All Work and No Play: Why Our Kids Are More Anxious, Depressed

What are your memories of playing as a child? 

Some of us will remember hide and seek, house, tag, and red rover red rover. Others may recall arguing about rules in kickball or stick ball or taking turns at jump rope, or creating imaginary worlds with our dolls, building forts, putting on plays, or dressing-up. From long summer days to a few precious after-school hours, kid-organized play may have filled much of your free time. But what about your children? Are their opportunities for play the same as yours were? 

Most likely not. 

Check out the following article that discusses some of the ways childhood has changes over the last 5 decades.

https://dMfcBBOOkq7Na0ykdMboA.now7.site?landingPageId=23364450

Week 3: Colombia Newsletter

Wow! Each week gets more interesting and FUN at Vamonos NOLA! Despite the weather forcing us to close water play for a few days we still had a great time! The Nubes were able to experiment with blocks of ice and bubbles while our older groups Soles y Estrellas had fun with water shooters and water balloons in the park.

Team Building games were also a hit as we took refuge from the heat this week. Our Nubes practiced saltando, jumping, corriendo, running and tomando turnos, taking turns as they balanced on beams and hopped through “river rocks”. What fun! Older campers made their own ring toss game and also had a chance to practice tomando turnos and being a good companero or teammate.

Sr. Soren did a wonderful job of bringing the love of his mother country Colombia to life at Vamonos NOLA this week. The lesson on Pisos Termicos Thermal Floors was incredibly interesting as campers learned that while in Colombia the clima or climate is mostly tropical year –round, the elevation of Andes mountains creates clima caliente(hot), clima templada (mild),y clima frio (cold), which produces different vegetation. Check out how campers classified different vegetales that grow at the different elevations! So cool!

The Coffee Bean craft that followed proved to be a very zen experience for the kids. We had to extend their time because they were so into it and the results were beautiful! We have super active days and it is neat to see kids chill in the middle of a very full day with buddy reading during some down time.

Campers talked about Braceletes de Amistad or friendship bracelets and created their own while talking about como ser buen amigo – how to be a good friend.

Srta. Olivia did an amazing job teaching campers about la jungla and created rain forest dioramas boxes in after care! Campers went on a nature walk to collect materials to supplement what she brought in to create some spectacular scenes of arboles – trees, rios – rivers, y animales! It was such a hit we will plan for another opportunity during the camp day when we visit Bolivia!

In Super Heroes we talked about how the papas in our lives, who could be a tio (uncle), abuelo (grandfather), padre (father)or amigo (friend) are super heroes in our own lives and made special cards for the Papas in our lives! Feliz Dia del Padre! Happy Father’s Day to all of those amazing roles models for kids!

HOUSE KEEPING:

·         Water play will resume on Monday weather permitting, so go ahead and send campers in their suits again.  Worse case they stay in their dry suits during the day.

·         Many T-shirts didn’t make it home on Friday, but do not despair, I just added it to the laundry cue at my house so everyone will have clean t-shirts on Monday. If they did make it home, PLEASE send it back on Monday!

·         LABEL: Please be sure to label extra clothes and especially TOWELS on the white tag is easiest for us. The numbered hooks are helping, but there is still a mix up from time to time. Also, please put your child’s name on the OUTSIDE and TOP of lunchboxes. THANK YOU!

·         This week we welcome the return of Srta. Tresa to our staff! Another fabulous teacher from ISL who has also shared her talents with us during previous camps. Having this beautiful variety of teachers affords us the flexibility to allow our talented staff to rejuvenate during their summer vacations.

THANK YOUS:

·         Thank you to Lucia, Valeria’s mom for baking an AMAZING Tres Leches cake for the teachers! It was ESPECTACULAR! Everyone felt truly acknowledged by your kind words!

·         Thank you to Kevin,  Marissa’s dad who gave us a BEAUTIFUL Folgers Coffee Gift Basket!

·         Thank you Alyson, Aidan’s mom who recently shared a WONDERFUL app that has both my boys excited about cepillando los dientes brushing their teeth! It’s free and called Sonic Care Kids. The $40 toothbrush is optional and works all the same with any toothbrush you use! Check it out!

·         THANK YOU for the donations of toilet paper rolls and grocery bags from several families! Keep ‘em coming! (Can we add empty plastic water bottles to the donation request please J )

Week 2: Mexico:

Que semana! What a week! This week through our study of Mexico we talked about colores verde, rojo y blanco while making Mexican bandera or flag and learned about its geography – montanas, costas y volcanes which made for some fun during water play! 

Campers built a canal to channel excess agua from our extremely fun bounce house and watched how chemical reaction of vinegar and baking soda modeled a volcan!

We learned about the history of the Mayan people while talking about different shapes like triangulos, circulos and  piramides. This lead to a cool conversation and acting about momias or mummies! Older campers had a great time making salt dough to design their own Mayan Hieroglyphics and for those who wanted a super challenge to create their own mystery sentence!

We also learned about luchadores – Mexican Wrestling – and campers had fun with mustaches and designing their own Lucha Libre Mascaras.

Our little ones had fun singing “La cucaracha” and making their own maracas to dance with! They also enjoyed the paracaidas de nubes or cloud parachute in the park.

The water bouncy continues to be a huge hit, but for those who want to stay dry, campers have been given art supplies to express their creativity while observing the more energetic fun!

In cooking, campers learned about different hierbas or herbs while flavoring natural palomitas or popcorn and sampled Mexican Cholocate after learning our song “Chocolate”.

Srta. Viviana lead some incredible Baile Folklorico ! It was so fun to see initially hesitant kids really get into it! It got them geared up for our first Zumba class with Sra. Elena! People, I think we have some natural talent in the group! These kids know how to shake it!!! J

A few notes:

~~I am happy to report only 2 items remained in Lost and Found (small shark swim trunks and a pink and yellow skirt). That is thanks to you all LABELING everything!

~~ This week we welcome Srta. Lenna  to our staff who will be working with the Estrellas. Lenna is a 2^nd grade teacher at ISL during the year and we are excited to have her as part of our staff this summer! (Sta. Natalie will be traveling to Colombia this month!)

~~Remember to send back Vamonos NOLA T-shirts laundered on Monday along with the towels, bedding and water bottles. Also, it would be a big help if you labeled water bottles and lunch boxes on the outside top for easy distribution. Opening lunchboxes to match kids to food isn’t very practical with Hangry little ones J Gracias!

Looking forward to another great week visiting Colombia!

2016 Summer Newsletter: Week 1: Spain

Wow, what a wonderful week! We all had a blast this week learning about Spain! We danced flamenco with our home made castañuelas, we talked about “la playa” the beach and made beach “pelotas” and “cangrejos” or crabs out of cups and pipe cleaners. So cute!

 Older campers also worked on water science exploring the impact of oil spills on our oceans. They investigated the challenge of removing oil from water. Ask your camper what worked best!

We introduced the Vamonos NOLA Super Hero League (courtesy of Discovery Kids) where campers talked about being Super Heroes for Peace with their Vamonos NOLA capes! They created their own “titeres” or puppets and had a puppet show using their new vocabulary!

The bouncy water slide was a huge success and we incorporated water balloons, discovery ice blocks and water science for the older kids – who, by the way, still wanted to bounce! ;-)

We also had our first ever screen time. It was for 30 minutes which afforded the teachers an invaluable opportunity to meet and plan. The kids loved seeing the playful and  fun Pocoyo in Spanish!

Several Vamonos “Soles” or Suns were awarded for campers who were modeling characteristics of a Vamonos Camper. From sharing and being a good friends to keeping our environment cleaner than we found it, these amazing kids made it hard to choose! Keep it up campers!

Perhaps some of you saw the amazing and creative animals that came home on Friday? That was part of a camper favorite “Estación de Innovación” Innovation Station!  We love seeing the kids’ creativity come to life this way! 

To help us keep our innovation station fully stocked donations of a few household items for us including:

·         -- paper towel or toilet paper rolls

·         --empty water bottles

·         --lids   ( I love the ones from the fruit/veggie pouches)

·         Also any extra plastic grocery bags are welcome for us to reuse for wet bathing suits!

Lastly I wanted to thank everyone for their patience as we ironed out a few kinks during carpool, and the exchange of clothing… That being said, I want to add one more structure and a few reminders to help us run even more smoothly next week!

·         In addition to the bucket for lunch boxes and nap mats we will have a bucket for the gallon bag of EXTRA clothes. This is not the clothes that they will change into after water play, but the optional in-case-of-emergency clothes that is packed in a labeled gallon ziplock bag. This way they don’t get confused about what to put on or go into wardrobe selection mode which will help keep the laundry load down! (a high priority in my house ;-)

·         Speaking of laundry, Vamonos NOLA T-Shirts, towels and nap mats (as needed) should come back laundered every Monday. We will send it all home with you on Friday again.

·         Lastly a word about water! It is a hot summer and hydration is KEY to having a safe and fun summer. As such, we provide a VN Cup for all campers with their name on it and have scheduled water breaks along with having water available in every area of camp. So while water bottles are optional, we are asking that if your child is a NUBE (3-4 y/o) you go ahead and send a LABELED water bottle. We noticed that more water is ending up on the floor than in thirsty bellies with our little guys, so this may just be the answer! (They will still have their cups available throughout the day as well – just one more opportunity for MORE WATER!)

Thank you so much for all of the feedback! We LOVE hearing how excited kids are to come back on day two and three, what they loved about the day and what they are coming home saying in Spanish! It makes our work that much more rewarding!

On that note, I will leave you. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and for those who we won’t see again until later in the summer – hasta pronto! We enjoyed having each and every camper for week one of what is shaping up to be a FANTASTIC summer!

Hasta Pronto,

Kyrstie y Nancy

& the Vamonos NOLA team

Who is with your kids:

Co Owners Sra. Nancy  & Sra. Kyrstie (from Argentina)

Nubes (the younger group)

Sr. Soren (From Colombia)

 Sra. Mercedes (From Dominican Republic)

Sra. Katy ( From Peru)

Srta. Riley (amazing volunteer from Lusher)

Soles ( middle group)

Sra Viviana ( From Ecuador)

 Srta Justina (studied in Chile)

Srta. Olivia ( Studied in Brazil )

Estrellas ( the older group)

Srta. Natalie (studied in Argentina)

Srta. Cata ( studied in Argentina)

Srta. Leena (from Nicaragua)

Srta. Mariam ( amazing volunteer from Newman)

Vamonos Nola's Upcoming Features!

Hola amigos!

In lieu of Summer Camp being right around the corner, we at Vamonos Nola are pleased to announce some new upcoming features to our program!

1. While regular camp hours still run from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Vamonos Nola now offers Before Care for all early birds and eager beavers from 7:30 until 8:00 AM! And for those kids that aren't ready to head home when the day is over, Aftercare now runs from 3:00 PM through 5:30!
2. In addition to extended hours, Vamonos Nola's Summer Camp will also be featuring Capoeira lessons for all our kids! They will have a blast participating in this awesome martial art while also learning about its Brazilian roots as part of our Summer '15 Latin American Tour!
3. We at Vamonos Nola are also ecstatic to announce yet ANOTHER new feature to our Summer program! Vamonos Nola is teaming up with Liberty's Kitchen to offer optional daily lunches for sale for all our campers! Liberty's Kitchen aligns with our mission of serving the community and changing lives through education so we are ecstatic to be working with them! Yet another reason to be CRAVING Summer!

Lastly don't forget to come see us tomorrow afternoon for our Playdate Fundraiser to help raise money for Send a Kid to Camp Scholarship Fund! The children will have a variety of activities to choose from during a fun filled two hours of Camp Style Choice time all while being exposed to Spanish. Kids ages 3-8 will have snack then play the afternoon away in art, dramatic play, construction and table games! Parents can linger and observe the play based immersion or drop off and run an errand or have a coffee all while contributing to a good cause! The fun starts tomorrow at 4:00 PM!

For any more information, send us an email at vamonosnola@gmail.com or call (504) 495-2345

¡Viene el Verano! Here Comes Summer!

¡Hola a todos!

We at Vamonos Nola are pleased to announced that we had a blast at our Spring Camp! We and the kids got to learn new Spring time vocabulary while playing in the suds (on our famous Water Play days) and sun!

Now, with primavera behind us and Summer right around the corner, it's time to get ready for the next chapter!

Vamonos Nola is hosting an open house Friday, May 1st, and we hope to see you there! The fun starts at 4:00 PM and goes all the way through 6:30, with snacks, games, activities, and a chance to win a FREE week at camp! For more details, visit the event's Facebook page and be sure to RSVP!

Only 37 more days until SUMMER CAMP! WHO'S READY?!

Thank you for supporting Local Moms creating Local Business for our NOLA kids!

Nancy Doll & Kyrstie Schultz 
Co-Founders of ¡Vamonos NOLA!
A Spanish Immersion Program
More than just a Summer Camp!

(504)495-2345
(504)321-1411
www.vamonosnola.com

P.O. Box 850808 New Orleans, LA 70185-0808