DAPHNE, Ala. — Summer time didn’t mean lazy minds for youngsters involved with Supporting Educational Enrichment in Daphne’s Schools Lyceum camp, which ended Friday after teaching 120 children ages 5 through 15, organizers said.

Classes included “Around the World in Five Days,” “Reflections of Me” and beginning Spanish for kindergarten through third-grade students; “What's the Word?” “Beginning Research” and beginning Spanish for fourth- through sixth-grade students; and “If It’s Too Loud, You’re Too Old,” “Global Art” and “Multimedia Me” for seventh-grade through high school students.

“In light of all the current standardized testing, we made a conscious choice to focus on the humanities since areas such as world history, literature, creative writing and foreign language don’t get as much emphasis during the school year as we all might like,” Denise D’Oliveira, SEEDS public relations coordinator and camp organizer, said.

“Summer provides a needed break in routine for every family, but children also need to keep their minds active and their interests growing to be at their best for the new school year,” she added. “We invited some of Daphne’s most creative teachers to be part of our inaugural summer and we encouraged them to develop proposals for topics they love to teach; then, our 2008 SEEDS Survey conducted back in January helped us finalize our course offerings.”

The survey asked the public to rate aspects of schools and curriculum and to give input on needed areas of focus.

The “If It’s Too Loud, You’re Too Old” class put a young person’s spin on political movements and pop culture through the ages, according to the program brochure.

The “Global Art” class taught teens about art from a variety of cultures and times. The class of about 15 was a welcome change for Daphne Middle School teacher  Sherry Bittinger,  who’s accustomed to 180 teens in a semester, she said.

“It’s a different setting than a classroom,” she said. “We get to use more elaborate methods.

“In small groups you can really focus and concentrate.”

Materials — such as canvases — were donated by local businesses.

Students learned several forms from ancient Greece and the origin of mosaics to Chinese ink drawing, she said.

“It enriches them — it’s continued learning; it’s good to be creative,” she said.

The children learned abstract expressionism from Fairhope artist Bill Harrison.

Olivia Buchana, 11, found the Chinese writing particularly fun.

“It was hard to get it just right but it was cool to write my name in a different language,” she said.

Lindsey Weller, 13, said she found a love-hate relationship with mosaics.

“The mosaic was my favorite but it was hard to clean,” she said.

The class taught her about individuality in art, she said.

“Art is how you see it; it’s if  you think it’s good,” she said.

Children in the “Beginning Research” class learned about Daphne’s history from  Elizabeth Tindell, Daphne Elementary School librarian. Students were given history books from which they found information and wrote relative facts. In addition to the body of the research paper, they learned how to make source cards and bibliographies and research on the Internet — tools that will help them later, Tindell said.

Hannah Currie, 10, agreed that she is learning for the future.

“I wanted to create a research paper so when I get older I won’t have to go through all this,” she said.

The class had other benefits too, according to Maria Hernandez, 10.

“I’m not from here; I’m from Puerto Rico,” she said. “My mom wanted me to know about the history of Daphne and to learn more English.”

D’Oliveira said she’s heard positive responses to the camp.

“Many parents are telling us their children got excited about a new subject and hated to see the class end,” she said. “That’s just what we were hoping for.”

That was music to SEEDS members’ ears because they had the program in mind from the organization’s beginning, she said.

“When we started the foundation four years ago, the establishment of the SEEDS Lyceum as a new community learning network was one of our three original goals,” she said. 

“It’s been very rewarding to get under way and for the project to be so well received.”