Tag: teens

Home For The Summer! With RWC Teens

Hey, Teens!

Well, this summer sure looks different. We wanted to make sure we had you covered- even at home! We heard your feedback, so we’ve created something especially for you. Plus, it’s Parks and Recreation Month, so you get to enjoy it for ALL of July!

Starting Monday, July 6, Anthony Calvo, our Teen Coordinator, will be sharing videos with you to help you learn some new skills, stay connected with us, and take great care of yourself.  Videos will post on our Redwood City Teens Instagram Account (@RWCTEENS) and YouTube channel every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the entire month of July!

Check out our schedule below!

Monday- Cooking 

Learn simple 5 step recipes, tune-in, each has a special twist!

Week 1 – 7/6  Make Your Own Uncrustable

Week 2- 7/13 Pizza Bagel

Week 3- 7/20 Ultimate Grilled Cheese

Week 4- 7/27 Rice Krispy Bars

Wednesday- Life Skills

You need to know how to do these things. Your parents will thank you. 

Week 1- 7/8 Laundry (postponed)

Week 2- 7/15 Let’s do the dishes!

Week 3- 7/22 Money Management

Week 4- 7/29 Build a Resume

Friday- Workouts  

Get healthy and improve your fitness with 5 exercises per challenge! Exercises will be shown three ways- classic style, modified, and seated, so EVERY body can participate.

Week 1- 7/10  50 rep challenge

Week 2- 7/17  55 rep challenge

Week 3- 7/24  60 rep challenge

Week 4- 7/31  65 rep challenge

Okay! Make sure to follow us on Instagram or YouTube! See you, Monday!

 

Try “everything” this summer

MiniHawk

We are firm believers in kids trying all sorts of activities to stimulate their interests and find their passions. One of our main purposes in the business of Parks and Recreation is to provide a wide variety of introductory opportunities for people of all ages to experience, learn and grow! Summer is an opportune time for parents to dip their children’s toes into the water of multiple activities, and one area where diversification is becoming increasingly important is sports. We asked Brett Gardner, owner of our local Skyhawks Sports Franchise to share her thoughts on this topic. 

Much has been written over the past several years about specializing in one sport vs. letting kids play as many sports as possible. There is all this literature that benchmarks what age kids should be when they specialize. I come down firmly in the camp of NEVER. Unless your child is an elite gymnast or dancer, there is no argument to be made for specializing in a sport. Ask professional athletes how many of them “specialized” in the sport they now play. I’d hazard a guess that the answer is none.

burnoutBut, sports have gotten really out of hand thanks to the business model behind competitive sports. Coaches are hired to develop players for college sports programs. That’s what they are paid to do. I hear parents talking about this even with a team of eight-year-olds!

If you are reading this and you have teenagers, I hope you’re nodding your head in agreement. Parents of younger children, read on. Sports is not a career for your child. It’s an activity and it should be one of many.

But, more importantly, not all kids like sports. As the parent of two very athletic children and the owner of a company that runs sports camps, I should be shouting from rooftops about the benefits of sports. But, I have also seen what happens when kids are pushed too hard.

Girl getting ready to leave the baseI am a big believer in the “try everything” model of parenting. You never know what’s going to stick. When my kids were little, we tried it all — from ball sports to gymnastics to theater to martial arts to dance.  Some of it stuck and much of it didn’t. The questions we asked our kids were, “was it fun?” and “did you learn anything worthwhile?” Next, we asked them if they wanted to do that activity again.

With child number one, the answer was invariably, yes. With the other one, it was almost always, NO! Different kids, different interests. Even though child number one seemed to like everything and child number two seemed to hate most things, I still think the try everything model was good for both of them.

With limited time during the school year, we often used summer camps to let our kids try different activities. Many families didn’t understand why we would do this. If my daughter was “an athlete,” why weren’t we sending her only to sports camps? She plays ball sports nine months out of the year. Does she really need more sports at age eight? We thought it was far more important for her to experience different things. So we encouraged her to try science camps, cooking lessons, etc. She loved some of them and was less enthusiastic about others. But, she got to try something new, which was the most important thing.

As summer is looming, think about things your kids have never done before.  It could be a new sport, like flag football. Or, it could be dance or robotics. Try everything. You just never know what will stick!

SkyhawksTo sign your child up for one of Brett Gardner’s Skyhawks Sports Camps in Redwood City, click here. there are full day and half day camps available. Many are scheduled to coincide with Bridge Care and After Care. For registration info visit www.redwoodcitycamps.org

Brett_GardnerAbout Brett Gardner

Brett Gardner considers herself a bail-out from Silicon Valley after having been involved in the early stages of several companies. She is a coach at heart, having both played and coached soccer and basketball for several years. She currently owns Skyhawks Sports for the Peninsula and spends her Sundays with 70 of her favorite preschoolers teaching t-ball, soccer and basketball.

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

10603273_266575486870686_3196704041777919704_n

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, 21st Century Skills. We’re already fourteen years into the 21st century, and in my humble opinion, that buzzword should already be retired. What we really should be focusing on is 22nd 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_ideaComing 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

428945_10150511889067816_1808340469_nWho 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

One of the Best Jobs Ever!

One of my fondest memories from “teenagedom,” is that of one of my first jobs. There are not many options for preteens to make money, so babysitting seemed like the perfect job at the time. It was fairly easy to land a paying gig – someone ALWAYS needs a sitter- and you didn’t have to wait 2 weeks for a paycheck!  Did I mention that teens love instant gratification? I think it also inadvertently helped me to gain a little more respect for my own parents by highlighting the challenges of taking care of young children. Wow! It’s not that easy! Really!

 

I also gained valuable work experience and confidence moving forward into my teens. Babysitting IS work experience, for sure, and I am certain it helped me to land my first job in Parks & Recreation as a swim instructor for a neighboring City.  If your 12 to 18 year old is chomping at the bit to get out there and make some cash of their own to help pay for some new clothes, texting overages, or to start saving for college or dare I say A CAR *tremble*, check out the Babysitting Workshop Class that starts THIS SATURDAY!!! Also, with your consent, they will be added to our PRCS Babysitting List that is available for parents to pick up at their local Recreation Center… just to make their job search THAT MUCH EASIER!

 

Okay, now it’s time to register…

 

Babysitting Workshop
Saturdays 9am-12pm
April 28 to May 12, 2012
Location: Red Morton Community Center

REGISTRATION LINK

PS- can you please register today, so we don’t have to cancel this class? We only need 2 more to secure it!

PPS- Are you looking for other activities for your tween this summer? Visit our Summer Camp Website for more info!