Chalk and Cheese Chronicles

Camp Galileo: These Stars say it's all good!

It's February, the month I usually start thinking about summer camps.

This will be our second year of Camp Galileo (aka Camp G). Check out my son's video in that post and you'll see how engaged he was (at age 6) during his week of sleuthing about impressionist paintings as a "detective in Paris" this past summer.

My boys almost never vividly describe their day to me at pickup. They say that everything was "good." School was good. Camp was good. The birthday party was good. Basically, it means they're blowing me off. It means, I did it and it was GOOD and now I'm busy playing so leave me alone! I have to wait a few hours or days for the details to come pouring forth. Some details never come.

I mention this because last week, I recently had the chance to sit down with the team at Galileo Learning and explore beyond my kids' one word descriptor. Turns out the word "good" is just a springboard for the Galileo Innovation Approach which means, always: Be Visionary, Be Courageous, Be Collaborative, Be Determined and Be Reflective.

This mindset, repeated in the curriculem for every theme, at every camp, year after year is important. Children will learn, over time and with repetition, to use this mindset when faced with a challenge; and they'll learn how to gather knowledge in the process of creating and bringing a new idea to fruition.

School gives my kids the basics. Camp Galileo teaches kids what to do with those basics in a variety of disciplines such as art and science. I wish that Camp Galileo were an after-school option for kids, so that they could take what they've learned in school and apply it in a way that's fun and reflective of real life matters.

My kids are Camp Galileo campers, that is, they are between Pre-K and rising 5th graders. When they become rising 5th to 8th graders, they will be eligible for Galileo Summer Quest (one week format) where I'm sure they'll beg me to sign them up for Video Game Design camp. Rising 4th to 8th graders can apply hands-on learning in science and technology at The Tech Summer Camps. And new this year, is the Chabot Space and Science Camp for rising 4th to 8th graders. All of this falls under the guidance of Galileo Learning.

There are four Camp Galileo weekly themes lined up for 2012. Nebulas (pre-K and kindergartners), Stars (rising 1st/2nd graders, like my kids were last year) and Supernovas, rising 3rd - 5th graders) can look forward to themes that can be divided into art, science and outdoors.

Briefly, some highlights are:

Galileo Olympics: Greek Art and The Science of the Games

Nebulas will construct a leaf-adorned victory head wreath and make a foam stamps to embellish their ancient Greek tunic.

Stars get to mold their own gold and bronze medals and fling about new terms like "fluid design."

Supernovas will be crafting with paper-maché and using impulse force. My kids have never done paper-maché so I'm sure this will be a fun, messy project. Then they'll learn about owls and as any Harry Potter fan will tell you, owls are not only wise, but they're magical as well. Then, if that were not enough, my boys will have the chance to test out a bow and arrow during an archery event. 

I'm thinking we might go with this theme, as it might awaken an interest in this summer's 2012 Olympics in London.

Celebrate the Golden Gate: SF Art and Bridge Engineering

San Francisco is our backyard stomping grounds and I know it like the back of my hands. Sometimes, we go about as natives and other times, we just play tourist. I love how this theme is relatable to the day trips we make to San Francisco.

Nebulas will learn the history of the Dutch Windmill (the one out by Ocean Beach) and then make their own out of clay.

Stars will craft a Lombard Street collage and learn to build a bridge.

Supernovas will make a 3D painted lady (Victorian house) and engineer a suspension bridge. I'm sure it will all be trickier to do than it looks!

Leonardos's Apprentice: Renaissance Art & Inventions

Evidence of Leonardo's influence is everywhere. My boys and I recently watched a Nova episode called Mystery of a Masterpiece. I have a massive coffee table book on Leonardo which my grandmother passed down to me. My boys have read many books in which Leonardo appears as a character (like Monday with a Mad Genius). I like that I'll be able to round out what my boys learn during a week studying Leonardo just by looking around me.

Nebulas will embellish a Renaissance sketch book and explore the concept of sink or float, to name a few of the activities they'll be doing.

Stars will pratice shading and painting to make clouds. I'm an Art Vistas docent at my kids' school so I enjoy anything that ties into the work we're doing there, and yes, we have learned to make clouds!

Supernovas will paint their own frecoes.

Galileo Rocks! The Art and Science of Music

This theme links art masters like Picasso and Matisse to instruments depicted in their works.

Nebulas will make sea masks and design drums of different diameters.

Stars will use a kalimba to explore prong placement and length in relation to pitch. Then they'll get their groove on and practice rhythm and movement.

Supernovas will create a mixed media collage (think Kandinsky) and make a guitar out of nylon, cardboard and wood!

My kids will be doing two weeks at Camp G (some people do 4 weeks or more!). We've yet to nail down the themes, but one thing is certain, I will NOT be packing lunch! New this year to Camp G, lunch and snacks will be provided by ChoiceLunch. It's an additional fee, but after 9 months of packing lunches this school year, I am done. And it's not like I'm giving my kids the license to gobble down pesticide laden junk food, either, no - it's ChoiceLunch, which provides healthy, hormone and antibiotic free meats and dairy. We're going to give the lunch option a go.

The other thing I like about Camp G is the counselors. All the lead instructors are college graduates. With less than 10 percent of applicants accepted, landing the role of a Camp G leader is prestigious indeed!

A camp is a camp is a camp, right? Wrong!

So what I learned from my kids is that in its simplest interpretation, "good" equals fun. But what I learned from the hard working team at Galileo Learning is that good and fun equal the Galileo Innovation Approach. It means that slowly and without realizing it, my kids will pack along some helpful tools they'll need as they go out into the world. They'll learn ways to be visionary, courageous, collaborative, determined and reflective.

According to my Stars, it's all good.

Did I mention the discount? Refer friends and you both get $40 off. In fact, you'll get a $40 reduction with each referral. That's a crazy discount.

This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.

Disclaimer: Galileo Learning invited me to a discussion centered around the Galileo Innovation Approach. They are giving my kids one free week of camp each because they want to hear my feedback, both positive and negative. So stay tuned for our post-camp write up later in the summer!

Our Summer Wardrobe is the Camp Galileo T-Shirt

My twin boys have easy fashion requirements when it comes to clothing. They're into soft t-shirts with cool graphics and absolutely no hardware of any kind (we're looking at you buttondown shirt). It takes my boys all of two minutes to get dressed. T-shirts, shorts and presto, they're ready for the day.

This summer has been the summer of the Camp Galileo t-shirt. It's become my boys' summertime uniform. They wear their light blue Camp Galileo "Stars" shirts nearly every day. I think my boys wax nolstaglic when they're in their Camp Galileo shirts. We went to camp and a good time was had by all.

My boys took away some incredible memories from their two week experience at Camp Galileo. As the mother of the boys who wear their Camp Galileo shirts almost every day, Camp Galileo isn't far from my mind either. Those shirts are in every laundry basket I set out to fold. I can't fathom the number of times I've folded those shirts. I could probably pick them out of a pile of clothing with my eyes shut.

My boys have worn their Camp Galileo shirts to bed. They've worn them to other other camps. Our photos from this summer look like we packed in a hundred activities into one day because no matter what my boys doing, at least one of them is wearing a Camp Galileo t-shirt!

A few examples...

At the OMSI in Portland.

 

A the beach, making a fort.

On the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad.

At Santana Row, shopping with me (think I must've bribed him).

Chalk Boy wore his camp shirt to the aquarium:

His brother wore his while trying to earn time on his beloved Sony PSP.

Tomorrow will be yet another day of making memories in a Camp Galileo t-shirt. My boys will be heading to a spy camp at a local school district and guess what they'll be wearing? HEAVILY laundered Camp Galileo t-shirts, of course.

Another day, another Camp Galileo t-shirt to wash. I see no end in sight until my boys have outgrown them. Which leaves me to wonder why Camp Galileo only allows ONE t-shirt per camper per summer? Every camper gets one t-shirt only, even if they attend camp the entire summer. I say bump it up to one t-shirt per week of camp attended, or make the t-shirts available for sale on-site.

It's all good, of course. Camp Galileo = a summer of fun and learning. As long as my boys feel happy, I'm happy to wash those shirts, again and again. We loved Camp Galileo and will be back for more next summer. I guess it doesn't hurt to ask... pssst... Camp Galileo! Do you think you can allow me to stock up on t-shirts next year? Please?

This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.

 

Disclaimer: We participated in two weeks of Camp Galileo, each in a different location. One week we paid for on our own; the other is a complimentary week courtesy of Camp Galileo. I decided to write about our experiences at both camps and the opinions expressed herein are my own.

 

 

 

 

Camp Galileo: Our Week as Young Detectives in Paris (video interview)

The theme of our recent week at Camp Galileo was Detective is Paris, Impressionism and the Science of Sleuthing.

From the website:

Intrigue abounds in the City of Light, where famous paintings have been mysteriously disappearing left and right. Sherbock Holmes is on the case, with the help of junior sleuth Yvette and her team of camper helpers, who hope to recover the paintings in time for the grand opening of the Salon des Refusés. This week, dig up your passport and dust off your magnifying glass for a trip to Paris. Get ready to learn the secrets behind Impressionism, put your sleuthing skills to the test and assist Sherbock and Yvette in cracking the case!

"Ok," I thought, "We're game!" My boys are into the spy thing, big time, just like most of their peers. We have a whole drawer of spy gear. We'd also taken in the Birth of Impressionism exhibit when it toured the De Young, so the theme was right up our alley.

When we arrived at Camp Galileo on an already hot Monday morning, my boys burst through the streamers at the entrance with nary a goodbye to me. I was merely le taxi.

You can't play the part of a detective in Paris unless you're sporting a mustache! So on Wednesday, all campers were encouraged to come to camp en moustache. We obliged.

I never know exactly what goes on during the time my boys are away from me. They always give me details in random bursts. But I know that they' were happy campers all week. I can just tell by the way they greeted me at pick up. No sullen faces, no complaints of boredom - clearly, they loved Camp Galileo.

Cheese Boy's group leader, Joanne, told me that he thinks he knows who stole the paintings. She described how he knew all about the science of lie detection. Apparnently, he did read the manual of the toy lie detector kit he has at home.

Here he is, describing how to detect a lie. For the record, however, it turns out he was wrong. I don't remember who turned to be the thief but it wasn't the science teacher.

 

This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.

Disclaimer: We are doing two weeks of Camp Galileo, each in a different location. One week we paid for on our own; the other is a complimentary week courtesy of Camp Galileo. I decided to write about our experiences at both camps and the opinions expressed herein are my own.

The Daylife Scene

Whenever I head to Santana Row, it's usually at the start of the day, when the shops first open. Sometimes, I meet friends for coffee; other times, I dash in for an Anthropologie fix. But it's usually done at the start of the day, when the kids are at school. I zip in and out and parking is not a problem. There's never a line at Pinkberry at 10am. On the weekend, sometimes I'll bring the kids because they love the giant chessboard. My social life takes place during the day: I have a daylife.

On the occasion that I find myself there during the transitional period of 5 to 7pm, panic sets in. If it's Friday, I'll notice cars starting to fill the parking lots and an increase in foot traffic. The ladies with shopping bags go home, replaced by, as they say, all the single ladies and all the single men. Those young 20-somethings are gorgeous in a way that only youth can supply. When I hear the music booming from the restaurant come bar called Straits (which, by the way, I used to go to in San Francisco back when it looked like any SE Asian restaurant), it's my signal to head home - or to Target.

I like pretty things. Pretty dresses, pretty rooms, pretty flowers. But I don't like exuding sexiness, and could never exude it even if I tried - it's just not me. Santana Row at night is the sexy side of Silicon Valley. It resembles the Vegas crowd. Get me out of here, I whisper, fleeing in my flats. I'm dumpy and tired and I want to wear sweats.

I haven't been part of a nightlife scene in ages, excluding the nightife that befalls new parents when they're up at night with a newborn (or in my case, two newborns). Santana Row has a buzzing nightlife scene. I was with a group of my mom blogger friends on a recent Thursday night and I swear, we were the only females wearing flats.

I hadn't known skyhigh heels were in style! I'm not talking platform heels, but spikey heels. What happened to Toms and espadrilles and flip flops? This was a look-at-me kind of scene. As I looked down at my white dress that my mom friends had complimented, I also realized that I was probably the only women around wearing white and worse, white paired with flats. One white dress in a sea of black and red and majenta.

Time to retreat to the comfort of home. I looked at my friend who was clad in shorts paired with - gasp - was it Clarks clogs? She didn't fit the style bill of Santana Row as well. It's not that we were lamenting our youth or craving attention; it's just that we're just not interested in that scene. Well that, and the fact that we like comfy clothes.

We are all in our bubbles, all in our time warps, caught up in the here and now. I must say that it is refreshing to step outside my bubble once in a while and realize that all the world does not live life as I do, at home, behind a computer, for the most part.

Anyhow, as I will be up early to drop off my kids at Camp Galileo in the morning, I'm sure I'll pop by Santana Row because I did spy some pretty (but not sexy!) dresses in the window of H&M. I'll just be sure to do my shopping at the start of the day because, you know, I relish my daylife.

 

This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Kid Friendly at Whole Foods Blossom Hill (San Jose)

The long awaited grand opening of the new Whole Foods Market Blossom Hill is today!

I got to tour the store a day in advance of its opening and let me tell you, this is a store that was thoughtfullly built, with emphasis on eco-friendly and energy efficient development and design. That said, I toured the store from the perspective of a parent shopping with young kids. The sheer size of all these massive new Whole Foods Markets makes it not kid friendly in my book. When I'm pressed for time or have kids in tow, I need to be in and out of a grocery store fast.

So let's have a look...

Coffee Bar

The first thing that caught my eye was the location of the coffee bar. It was right there at the entrance where I could hit it on the way in or on the way out. The coffee bar serves Allegro coffee and organic, soft-serve Straus frozen yogurt which I know my children will love. For Kombucha fans, the elixir will be available on tap.

 

 

Restrooms

Restrooms are on the front right side of the store, not far from the in-store dining area. Each restroom is equipped with a swoon worthy Dyson Airblade hand dryer which is always fun for kids to use.

Grind-Your-Own Nut Butters

One of the places in Whole Foods where I always stop with my kids is the grind-your-own nut butter section. It's a fun way to show kids how peanut butter and almond butter are made. Of course, once my kids spot the chocolate chip blend, they aren't content with grinding up plain old peanuts.

Healthy Eating Specialist

There are store tours just for moms as well as classes and free consultations with the store's in-house, full time Healthy Eating specialist, Georgia Brown. Georgia caught my attention when she re-quoted the warnng that "this might be the first generation of children who might not outlive their parents" due to unhealthy lifestyle choices. You can bet I'll be seeking out Georgia's advice whenever I'm in the store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Step and Repeat moves off the red carpet

I'm disappointed. Where were the paparazzi during the hundreds of times I made my glamorous (and not so glamorous) arrival at birthday partys, frat boy parties, weddings and baby showers? How many camera worthy moments were wasted posing in front of birthday presents, kegs, limos and diaper cakes when I could have been captured at my most radiant in front of a step and repeat backdrop?

You've seen the photos. You've seen the signature poses. It's the Academy Awards or the Grammy Awards and in strut the celebrities across the red carpet, stopping briefly at the step and repeat wall to give the parparrazi its fill.

There's Demi and Nicole and the Twilight cast making the art of posing look effortless. There's the Cosmo pose, the big smile pose and the usual hand on hip pose, all perfectly executed in front of a banner littered with the corporate logos of sponsors or the name of the event. It all blends together, logo and star. We watch, transfixed. It's the glamorous life. A step and repeat backdrop generates buzz.

Recently, the step and repeat backdrop has begun to move off the red carpet and into the lives of everyday people: Bat Mitzvahs, birthday parties, weddings, sorority pledge dances, to name a few.

Has celebrity culture has become so pervasive that we all harbor a desire to pretend we're celebrities? Is the step and repeat backdrop a symbol of celebrity narcissism or of our own narcissism? Earlier this year, the musician and artist Elijah Blue (son of Cher) used the step and repeat in an art installation commentary on the prolification of reality TV and the cheapening of celebrity.

The Mystery of the Mystery Spot Stickers

 

I've been been driving behind them for years. In Silicon Valley, they're as popular as those family stickers that people plaster to the rear window of their cars, alerting the world to the size of their families. You might even be sporting one on your car: The Mystery Spot bumper sticker!

It's yellow and alludes to a secretive, mysterious spot tucked away somewhere in the Santa Cruz mountains. Stuck in traffic behind a car whose bumper bears this sticker, you might give it nothing more than a passing glance, but you are being subliminaly messaged to get your hands on a Mystery Spot bumper sticker of your very own.

I have to say, I usually spot Mystery Spot bumper stickers on sensible cars, the kind driven by sensible engineers. (Think: Hondas.) I also noticed one on a car parked in front of my yoga studio. It's to the point where the Silicon Valley version of car bingo ought to include an image of the Mystery Spot bumper sticker. It would make for exciting, fast paced fun.

My friend Vijay even spotted the familiar yellow bumper sticker in Bangalore!

This is Vijay's photo and he has a theory that SV Desis are being brain washed into flashing these ugly yellow bumper stickers after visiting the Mystery Spot. Spread the word, spread the word! Has anyone ever seen an Art of Living bumper sticker co-existing next to a Mystery Spot bumper sticker? Surely, there's such a car.

A Little Bit Louder Now: Shout! The Mod Musical

The last time I got into that classic song Shout I was wearing a toga and dancing in a basement with boys at a Sigma Nu fraternity party.

Last week, when the cast at the Retro Dome took to the stage in the final closing moments of the first preview performance of Shout! The Mod Musical, I wasn't wearing a toga, or dancing with with boys in a basement. I was sitting nicely in a row next to 8 of my mom friends and we were all tapping our toes.

Revisiting the past feels different the second time around. On one hand, I want to shed the present and jump back to the past. Pass the Corona! Look at how skinny I am! On the other hand, I can't imagine life without my three boys.

Shout! The Mod Musical takes us back to the swingin' '60s which would have been more my mother's era than my own. Nancy Sinatra notwithstanding, I have never been particularly moved by the music of that era. I was never a big Beatles fan <gasp>. So while I didn't relate to much of the music in the show (except, of course, to the knee grinding Shout), it was fun to peek into the imagined lives of women who came of age during Britain's so-called Mod years. I am drawn to the past, perhaps not living enough in the present. I spend a lot of time imagining what it might have been like to have been living in another time and place. I'm a retro loving girl, drawn to vintage bookstores and black and white films but the music of the 60s is a place I've never yearned to go.

So when 8 of my SV Moms writer friends (including Jill, Nicole and Grace) joined me for a Moms' Night Out (MNO) at the Retro Dome, we stepped out of the present and into a day-glow cast of characters which included the Red Girl, the Blue Girl, the Green Girl, the Orange Girl and the Yellow Girl. Each was a stereotype of  a young woman in 1960s Britain. The era of the birth control pill. I don't think I am or would have been any one of those girls, but it was delicious fun to see these girls stare out above the audience at an Oz like advice columnist whose misguided advice sends the girls off to remedy their lives with new pedicures. 

A Farewell to San Jose's Liquidambar Trees

We love trees. They dot the landscape of our lives, standing like monuments through time and seasons. In winter, I stare with my children up through barren branches, searching for clumps of twigs - a nest! In spring, I open the skylight of our car as white blossoms fall upon us like snowflakes. In summer, we run and play amongst the shady trees, happy to be sheltered from the heat. In autumn, downtrodden leaves give forth a most satisfying crunch.

On windy days, we look up and see drama in trees full of movement.

In early September, we look up and see a red leaf, then a yellow leaf. Our eyes light up - fall is coming!

Where would we be without trees? Without trees, the seasons would be boring. Trees make me happy. They make my children happy. My children will tell you that a tree is nice.

Yet, one by one, in some San Jose neighborhoods (Willow Glen, for instance), certain trees are being felled. Giant, beautiful Liquid Amber (?) Liquidambar trees topple like dominoes, replaced by assorted scrawny saplings no bigger than a branch. My children and I wonder about the ages of these fallen trees. We could not wrap our arms around the circumference of any one of these trees, so my children guess the trees must be ancient, as old as grandpa.

70s/80s Redux at San Jose's Retro Dome

I recently spent a lazy Sunday revisiting the past. There was sugary cereal (Frosted Flakes), a squirmy little boy (my son) and a cast of characters teaching us about nouns, adjectives and how a bill becomes a law. It was 70s/80s redux at San Jose's new Retro Dome and I was beginning to feel the pull of nostalgia.

C'mon," I'd said to my son, who was born in 2004, "let's do some time traveling."

Of course, this piqued his interest immediately and I'm sure he was thinking, "To infinity...and beyond!" but I yanked him back, back to the brown carpeting of my childhood living room, back to the darkened hour of early dawn, back to the bowls of Frosted Flakes and back to every Saturday morning of my youth spent in front of the tv. It was time for School House Rock, live and on stage!

A few year's ago, my nephew had been in a school production of School House Rock and it was adorably performed and I'd enjoyed the songs, but this production was professional and truly brought the School House Rock characters to life. My son had never experienced live musical theater (I was obsessed as a kid) and he'd never been exposed to School House Rock (my bad) and he'd never felt the sizzle of Pop Rocks on his tongue (from the Retro Dome's snack shack -- I said no) and he loved it through and through. There was a lot of audience participation. Our favorite? Interjections!