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Summer Camp Planning – Flex Care, Discounts & Icons!

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We have been working around-the-clock to plan the best summer imaginable for your child. With registration opening on March 13th (the same day we mail the guide), we wanted to make you aware of a new program, remind you that the early bird gets the ~~worm~~ discount, and a quick note about all of those little icons strategically placed throughout the camp section!

First, let’s start with something new and exciting. Remember those surveys we asked you to fill out at the end of each week? Well, we read them. Here’s what we’ve added for you this year!

Let’s talk about FLEX!

Pre-Care

We heard you! This Summer, as a part of our flex-care program, we will be offering pre-care to all of the camps located on the Red Morton Park Campus* and, wait for it… STULSAFT PARK!! . Drop your camper off at 8:00am and our early-bird staff will safely deliver and sign-in your camper at their 9:00am camp. ONLY CAMPS WITH THE DESIGNATED ICON NEXT TO THEM WILL QUALIFY FOR PRE-CARE. June 19-August 11 only. Please note that Full Day Camps Kaboom and Whatchamacallit will still maintain their usual early start times of 7:30am and 8:00am.

*Red Morton Campus includes: RMCC, CAB, VMSC, Fields & Skatepark- icon key later on in this post

Plus, In addition to Pre-Care, we will continue to offer:

Bridge Care
Bridge Care is a program that helps to link-up morning (9am-12pm) and afternoon (1-4pm) sessions of camps held on the Red Morton Park Campus in order to create a full day opportunity for kids who want to try out a couple of different camps each week. Want to take a sports camp in the morning and a tech camp in the afternoon? Maybe your child would like to do a science Camp first and then take a dance camp later. Whatever the combination, we have options! Our staff will pick your child up from their morning camp and walk them to Red Morton for lunch from 12:00-1:00pm. After lunch, we will escort them to their afternoon camp. Feel free to utilize Bridge Care if you need an extra hour to either pick up a sibling elsewhere or just have more time to yourself. This allows you to pick-up from a morning camp at 1:00pm or drop-off an hour early at 12:00pm for that afternoon camp. Summer can be quite the juggling act, so we’re flexible and here to help! ONLY CAMPS WITH THE DESIGNATED ICON NEXT TO THEM WILL QUALIFY FOR CARE, June 19-August 11.

STAY TUNED: TOMORROW WE WILL SHARE A SPECIAL CAMP GRID TO HELP YOU PLAN YOUR BRIDGE CARE EXPERIENCE!

After Care

Camps with a clock icon next to them qualify for After Care. Our trustworthy staff will pick up campers from their PM camp and walk them to the Red Morton Community Center where they can stay as late as 6:00pm. Parents, please pick up your campers on time. Also, some of our camp providers provide their own aftercare. Those camps will have the aftercare listed with their camp description. ONLY CAMPS WITH THE DESIGNATED ICON NEXT TO THEM WILL QUALIFY FOR CARE. Applicable camps are located on the Red Morton Park Campus only (RMCC, CAB, VMSC, Fields & Skatepark), June 19-August 11.

Discounts

Many of you took advantage of our 10% off discount last year. We are happy to announce that it is back. We are rewarding our early registrants with a 10% discount on some of your children’s favorite recreation camps, including: Polliwog, Mountaineers, Explorers, Kaboom, Whatchamacallit, and High-5! Just look for the pink starburst next to the applicable camps in the Summer Camp Section of the guide. Discount cannot be applied to payment plans.

In addition to our Recreation Early Bird discount, Legends Baseball Camps and Emerald Hills Golf will also be offering their own early incentive. All discounts are automatically applied to your registration, so no need for any special coupon codes this year!

Icon & Location Key

Here is a quick snapshot of what all of those icons mean, as well as a location key to help you navigate those acronyms in the Activity Guide!

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locations

Lastly, if you have yet to notice, our Summer Camp & Aquatics Website is up! The URL is so easy to remember… ready? It’s RedwoodCityCamps.org.

That’s it! Please come back and visit our blog frequently, or better yet, subscribe! We will be presenting new summer tips and tidbits as we approach Summer.You can also catch us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Tomorrow’s post promises to be extremely helpful…

Take Part in the First Redwood City Teen Entrepreneurial Academy – Guest Blog

We are extremely excited about this!!!

How many teens get the opportunity to start their own business, learn the ins and outs of social media (in a good way) and set a foundation of entrepreneurship that they can use in practice for the rest of their lives? Please help us welcome, Adnan Iftekhar, the man who may singlehandedly help to cultivate the next innovator of the century! (you never know, right?)

Why Choose Actionable Entrepreneurship?

by Adnan Iftekhar

One of the major buzzwords in schools and education these days is, 21^st Century Skills. We’re already fourteen years into the 21^st century, and in my humble opinion, that buzzword should already be retired. What we really should be focusing on is 22^nd Century Skills; we have 84 years to get those right!

Some of the biggest challenges the children growing up will face are those of a more global economy. There are some jobs that will just not be applicable to the US anymore, like taxes. Did you know that in 2013, 2 million Americans had their taxes done in India, whether they knew it or not? Or basic graphic design. Just take a look at a site like fiverr.com where you can get a logo, business card, illustration, even a website design for just $5. Yes, the quality may not be as good as that of a professional graphic designer based in the US these days, but then again, passable may be just what you need to at least get you started and on the road to creating awesome content. Comparing $5 to $25/hour (low-end hourly rate of a graphic designer) is not something to scoff at, especially as many of the designers on these sites have pretty high reviews and actually have very decent designs. I’m not saying Accountants and Designers will be obsolete in the next decade, but the climate is changing, and students need to learn to be resourceful and flexible with their goals.

teen_idea Coming back to the Entrepreneurship class, the real focus is to create quality, meaningful content that can be shared and delivered to an audience that will find value in it. This class will give students the opportunity to find the resources they need to create a simple online business. More importantly, it will give them an avenue to implement all that they learn (most of the learning will be in their own time) into concrete action. The “class” time will be focused on the actual doing of the work, rather than the theory of it. As one example, I will give a blueprint of how I gained 6000 followers on Twitter in three months. Students may choose to follow that blueprint, or create their own. Twitter may not be the audience and their business ideas may be focused on some totally different strategy. I certainly don’t have all of the answers, but I guide students where to find them.

In addition to the concrete creation of a business, the process that they will go through will leave them some multidisciplinary skills that are not being taught in any schools – at least not “formally”. One of the most important ones will be that of effective communication- in person and via internet. I cannot stress the importance of communicating with people who offer products and services all around the world and the value that they can add to a small budding business. Having to hire your first professional freelancer, whether it be a virtual assistant or a graphic designer is something that every student will go through. How many high school graduates can say that they have hired (and/or fired) someone? Figuring out how to clearly communicate ideas, whether it’s by Skype, Google Hangout, email or commenting on a blog post will be a major focus in the class. Also, as these students apply for college, will they stand out if they have on their resume “Founder of an online business”?

The ideas, although important, are really not the ultimate goal for the class – it’s the choosing of one idea that resonates and that you are passionate about and putting it into action. And that idea may not be the best one, but that’s okay – once you have learned to implement one idea, moving on to the second one will be a lot easier. The growth and learning experienced in this class will be unlike anything these students have experienced before. That is a money back guarantee – I will personally give you your money back if you are not 100% satisfied by the end of this course.

So, what are you waiting for?

Registration Information:

Redwood City Teen Entrepreneurial Academy
Age 13-17
Meets Thursdays 5:30-7:00pm
September 25 – December 4, 2014
Community Activities Building
Click this link to view course information & requirements
Follow Redwood City Entrepreneurial Academy: Twitter & Facebook

Who is Adnan Iftekhar?
Adnan has founded a non-profit, four businesses (two of which were profitable from day one) and a school. He has studied and taught biology, french, math, dance, yoga, design, acrobatics and productivity on three continents to students ranging from age 2 – 82. He speaks 5 languages and still strives to make sense of the vagaries of the english language. Most importantly, he wants to transform the way we educate our children and redefine the words learning, educating, teaching and school. Questions? Email: adnan@mac.com, Follow @adnanedtech

It’s the End of Week One. Here’s What We’ve Learned.

WOW! It’s been a great first week of Summer Camp Registration! Here are some FUN observations and THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW moving forward! We are constantly learning around here and want to share some of our findings with you.

First, Fun Observations…

Parents love discounts! (Ok, we knew this) This week, most of you took advantage of our 10% camp discount! Register soon! You have until April 15th to claim it!
We had a record high this week of enrollment into Camp High-5 (AM, PM and Full Day options for 4-6 year olds). If you are planning on signing up for this camp, we suggest you do it sooner than later.
Over 80% of all first week registrations happened online.
American Express was our second highest used credit card type. We used to only accept Visa and Mastercard, but have since added Amex and Discover to our list!

Things you should know…

If you are using the “Wish list” functionality on our online registration page, we found that it only works once online registration has begun. We are very sorry if you were effected by this. If you haven’t tried it, wish lists are great to use for camp planning. You can save your ideas and then place them into your cart later when you are ready to register!
OOPS! We did not add the “Bridge” graphic to the Afternoon Camps that qualify for Bridge Care in our Activity Guide. If the Camp is from 1-4pm and is at Red Morton or the Community Activities Building, it likely qualifies. We will make sure to mark them on our summer camp website which will be posted very soon.
If you click on the Camp Instructor listed under each activity code, there is a dynamic link that has a bio and a link to their website. We are still populating this information, so some may still be blank, but check back with us soon if you want more info about a specific provider. Try it! Click the “Instructor” link for “Mad Science” on this page here.
Lastly, have we told you lately how much we appreciate you? WE DO!

Once again, we thank you for your patience while we all adjust to our new registration program.

That’s it! Have a great weekend, everyone! Remember, you can register for camps online 24/7!

A Camp A Day – Day 11: Math is Everywhere!

It’s Day Eleven of our A Camp-A-Day Series. We have TWO camps that incorporate math concepts, but they are very different. Why? Because, Math is EVERYWHERE! Now many of our camps naturally have math concepts, like our science and engineering camps, but today we’ll highlight the ones that state it in the title. It’s Saturday, so we’ll stick with the obvious.

First, our very popular instructor extraordinaire, Dr. Peter Kohler, will be running a unique camp entitled, Nature’s Art & Math. Peter has been teaching art for many years and has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. He teaches Math enrichment at The Nueva School where he has encouraged student’s creativity for more than 20 years. He’ll explain that Fibonacci Numbers in Nature is some of the most visually magical math you can discover. Kids will explore flowers, pine cones, sand dollars, the nautilus and other shells, and galaxies for their fascinating math. With a great variety of math and art materials: oil pastels, paints, clay, paper folding, colored tiles and cubes, to build and be creative in math. Be inventive with 2-D and 3-D visual patterns, blending Numbers and Shapes. Peter has inspired and brought out a love for math and art in many children by sharing its beauty, its magic and mystery.

Math-Mania is another new camp that is taught by After-School Enrichment Instructor and Math Enthusiast, Holly Lindquist! Holly loves math and so do her kids! This inspired her to bring their love of math to YOUR KIDS! Holly will expose children to some very cool areas of math that may not have been covered in their classrooms. They’ll learn about Fibonacci numbers, Pascal’s triangle, fractals, secret codes, and much more! She’ll also explore fun activities and craft projects to deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts. You can visit Holly’s website for more info and math activities you can try at home!

Details…

Nature’s Art & Math
Age 5-10
with Dr. Peter Kohler
August 4 – August 8
Monday – Friday
9:00am-12:00pm
Location: Red Morton Community Center

Math-Mania
Age 9-11
with Holly Lindquist
July 21 – July 25 @ Red Morton Center
August 18 – August 22 @ Sandpiper Community Center
Monday – Friday
9:00am-1:00pm

Click here for the entire Summer Activity Guide!

A Camp A Day – Day 9: Cricket!

It’s Day Nine of our A Camp-A-Day Series, and this year, we are introducing kids to Cricket! What is Cricket? It’s ball-and-bat game played chiefly in Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries that is growing in popularity here in the United States. This ball and bat game is played between two teams of 11 players each on a field. At the center is a rectangular 22-yard long “pitch” (the central strip of field between the wickets). Each team takes its turn to bat in an attempt to score runs, similarly to baseball, while the other team fields. And just like baseball, the game is played with innings.

cricket The camp is run by the National Academy of Athletics – who are also offering a wide variety of camps with us this year: Multi-sport, Basketball, Field Hockey, Lacrosse, Speed and Vertical Power and Volleyball! In their innovative take on Cricket, kids will learn all facets of the game, and they’ll receive batting coaching, bowling coaching and fielding sessions. The camp is designed to introduce and/or improve cricket skills and of course, have a lot fun learning this exciting sport!

Details…

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Cricket
with National Academy of Athletics
9:00am-12:00pm
June 30-July 3 (no 7/4) on Sandpiper Field
July 14-18 on McGarvey Field (this session qualifies for 12-1pm bridge care!)
July 28- August 1 at Sandpiper Field
Fee: $179 / $159 Resident Discount (week of 7/4 $152/$132 Resident)

Check out this camp and a TON more in our Summer 2014 Activity Guide!

A Camp A Day – Day 8: Opera Camp and Online Guide!

It’s Day Eight of our A Camp-A-Day Series, and here is a brand new camp that we are REALLY excited about! This Summer, we have partnered with West Bay Opera to offer a 2 week opera program for 9-14 year olds! This is a pretty comprehensive description, so I will let it speak for itself! Important to note: You must contact the Director to set up a meeting and audition. See below!

Summer Opera Youth Program
2 Weeks
Ages 9-14
with Michael Taylor. Michael has been directing, producing and performing in West Bay Opera’s Opera in the Schools (OITS) Program for the past 16 years. An accomplished singer, he has also directed and conducted over fifty productions of operas and musicals. His composition credits include an opera, several musicals and many other vocal and choral works. He holds a Master’s Degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and was also a cast member of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. He is an active voice teacher.

This is an intensive, two-week course. Students will design, produce and perform a musical work in English. They will collaborate with a professional stage director, music director, choreographer, technical designer and fellow students to learn new skills, create and perform an operatic work for friends and family on the final evening of the program. In addition performing, participants will work with instructors in a series of workshops to improve their performing arts skills in areas including: Acting and Improvisation, Music and Voice, Dance and Movement, Set & Media design.

Auditions

This is an intensive and highly rewarding program, but it may not be for everyone. Director Michael Taylor will meet with prospective enrollees and their families to answer questions, assess students’ skill level and determine if this is the right fit prior to registration. Please contact SYP@wbopera.org to schedule a meeting.

Summer Youth Opera Program
July 28 – August 8, 2014
9:00am-3:00pm
Fee for 2 weeks: $566 / $546 Resident Discount
LOCATION: VMSC Theater
Performance Date & Time: Friday August 8 at 7:30pm at the VMSC “Little Theater”

And Lastly – as promised…

Here is the link to our Summer 2014 Activity Guide

A Camp A Day – Day 6: Putting out Fires…

It’s Day Six of our A Camp-A-Day Series, let’s talk about the Junior Fire Academy!

This is one of those camps that I WISH I could have attended as a child! This is a great opportunity to engage your 11-15 year old boy or girl, for a week with a program designed and run by our very own Redwood City Fire Department Staff!

Description below…

Ever dream of being firefighter? Well stop dreaming and start doing at the Junior Fire Academy! Participants develop life long skills not only learning about emergency preparedness, but also how to work together to accomplish tasks. Taught by professional firefighters, participants learn skills including: First Aid, CPR, exit drills, fire extinguisher use, disaster preparedness, and home safety. In addition to the practical skills they can use everyday, participants learn what its like to be a firefighter by extinguishing fire with fire hoses, proper lifting techniques for moving ladders and hose, hose management, and they even get to climb the 100 foot tall ladder! All activities are optional, but positive, encouraging attitudes are not. This is a great opportunity to explore a day in the life of a firefighter!

Bring a bag lunch Monday-Thursday. On Friday at noon, family and friends are encouraged to attend the potluck lunch just before the Skills Presentation and Graduation Ceremony.

New Campers and Returning Campers Welcome!

July 28 though July 31
M-Th 10am-4p
F 10am-2pm
Location: Monday – Tuesday: PAL Building 3399 Bay Road, Redwood City
Wednesday – Friday: Fire Station 9, 755 Marshall St., Redwood City (long pants and closed toed shoes required)
$226 / $206 Resident Discount

A Camp A Day – Day 5: It’s Sew Fun!

It’s Day Five of our A Camp-A-Day Series, and we think this one is sew fun.

We are excited this year to be partnering with Ralph’s Vacuum & Sewing Center in our own Downtown Redwood City! Kids will learn how to sew on REAL machines and they’ll complete plenty of cool projects. Topics include: sewing machine basics, tools and terminology, stitches (topstitch, edge stitch and basting), appliqué and adorning techniques). Besides learning basic sewing skills, they’ll make fun, cute projects each week, like a drawstring bag, a pillow case with French seams, an appliqued pillow, a stuffed animal and a stylish zipper clutch! Plus, there are sew many weeks to choose from! SEW FUN!!!

Here are the details!

SEWING CAMP
Age 8-16
with Teresa Garcia, of Ralph’s Vacuum & Sewing Center
Monday – Friday
10am-1pm
Location: Ralph’s Vacuum & Sewing Center, 837 Main St. RWC
Fee: $249
6/9-6/13
6/16-6/20
6/30-7/3 no 7/4
7/7-7/11
7/14-7/18
7/21-7/25
7/28-8/1
8/4-8/8
8/11-8/15
8/18-8/22
8/25-8/29 $249

A Camp A Day – Day Four: Join the Circus!

It’s Day Four of our A Camp-A-Day Series, and today we want you to join the circus!

Seriously. Can you think of anything more fun for kids (and maybe for some of us adults), than CIRCUS CAMP? I watched last year as kids had a blast learning some serious tricks of the trade that included: acrobatics, clown antics, stilts, silks, unicycle, rolla bolla, and EVEN the flying trapeze! Kids will get a chance to perform for friends and family at the end of the week!

888 Monkeys offers this thoughtful, fun, energetic, challenging and showstopping Circus Camp in Redwood City, only one week over the Summer! Also, did you know that a couple of the teachers even performed in the Zoppe Italian Family Circus that has toured through Redwood City over the past several years? Here is the camp information below…

CIRCUS CAMP!
Age 5-8, Half Day and Age 8-14, Full Day
with 888 Monkeys
June 23-27, 2014
Half Day: 9:00am-12:00pm, $189/$169 Resident Discount
Full Day: 9:00am-3:00pm, $309/$289 Resident Discount
at Red Morton Community Center

Click image to see Silk in Action!

A Camp A Day – Day Three: Kids Camp Preview Nights!

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It’s Day Three of our A Camp-A-Day Series and today we want to highlight our three “Kids Night Out” events in May!

Parents! Take a break on a Friday evening while your kids experience a preview of some of our long-standing and well-loved summer recreation camps! It’s a great way to for your child to “test-drive” our programs before summer (and plus, you get a few hours to yourself for whatever you need to do!) It’s a Win-Win!

STULSAFT -S’MORES & MORE!
Ages 5-12
Friday, May 2, 2014
6:00-8:30pm
At Stulsaft Park (drop off and pick up is on Recreation Way)
$20- Click to Register
This is a one night opportunity for kids to participate in a sneak peek of our summer Day Camps we offer at Stulsaft Park. We will have a campfire and roast s’mores, sing some of our favorite camp songs, go on a nature hike and make a cool camp craft.

HIGH FIVE-SILLY SCIENCE
Ages 4-6
Friday, May 16, 2014
5:00-7:30pm
at Red Morton Community Center
$20- Click to Register
This is a one night opportunity for kids to participate in a sneak peek of our High-Five Camp we offer during the summer. This night the kids will participate in silly science fun. Pizza and drinks will be provided. Parents go out for a night while we have a BLAST entertaining your young scientists!

CAMP WHATCHAMACALLIT NIGHT OUT!
K-5th Grade
Friday, May 30, 2014
6:00-9:00pm
At Sandpiper Community Center
$20- Click to Register
Summer is almost here, so let’s start the fun early with a sneak peek of what we have in store for you at Camp Whatchamacallit! Join us for an evening of all things camp! We’ll compete in fun challenges, create awesome crafts, get our glow sticks out for some outdoor fun, and end the night with some scrumptious s’mores! Dinner and drinks included.

The best part is, you can register for these right now!

See you tomorrow!

Let’s talk about FLEX!

Discounts

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