the youngsters' teachers.

The camp is broken into two sessions: kindergarten through second grade in the morning and third through fifth grade in the afternoon.

Gloria Miller, taking a break from "rainbow time," said the camp emphasizes the idea of respect.

"If the children can recognize respectful acts in one another, then they can work to be respectful themselves," said Miller, an out-patient counselor for the Community Counseling Center in Cape Girardeau.

"The backgrounds of these children are pretty varied, and we teach the kids the key to getting along is creativity and flexibility," she said.

Each day the children have reading time, math time and writing. But to make the work more interesting, it is in the form of projects, scavenger hunts and other activities.

In a van loaned to Tyler and the program by the Futtrell Temple Church of God In Chris, the group goes on field trips to places like the Cape Girardeau Fire Department and the Southeast Missouri Humane Society.

Cape Girardeau police officers Charlie Herbst and Ike Hammonds visit the group from time to time, and talk to them about safety. The children have received dance lessons and sang along with an area musician. They also go swimming every Thursday.

Diane Liggins, a volunteer Tyler recruited from his church, said the camp is the best place for the kids to be.

"This is something they all look forward to and really want to do," she said. "If they weren't in here learning about life and each other, they would be out on the streets learning about guns and drugs. These kids are too good for that."