Billy Elliot!

What an Experience! The kids all had a blast! They all looked so nice dressed in their best outfits! None of the children had ever seen a professional play or musical before. Being in the Orpheum Theater was almost as magical as the play. I chose to take the children to this play because it stars a young boy that was pushed into boxing but had a passion for ballet. He fought tough odds but his dreams came true after all the hard work he put into dancing. I think it sparked some interests, for sure. What a great eye-opening opportunity!

The Shed!

Part of the funds that went to Camp Haven also provided for our new Children's Program shed which will house all our sports equipment and diapers! Take a look!

Cooking Week!

This was my personal favorite week because the kids were so proud of their food creations. One day the kids made "The World's Best Lasagna," and in my mind it really was. It's was amazing to hear that all the kids ate and loved their meal! Truly a treat for all parents to hear, I'm sure. They all took turns cooking the meat sauce and measuring out the ingredients. The next day the Camp Haven kids made their own Enchiladas! Those were super yummy too, so much so, that poor Lewis got none. Oh well! On Wednesday the kids made their own sugar cookies with frosting. They were truly nervous that their cookies did not look like it did in the pictures but when they tasted them they didn't care anymore. They were delicious! As for our big send off for Cooking Week we took the Camp Haven kids to Buca Di Beppo in Palo Alto where the kids filled themselves on amazing spaghetti and ravioli, with a salad too, of course. What a fun week for Camp Haven! I'm stuffed just writing this!

Dance Week!

Camp Haven sure had the moves this week! Our poor lawn will never be the same! The kids were jumping, running, and moonwalking all over the place! Camp Haven would like to give a BIG shout out to Nona with Captivating Dance and all her awesome volunteers for teaching the Camp Haven Kids their dance number. The kids spent all week practicing their dance moves then on Thursday the Campers performed for their families and the Haven Family House Staff. Also during the performance the children were presented with HUGE trophies that they earned with their hard work and dedication to dance. Way to go Camp Haven Campers! You earned those trophies!!

Tennis with Peanut!

This past Saturday a few of our Haven Campers were invited to attend a day long camp with Tennis Star Peanut Harper during the Bank of the West Classic where tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams were also playing. The campers learned great things, not only about tennis, but about sportsmanship as well. The campers received signed books of 'Inch and Miles, the Journey to Success,' written by both Peanut Harper and famous basketball coach John Wooden. The Campers had a blast at the camp and have a new respect for the game AND their opponents. What an Amazing experience!

Wrap up to Altruistic Week!

Another busy week for the Camp Haven Kids! We started the week in our garden and doing our community walks and picking up trash that we see along the way. We've been having discussions about how we need to help our planet by recycling and other things like: see a need, fill a need. Our volunteers have been modeling altruistic behavior all summer so it was easy for the kids to really get excited and take pride in what they accomplished throughout this week. The week ended with a trip to the Half Moon Bay Beach where the kids cleaned the beach then had a BBQ and did some swimming in the afternoon. The kids had a blast! This was a big self-esteem builder for all the kids, they took great pride in all their altruistic works!

Altruism Week: Doing our part around Haven

This week we have talked a lot about the ways that we each contribute to our community; today we focused on the Haven grounds, and tried to make it a little more beautiful, one little chore at a time. Our campers and volunteers donned gloves and worked on a variety of projects around the site: some washed windows, some picked up trash, and some organized the camp supplies. Each group played as they worked, and learned how good it feels to accomplish something that everyone can appreciate.

It may seem odd to have campers cleaning, but we at Camp Haven feel that stewardship is really important, and that the kids will value their spaces more if they contribute to their cleanliness. It wasn't all hard work, the volunteers did an excellent job of making the tasks into games, goofing off a little, but still making huge improvements to their respective areas of the site.

Tomorrow we head to the beach in Half Moon Bay, where we will be doing a beach clean-up, but then having some free time to play and have a beach barbecue. All the kids are looking forward to the trip, because altruism is fun!

Altruism Week: Community Gardening

The first day of altruism week was yesterday, and although the campers were first confused about what altruism was, overall I think it made a big impact. For the first day we talked about community gardening, explored our own organic garden, and made salad from the things that were growing there.

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For the rest of altruism week we will be talking about different aspects of the community, what we can do to be good members of the community, and finish with a beach clean-up in Half Moon Bay. We are hoping that this will be one of the most meaningful weeks for all our campers!

Water Week: Raging Waters

For the completion of water week we took all the campers to Raging Waters, along with a few parents, and we had an amazing time! The weather was warm and beautiful, and all the kids were incredibly excited. There were some great slides, and the wave pool was very popular.

We tired everyone out for sure, most of the campers and some of the parents fell asleep on the bus home, but it was the perfect culmination of water week. Luckily they have the weekend to recuperate before Altruism Week!

Water Week: Slip and Slide

This afternoon we brought out the slip and slides, much to the delight of all our campers. Here is a clip of our campers sliding away, some with more finesse than others, but a good time was definitely had by all!

Our volunteers have become such an amazing team this summer, Helen, Lisa, Malia, and James all work together flawlessly to make camp run as smoothly as possible, and we really appreciate all of their hard work. We are half way through this summer, and everything is so great. We are working to making even more exciting things happen, since we have all this great help. Thank you thank you thank you!

Water Week: Drenched in Fun

This week is water week, and we have all kinds of fun things planned for our campers, from the pool and water balloons, to an field trip on Friday to Raging Waters!

It is sure to be a great week! If you are reading this and you have activity suggestions, feel free to comment, we would love to hear from our readers! Stay tuned :) 

Soccer Week: Our Multi-Faceted Group

Soccer week is coming to an end, so Friday morning we did a little wrap-up exercise, talking about why soccer (and sports in general) are important in our lives, and talking about the ways that we are all different and wonderful. Here are a couple pictures of the poster we created.

Each kid created a soccer ball, with the brightly colored facets representing the great things about them. We had a bunch of great answers, and I have included one close up of a particularly great ball.

As you can see: Angel is smart, nice, careful, hopeful, and can run fast. All of our campers are so awesome and unique, this exercise was  so much fun and such a great way for them to highlight their skills.

Soccer Week: The Pool

So this week the Belle Haven pool opened, and although it's soccer week we took a break to go to the pool. All the kids had a wild and wonderful time, there was lots of jumping in, splashing, and shrieking, as you can see in this little video.

Thank goodness for all of our volunteers that accompanied us, Jack, James, Jackie, Justin, and Becca, we had probably the loudest group but also the most well supervised :) This morning we are doing another soccer activity, and I will post a picture of the finished product tomorrow morning. Thanks for supporting Camp Haven, we are having a fantastic summer so far!

Soccer Week: An Update

This week is soccer week, and things have been going really well. We have been doing lots of fun soccer mini games, learning some new skills, and generally having a great time. Today, we are taking a break from soccer to go to the pool (the Belle Haven Pool is finally open, yay!) and I will post a little video of that later. I just wanted to let you know that everything is still going great, and the number of kids that attend daily is going up and up :) Camp Haven is the place to be!  

What We Have Learned: Part 2

This is the final post of Museum week, and it involves our wrap-up activity, which was to write one thing we learned on a light bulb (representing a new idea) and place it on a poster of a brain. The following video describes that project, and shows off all the kids have experienced this week. Thanks again to our volunteers for making the trips possible, and to the museums for giving us such a warm welcome.

Get excited for soccer week!

Museum Week: Pizza Art

For lunch on Friday during our reflection activities we had a pizza making project: we used the dough that was already partially baked, so the kids could spread their toppings on easily. We provided sauce, cheese, pepperoni, bell peppers, and mushrooms, and each camper was able to put on exactly what they wanted. Enjoy this little video about what happens when you give kids free reign: chaos but also fun.

What We Have Learned: Part 1

As part of our reflection on Museum week, we asked the kids the talk about what they have learned when they visited each of the museums. We loved all of the responses we got, and here are just a couple of our favorites.

Museum Week: Palo Alto Jr. Museum and Zoo

1. 
   
   Meeting Devin the Snake



We were so lucky to have friends at the Palo Alto Jr. Museum and Zoo, including Devin the snake! The kids on the trip were able to meet the animals face to face, and it made a huge impression. They came back from the trip talking about how amazing snakes are, sharing information they had learned, and being generally astonished that they got the chance to be so close to a wild animal. The zoo was the hit to Museum Week, especially since it's so close that we were able to make two trips with our van, and take all the kids that wanted to go. I wanted to say a huge thank you to the museum, who invited us to come for free and gave us VIP treatment! Thanks so much also to our brave volunteers who came to the museums with us, without you it would not have been nearly as fun!

Museum Week: The de Young

This week was Museum week, and it was crazy fun! We went to the de Young, the Exploratorium, the Palo Alto Jr. Museum and Zoo, and we finished the week with a bit of reflection about what we learned. Because the week was so full, I didn't have a chance to blog, but all weekend long I will post updates for you, to catch you up before we head into Soccer week. Stay tuned!

This is just a few seconds of our trip to the de Young (before they told us we couldn't record - oops) but you can see the kids beginning to explore. The kids especially loved the aboriginal masks, and some kids wanted to read every since info card in the place!

The Dream Tree

One more thing that I wanted to add from Nature Week was our Dream Tree, which we created with our great volunteers. This short video shows some of the leaves from the tree, each listing one thing they want to do at Camp Haven this summer!

I wanted to say a huge thank you to all of those people in our community that are supporting Camp Haven, we are working to make sure all our campers have their dreams come true!

Nature Week: A Day in the Wild (Part 2)

At Camp Haven yesterday we had a blast on our mini camping adventure to Portola State Park, and here is the second video that we took on the trip.



We found this creek when we went on our afternoon hike, and the kids had a blast in the water. It started as a simple wading idea, just taking our socks and shoes off, but the kids had other ideas (including swimming). It turned out great, all the kids had changes of clothes, and it was the campers favorite part of the day!

Malia, Connie, Laura, Lisa, and Helen all came with us on the trip, and without them we would have been lost! We took 40 kids on the trip (including kids from our other Shelter Network family site - First Step for Families), and we needed all the chaperone's we could get! Thanks so much, and stay tuned for museums!

Nature Week: A Day in the Wild (Part 1)

Today at Camp Haven we took a bus to Portola State Park, to explore the woods and see nature for ourselves! I have two excellent videos to share with you, the first is an interview with a camper on the bus on the way there, and I will post the second one tomorrow!

If you didn't catch everything he said, it went along the lines of:
Q: "Where are we going?"
A: "To eat marshmallows"
Q: "What's it called?"
A: "Camping"

We want to thank our many volunteers who helped out with nature week, we truly couldn't have done it without the help of Ella, Izzy, Jacquie, Jack, James, Connie, Helen, Laura, Lisa, and Malia! Get ready for next week: Museum week!!

Nature Week: Our Volunteers Speak

We have been having a great week so far, here is a little video where are volunteers describe the nature-themed activities of the day. Enjoy!

Nature Week: Exploring the World (and our neighborhood)

This week we are focusing on nature, learning about environmentalism and how we are connected to the world around us. Nature includes lots of things, from plants and animals, to recycling and taking care of our neighborhoods. Last week were were very lucky to have a visit from Riley's Place, a non-profit in Woodside, CA that brings us animals that the kids can interact with (for more info, go to http://rileys-place.org/ ) Sara, the therapy dog, stopped by to say hello, and the kids made a great connection with her.

This week we are focusing on how we can make the planet better, for our animal friends and for future generations. Stay tuned for more great pictures, as we go on hikes, and even a mini camping trip on Friday. Of course, it couldn't happen without our volunteers, I will be posting a little video about them tomorrow!

Art Week: Campers Ready for the Louvre

Today is the last day of art week, and what a week it has been! With our amazing volunteers Hayley, Izzy, and Ella leading the projects, and Jack and James helping out, we have done many cool things. This morning, all the kids got to make their own baseball caps, which are photographed above, and as you can tell they had a great time being creative! This week we have made bracelets, covered the sidewalks in chalk, and even thrown paint covered tennis balls to create a temporary modernist mural! We could not have done any of this without our volunteers, with each day we have more campers, and more enthusiasm. Thanks to everyone who have helped make art week really great!

Art Week: Our Volunteers Speak

Art week has been going really well, the kids have many many beautiful things, and we owe it all to our amazing volunteers! We hope you enjoy this little snipet of our camp, there will be many more videos to come.

Week 1: Sport Week

Camp Haven: Sports Superstars!

Our first week of Camp Haven was Sports week, and it went off without a hitch! Our two volunteers, Jordan and Roshan, covered everything from soccer dribbling to how to keep hydrated, all in one week. It was our first week, and Jordan and Roshan were integral in getting kids out of their houses and into the sun! The kids played soccer, baseball, bocce ball, field hockey, and even brought out the slip and slide. All the kids had a fantastic time, it really started the ball rolling for Camp Haven! Thanks so much to our volunteers, and we can't wait to see what happens for the rest of the summer.

Welcome to Camp Haven: Fun Lives Here

Welcome Welcome Welcome!

This summer at Shelter Network’s Haven Family House for homeless families in Menlo Park, California, we are launching a brand new program: “Camp Haven – Where Fun Lives”. The idea is that all the kids who live at Haven Family House will have the chance attend an on-site summer camp. The goal of the day camp is provide a wide variety of activities and instruction to provide the homeless children with many opportunities to learn and play all summer long. There is a whole series of staff-supervised, but volunteer-run, activity-filled, weeks. We have just begun (June 13th, 2011), but we will be having fun all summer long!