Summer Camp Rules!

Yes, I realize that the summer is almost over and it’s rather late to be posting about summer camps, but in education, we stress reflection so much that I thought it was time to reflect on this summer’s choice of summer camps.

I tend to over think some things and summer camps for my nine-year-old son is one of those things.

I begin planning/ signing up for camps in April, but I start hearing about them as soon as January (and someday I’m going to get Emery into Camp Half-Blood, based on the Percy Jackson series and offered in Texas but its registration starts in November!)

As an educator, it makes me crazy to think of the hours my son spends on the couch watching television and playing games while I’m at school and my husband is at home with him. Of course, many of my teacher/ professor friends actually spend time with their children during the summer (at the pool, the library, at home engaged in meaningful activities) so I shouldn’t complain. Camps, for me, are a way to ensure Emery is not “wasting time.”

The way I choose camps now has changed quite a bit, but a few rules remain in place:

1.    My husband sets the number of weeks Emery can spend in camps. Usually, it’s no more than 5 weeks.

2.    I no longer consider school readiness camps or anything that is set in a classroom (although those are very tempting and Emery did a first grade readiness course which he didn’t complain about).

3.    If he goes to a camp and doesn’t like it, he can quit (zoo camp and robotics camp were disasters).

4.    Camps that are focused on a topic or a skill rather than a hodge-podge of activities tend to be better (I hated the camps I went to as a kid—we did various activities, mainly watching television, until Friday when we would take a field trip. I know my parents’ choice were limited as they both worked full time jobs, but I don’t think I enjoyed them as much if they had been something I was interested in).

5.    Emery must be interested in the topic of the camp. And I get a little specific—he used to do an art camp downtown, which was really great. It was an art camp (the one he went to was focused on the 80s) and campers did all sorts of art throughout the day, visual, musical, performance, etc. On the last day, they did a show with 80s music and skits—Emery learned The Thriller dance. However, he hated the visual arts part and even the director remarked that he was more of a performer than a visual artist, so we now do a camp that focused just on performance.

6.    Finally, I have to remind myself he can’t do every camp. For some (like video game camp), he’s too young; others overlap with the ones I’ve already signed him up for. 

So, in the late spring, I print out blank calendars of the summer months and begin to fill in our options. This year Emery participated in these camps:

1. DFW WOW Suzuki Camp (see previous post written by my husband) https://www.dfwwow.com/

2. Playmakers Baton Rouge Character Development Camp http://playmakersbr.org/

Here’s the description; his cousin took this one with him. They loved it.This one week camp offers the young actors with a opportunity to learn the dynamics of stage makeup and character movement work. The actors will explore different styles of stage makeup and character movement to create their own individual character. This performance will culminate in a mini presentation of the week’s lesson.

3. Greater New Orleans Suzuki Camp http://www.gnosuzukiforum.com/     

This was our fourth year (maybe 5th) at this camp. It was Emery’s third year with musician Tim Brock with whom we took private flute lessons. By the end of the week, Emery and Mr. Brock were improvising. Like the Dallas camp, a week focusing on music took his flute playing to another level—it was amazing. 

4. Fencing camp http://redstickfencing.com/ Okay, I was a bit skeptical about fencing camp. A camp that ran from 9-4 in a studio? What would they do for 7 hours? Well, they did a lot and Emery had a marvelous time. They ran drills, learned and used the different weapons (even historical ones), had bouts, watched films with fencing scenes, and played some sort of “storm the castle” game. Coach Ryan is great and really did a fantastic job working with his students.

5. Live! Learn! Louisiana! My colleagues run some really wonderful programs, and my friend Dr. Jennifer Jolly has run a camp for five summers now at the Louisiana State Museum in downtown Baton Rouge. She’s invited Emery to participate in the camp for several years and he hasn’t been able to because of camp rules #2, #5, and #6. I finally realized that the camp does not violate rule #2 and this year it wouldn’t violate #6, so I signed him up.

I must add that my hesitation was also based on Emery’s unpredictability. I didn’t want something to happen that would jeopardize our friendship—I can’t be more specific since Emery will be reading this, but it might have involved a food fight.   

He had a great time. 

You can read more about it at the link below, but his teacher for the week helped him research and put together a video project on red beans and rice. She even set up an appointment for him at a local restaurant to interview a chef. Children rarely have the chance to pursue topics that interest them with the help of a well-qualified educator and I wish schools were like this all of the time. I might have to reconsider #2 after this experience.  

http://chse.lsu.edu/sponsored_programs/LiveLearnLouisiana.shtml

What did your kids do this summer? 

Emery's comment: i don't waste time!!!!! some of use have to educate/play video games for our not so lame nintendo future!!! besides that she showed she knows me well.

The Sorting Hat Exercise: A Seminar in Personalities for Parents and Children

We are currently at Suzuki Camp #2. I flew in Sunday night from a conference in Colorado, (I could spend a whole month of blog posts on being a mom at a conference on education) and have been trying not to work, but grades are due tomorrow and there are those emails to respond to for journal editing, etc.

Anyway, today there was a special session titled “Personality types: How they affect practicing with your child.” I had planned to go by myself, but after joking with Emery that I was going to learn some secrets about being a parent, he decided he wanted to go with me.” In a story best not recounted here, Victor wound up going.

Basically, our teacher (who based her presentation off several research studies and presentations—it was like being at another conference session) asked us (the parents) to group ourselves according to their personalities: Artisan, Idealist, Guardian, and Rational. I turned out to be a Guardian. I love lists, charts, like helping people (which I do incessantly and probably annoy people with it) am sensitive to negative criticism, and knowing what the exact steps are for praise.

I was certain Emery was an Artisan—they don’t like endless repetition, enjoy stimulation, and like to show off.

I was wrong.

He and Victor are both Rational—they like asking questions, don’t respond well to charts, and ask “’Why’ in order to have the reason” (just demonstrated by my son who asked my husband why he was setting up the music stand). That explains why when the instructor went around the room, I expressed frustration with my practices with Emery and Victor smugly said he had no troubles.

How could I have been so misled?

Of course, this information would have been helpful 5 or so years ago, and I guess I already knew some of this stuff (he was never motivated by the infamous one hundred days of practice chart), but it’s nice knowing now how to proceed. And, it’s nice that Emery was there because he kind of understands why I do things they way I do.

And, of course, we now have our inside jokes, especially about Victor who thinks the whole session was a Harry Potter sorting scene and is calling me a Hufflepuff and who said to me a few minutes ago

“Guardian doesn’t mean appreciated.”

Emery's comment: smugly SMUGLY!!!!! she's right about that.BUT she forgot to say i learned stuff too! 

Suzuki Camp, part 2, my husband's take

Warning/ Disclaimer

I asked my husband to write a blog on being a Suzuki parent. As he is a writer, I should have realized he would completely ignore my directions and come up with the following post. Readers beware--he uses words I don't. 

He did send a great picture, however.  My kid's the one in the middle. The other two are his buddies: Connor and Brennan. 

Father / Son music camp.

Look, this is my wife’s thing, okay?  When my son started Suzuki violin lessons I was supportive.  Under one condition: my son was taking violin lessons.  Not me.  I have a PhD in English.  I’ve learned all I ever want to learn.  I am NOT interested in learning ANYTHING else.  FUCK MORE KNOWLEDGE.

I digress.

The point is that I was asked to take my son to a Suzuki music camp in Dallas because my wife is so selfish that she insisted on teaching in the summer.  As if.

The guy at the rental car place knew us.  We got a mini SUV for the price of an intermediate car.  We drove west.  Vrroooom.

We stopped at Buc ee’s (http://www.buc-ees.com/index.php) which obviously needs no explanation.  T-shirts and a coffee mug.  Then we met up with friends for a professional baseball game in Rangers Stadium.  The Rangers got their asses kicked 9 to 2.  But it was fun.  Hot dogs and popcorn for the boy.  Beer for me.  Good times.

The camp started the next day and this was the worst day of the summer so far.   Running around trying to find the right room, and by the way my son had NO FUCKING IDEA what a “polished” violin piece meant.  He might as well be playing the kazoo.  Holy fucking shit all that money on lessons and he just sucked.  Seriously, he might as well as well have been playing the trombone from his ass.  The “master class professor” implied as much.  After the first day I wanted to kill everyone.

We practiced.  We paid attention.  To my surprise this worked.  The boy got better.  I didn’t have to beat him with a stick.

The boy’s master class teacher was the best in that he didn’t tolerate jacking around.  He was like the grad school professors we all claim to love – tough and inspiring and tough.

My son’s “polished violin piece” was super steaming crap.  But it became polished by the end of the camp.  Which is to say the camp was not total bullshit.  Somebody at least took it seriously and my son was the better for it.

Sure.

I’d rather go to another Rangers game.

Suzuki Summer Camps, Part 1

Emery's Fourth Violin

I have one of the best jobs ever, in my opinion, for being a mom. My schedule is crazily full and I’m just as busy as others in the workforce (at least from what I can tell), but my hours are rather flexible (I can grade after he goes to bed) and I get to spend much of the holidays with my son. I often find myself wanting to educate the public that mine is a nine-month job (meaning I’m paid for nine months of work), so of course I don’t work during the summers, but alas, I do anyway. Usually, I spend my summers researching and writing manuscripts, but this year I’ve decided to teach two classes and I’m too busy to do much more than plan and grade.

Which leads me to this post: Suzuki Summer camps. My son has been playing the violin for the past five years or so (he’s nine). When he was three or so, I noticed he loved music (especially Charlie Brown music) so being an educator, I signed him up for music lessons (that seems to be a common pattern in my approach to parenting-kid shows interest in something, I sign him up for private lessons-I am in education, after all).

So, for those of you not familiar with the Suzuki method—it’s approach for teaching a musical instrument to very young children that follows certain principles.

Now, these may be wrong, but here’s what I’ve learned about being a Suzuki parent.

1.    The child learns how to play much in the same way he or she learns his or her “mother tongue” from a parent and from practice. This means that the parent learns how to play the instrument so he or she can help the child in daily practice.

2.    You and your child should practice together every day.

3.    You and your child should listen to music, including the pieces you will learn to play on the violin.

4.    The child moves through skills and a set repertoire of music at his or her own pace.

5.    The parent (and the child) do not compare their progress with other children (learning to play the violin is not a competition—I thought this would be harder for me to do, but it’s only been quite recently that I’ve started to wonder about my child’s progress).

6.    The child learns that the purpose of practice is to make “it” (the playing) easy.

7.    The child memorizes all pieces of music and learns to read music only when he or she is ready (often when they learn how to read words).

There are more principles, but those are the ones that I have learned. Yes, we practice nearly every day, but on those nights that I teach (often twice a week) I have to really on my husband to follow through and make sure Emery practices. Yes, it’s quite a commitment.

Which leads me back to the camps. There are a number of Suzuki camps in the summer in which students work with other teachers and students. They are actually a lot of fun and students, as with most camps, develop friendships. My son is at a camp this week—I am not. Instead, I had to send my husband while I continue teaching my courses.

My husband is not educated in the Suzuki way.

He hasn’t attended parental training, read the books, or discussed with other parents what it means to be a “Suzuki” parent.

It could be a complete disaster or a complete success.