Summer is almost here, and some folks at Cotter are planning to keep kids moving during June and July.

The popular Cotter Summer Enrichment Programs  are  being prepared to offer another summer of  great opportunities for the students from Cotter schools and Winona Area
Catholic Schools.

The program is designed for kids entering grades  kindergarten to 12 and offers a variety
of course, including academic, sports, and off-campus activities.

In academics popular offering include courses focusing on  reading, writing, ACT prep, H.O.T math, French, Lego engineering, and science.

Athletic programs designed for strength and fitness as well as sport specific training will fill the gym, fields, and fitness center all summer.

The main purpose of the program are to give children fun,
safe, enjoyable places to learn in summer and most importantly teach them
a lot of things that will benefit them in their school lives.

Judy Richter, the coordinator of summer programs, says that three most popular programs are H.O.T. math, basketball camps, and ACT prep.

H.O.T. math is short for Higher  Order Thinking and is different from the traditional math. Mrs. Richter states

“It takes thinking to higher levels than just restating memorized facta. H.O.T.
requires that the student do something with the fact. They must understand
them, connect them to each other, categorize them, manipulate them, put them
together in new or novel ways, and apply them as they seek new solutions to
new problems. Cotter H.O.T. math courses are designed to help the children
learn to think critically and avoid summer “brain drain,”  said Richter.

She also thinks that it is very important to provide opportunities to do something
over summer break, rather than having kids staying home for two months.  The safe
environment, opportunities for sports and learning, and the amount of activity provided by the Cotter summer programs are a great fit for  busy parents.

The staff, including Mrs. Richter, are in charge of registration, payments, and scheduling rooms and equipment for all the students. They also, during the program, take great care
of the children such as taking little children from one class to another safely.

The feedback they have had from the parents and students have been very positive
each year. They see the offerings as valuable, memorable, safe programs where they
also can learn or review both new and old studies. Another attractive point
is that they can choose do as many or few of the offerings as they choose, so it is easy to customize to meet their individual schedules.

A total of 419 students attended these programs last summer and they are
expecting more students to join this summer in order to continue to grow this program, as it has increased in size each year it has been offered