At Camp Galileo

Nikhil  came back from summer camp yesterday with his face painted yellow and black. Said he has turned a cheethaand  growled at me . I  acted suitably scared, when Nikhil,  4 plus, with brother Sidharth, 6 plus, and their friend Suraj,  raided my room . They timed the attack to the afternoon hour when I have this post-lunch snooze.  Nikhil let it be known his coach at the camp was in on this engagement. She helped him put on the war-paint on Nikhil’s face.

Anyway, Nikhil and Sidharth left for the camp this morning wearing  a crazy cap. Wednesday is ‘Crazy Hat and Hair Day’ at Camp Galileo.  Yesterday was the day for  ‘Team Color Spirit’.  The schoolboy campers dressed up for the occasion in respective team colour.  Nikhil’s team color is blue. The ‘cheetha’ that attacked me yesterday was dressed in blue. Red, green, yellow and black are among other team colors. The campers are split agewise under three categories – Nebulas, Stars and Supernovas. Nikhil , as Nebula, wore blue. Elder brother  Sidharth wore black. Campers wearing black are Stars. So are those in yellow. orange and purple.  Supernovas wore red, silver or neon green on Team Color Day, Tuesday .

Camp Galileo, says its website,  is a summer day camp designed  for pre-K to 5th graders in San Francisco Bay Area. Idea is to encourage kids to brainstorm, create and think like innovators through the Galileo Innovation Approach. Each week-long summer camp session centers around an imaginative story or theme, which inspires art, science and outdoor projects for campers to explore . This week’s camp started, with Monday devoted to  the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco. Student campers learned about the Golden Gate’s history , the bridge’s construction; and, about  its the main features.

As Sidharth put it, In the beginning, when there was no bridge, you had to either swim across the San Francisco Bay to reach Marin County, or  take a boat that took a long long time. Besides, there were sharks out there . But then when an engineer  named Strauss  first suggested a bridge across the bay, everyone laughed at the idea.

The theme next week is  ‘Olympic Games’. Besides  class-room sessions , they have art and creativity hours and much outdoor activities. “Don’t forget to apply sunscreen (to children) and to send water and lunchtime beverage with them,” says  the guide sheet to parents.  No wonder  chilldren get drawn to Camp Galileo. Nikhil and Sidharth wouldn’t miss the camp for anything. The have signed on for two weeks of it.

The only snag is the cost -  it’s $350 per week

Cross-posted from Purely Personal

A piggybank idea

My California-based  grandsons –  Sidharth, 6 plus,  and Nikhil, 4 -  took me to Color Me Mine, a shop where  you colour your own  toys.  Take a toy  off the shelf,  paint it the way you please (they give the paints and brush at the shop),  and then have them  bake and glaze your painted  toy to give the finish and  shine  of a factory-made item.  The idea is to let children customise their toys , with the  colours  they fancy.  Nikhil and Sidharth who have done their colouring of  toys will have their masterpiece  fired in a kiln,  glazed, and delivered  within  a week.

Nikhil picked out for colouring a T-Rex dinasaur, to scare his grandpa . Elder brother opted for a bear with wings, for hit-and-fly attacks on their common target – grandpa. The color-me-mine concept , besides being fun,  promotes colour sense and creativity, and helps learning process among children. They get so focused on hands-on paintwork that their mommy could leave Nikhil and Sidharth at Color Me Mine for an hour so so that she could do her shopping elsewhere at Pleasanton Mall.

It is an idea that  play schools and daycare centre  at residential complexes can adopt. At our Chennai apartments complex  – Mantri Synergy – with 750 flats there are a number young parents  with young children who would welcome a facility that offers  hands-on painting opportunity  such as the ColorMe Mine  initiative.  Banks can adopt the business model  to attract deposits, notably, through piggybank accounts. Canara Bank used to  hand out a pig-shaped cash pots in which children collected small changes. The color-me-mine  concept  can tried out as a marketing device .   Use of earthern toys for piggybanks  by banks would boost  income of potters and rural artisans, besides engaging children in hands-on design and painting of their toys.