Category: Life Tips

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Life Life Tips

Separation anxiety – parents version

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Background: I went to a boarding school when I was 13. I saw my parents once a month. Society was much simpler then but the change was in the air and in the ground, Ningbo was opened up in 1984, and I saw a lot of earth moving around me. Although foreigner was still rare to come across and our vice provost emphasized “don’t listen to Deng Lijun’s Mimi zhiyin”. I had a fairly strict teacher (counselor), and I could not fall asleep 😴 💤 during 中考and 高考but all in all I survived. I think I had an easier time compared to today’s iPhone generation [微笑]

I thought of the separation anxiety from parents perspective. This summer we dropped off Serenity at Cub Creek Animal Science camp at Rolla, for a week. This is a sleep away no iPhone camp. And in the first two / three days, before I got her email, I was restless. Everyday I checked Bunk1 app and website many times, in which the counselors uploaded their daily activities photos. I turned on the notifications. I also wrote note to Serenity in the bunk1 app or website. Later I learned she did receive it but she has no time or device to reply it from the app. The line for email was long and she had to hurry and that’s also why she only wrote back once.

Yesterday I saw a fellow Chinese parent wrote that they are becoming empty nesters as the 2nd kid just went to college. And for me it will be 10 more years down the road when our younger daughter Sophia is college bound. Now I think my parents may have had similar feelings when they waved goodbyes when we went to schools, and when we came to the USA.

Once in college at Wuhan, it was probably my sophomore or junior year, I told my parents that I am not going home for Spring Festival (Chinese new year). My reason is the crowdedness in the train, as explained here. My mom, who usually does not write to me, wrote a letter and urged me to return home. So I obligated. Note the train is still crowded, once I stood about 15 hours in the train on the way returning school from home, during the Spring Festival travel. I recall the train was so crowded, and there were 7 people in one bathroom (the toilet room). And once a girl walked to the bathroom, asked guys turn around so that she could use the restroom. They wouldn’t oblige. So she has to walk or to be precise squeeze through one more train cabin. I do recall one girl (she is from Wuhan university and Dongyang, one year senior than me), gave me a peeled apple when I stood next to her.

Categories
Fun Life Life Tips

Alcohol

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I started a Twitter thread on Alcohol recently.

I have not finished it yet, and I am in a bit relapse now. But I will attempt to rewrite it as a blog. Or reflection.

I think the most important thing of all, is we need to make sure we don’t get drunk often, or have our lives be influenced by alcohol. That means don’t get intoxicated often and basically we cannot learn in those times. For me this mostly means evenings.

A side note of all this is in the past I modeled my drinking habit or life style after my maternal uncle (my mom’s big / old brother). I recall his motto is he always drinks some alcohol (mostly rice wine) at evening dinner time, and if he does not drink that means he is sick. In a similar fashion I drinks the coca-cola and other sodas because I know Warren Buffett drinks 5 cans of Coca-Cola every day. To be precise Warren drinks cherry coke, and he got almost all of his daily caffeine from coke, and lot of daily sugar and calories from coke. Note Warren Buffett exercises (walks) quite a bit everyday.

The flaw of my logic above is also obvious: I am me, myself, and I am not someone else. I can learn from other’s motto or philosophy, or habit, but I need to assess if that is applicable to me or not. I think for me, I need to consume both alcohol and soda in moderation.

Note the principle above is applicable to work, to many other things in life.

My drinking history

I recall I got drunk twice (maybe more) before 10. Please don’t judge my parents, as there was no legal drinking age in China (I believe this is still the case now, but I did not check recently). I drunk during my uncle’s wedding, and during my aunt’s funeral. In China they are called 红白喜事，and there are usually drinking and food.

My wife’s option on my drinking: perhaps my daughters too. They don’t like me drinking. My wife’s mom passed away due to a car incident (the driver was drunk, note she was not the driver). My father-in-law drinks socially. And sometimes I drunk with him (again note the social part).

I think for now I will give up Whiskey (or any other hard liquors). And consume beer and wine in moderation (not everyday).

Categories
Life Tips Software development Technology

App Store unauthorized charges

Reading Time: < 1 minute

In my old job at the credit card 💳 co. I did support for a while and once I spent about 2 hours giving cardholder about 1.3 cents worth of US dollar. Today the roles reversed. Btw, Serenity said she was proud of me (assuming she was complementing I was the cool 😎 guy).

What happened

I don’t check my email that’s associated with appleid frequently because I transitioned most emails out of that one. But on Monday August 15, I noticed something is wrong with my Apple Card as I saw the suspicious purchase: $7.97 for robux, in case you don’t play Roblox, robux is the virtual currency for Robox game. On Tuesday 8/16 I saw one more purchase: $12.98 total, $9.99 for weather – (this is quite scammy as I don’t recall I never bought its subscription), and $2.99 worth of robux.

How I handled it

I contacted Goldman Sachs customer service through the dispute button in the Apple card, and they gave me credit eventually. I also changed the password for the apple id and the email (enabled 2FA). I noticed some tips from Apple regarding kids apple store payment, requirement for password, etc. This is the Apple web page that explains a few ways we can tighten the in app purchase on the devices.

My thoughts

Overall I still prefer Apple music / fitness+ over Youtube Music. Compared to Youtube (owned by google), sound quality on Apple music is usually guaranteed, while some YT music has bad sound quality. Also Fitness+ with integrated music is better than Peloton outdoor.

I wrote a twitter thread on this, btw.

Categories
Life Tips Saint Louis Technology

Back to school

Reading Time: 2 minutes

A checklist for Ladue school parents and guardians

Buy school supplies;

Meet the teacher / community night (bring school supplies if applicable): mainly say hi to teachers and staff, and for the kids to learn where are the classrooms etc. on 1st day;

Adjust kids sleep routine: from summer (no school or no camp) schedule to school schedule, may take a few days or a week;

Adjust grownup routine: from watching kids + work (or the other way), to do more work and maybe some self care (workout, social etc);

Some apps or emails that are likely relevant:

Parent Square (district and schools to parents communication), iOS, Android. Note PS has website too. But app is a bit more handier and performant. Last but not least please take a look at the notifications customization as well (especially the text messages).

MySchoolBucks (lunch money). From this school year (2022 to 2023) on the free lunch money from the government ran out. There is still the reduced fare lunch and so on, please contact the school as applicable. Note to add money to the meal account, we can do it via credit card (CC) on its website (it seems to me we cannot add money via the mobile app), or via check to school district (which I have not done it, please ask each school administrator as needed). Note MySchoolBucks (heartland payment co.) charges a credit card transaction fee.

Email Ladue Schools e-Connect Newsletter (usually weekly) and the paper Newsletter (usually monthly): district wide information such as lunch or construction, or strategic plan. The content is created by the district Communications Office.

SafeStop (instructions here, note this PDF has the code for the district, the one at the school bus website doesn’t): bus tracking, not the best or most reliable app in the world, but considering constructions in some schools the bus may still be the better choice for many families (maybe on one of those days, I can brush up my mobile app dev skills and create a better app 🙂 Btw, the bus information is here. Last but not least, it seems we only need to put in the code once for one device. || A side note, it seems there is delay of tracking the kids moved up in schools (for example, from elementary to FGC), it’s possible we need an manual update in the backend in terms of kid’s school information. || Another way to track kids, especially younger kids, is to use airtag. It seems it’s working because the main thing it needs is other nearby device’s bluetooth capability. Without today’s popularity of smartphone in the school and in the bus, I think it works most of the time.

Last but not least, for Spoede families, the portal of SSA (Spoede School Association) moved to here. The underlying software is used for the LMSPA website we well.

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Life Life Tips

Weekend thoughts 05-14-2022

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Indoctrination (powered by Oxford Language): the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. When I grew up in China, I recall my first Chinese lesson is “Chairman Mao lives always in our heart” （毛主席永远活在我们心中）。I recall the time when Chairman Mao passed away: when I was about 5. That’s the first time I recall I knew someone passed away. And I can feel the sorrow and uneasiness of the grownups around me: the sad music in the broadcast, and people are rushing to make white paper flower and 黑袖章 (black armband).

Fast forward to 1997 to 1999, I came to the US, and to be more specific, Rolla, Missouri, for graduate school. I went to church for a while, mostly for social reasons, but sometimes I did have some other worries too: such as find a job or get the sought after H-1b visa. The belief system or some people literally follow every word on the bible initially puzzled me but now when I heard about there is a similar movement in the Chinese textbooks nowadays, especially on the natural science (math and science), I think I found a common thread between the two. This, along with what I saw in terms of the different attitude toward science, medicine, masks, vaccines, etc. during the last 2 years’ of pandemic, made me to think many people are indoctrinated or manipulated. This include my own extended family members too.

The key to growth, though, is always be open minded, listen to the facts on the ground, as well as scientific findings, rather than some pseudo facts, half truth, but it’s always easily said than done. We have seen a lot of silliness in the Missouri legislature too. For example, this one in which Missouri legislature says pharmacists should not express opinion on the horse dewormer.

My comments are: 1) We live in an interesting time now; 2) We can only influence those who are willing to listen.

Interesting YouTube videos

Wang Jianlin at Harvard Business School, Going Global the “Wanda” Way (No Subtitles): I like his comment and thought on giving manager autonomy (don’t do micro management), among other things. Mostly are Q&As, not much speech / talk. (In Chinese, Wiki, NetEase).

Categories
Fun Life Life Tips Shanghai Composite

Weekend thoughts 04-24-2022

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The spring finally came, or one can argue the temperature yesterday in St. Louis is like summer (above 80 Fahrenheit). I already cut grass once, and this morning I did a bit more yard work. I like yard work, to some extent. It made me to move a bit, in addition to run / walk I did from time to time. I signed up a few more races in May, btw. Such as this Jim Schoemehl 10k run for ALS (May 7 Saturday), and St. Charles Half Marathon (May 15 Sunday). I have another 5K upcoming, but I will hold it as a secret for now.

More random thoughts: yesterday evening Serenity was talking to a friend about my job, and parents job in general. Her comment is interesting: my dad does twitter and stock trading in addition to his software engineer job. I guess I need to be more serious about my day job and cut down on both tweeting and stocks.

Another slightly interesting discussion, in the car (minivan) Serenity (my 6th grader) talked to my 2nd grader about sex / gender, I don’t recall how the discussion started. But it reminded me of the Florida law, and I commented perhaps we should hold on talking too much on this topic with Sophia. How about we talk more when she is 4th grader 🙂

In Peson Events

On past Friday evening, I went to an event, which is for LEF Ladue Education Foundation fund raising (online auction website here). From April the school and many other places seem much more open in terms of large gathering (like pre-pandemic), I was able to see people in person at more events, and it’s a bit thrill. It started with a work related conference “no fluff just stuff” java conference. I am not a big social person, but I think for many people me included, seeing colleagues or old friends after a long time (more than 2 years) was a bit unreal.

Stock Market

Last week the market didn’t do well.

YouTube videos I watched recently

加拿大 移民 | 985大学毕业，移民加拿大炸薯条，剁肉，送餐……

加拿大 移民 | 47岁DIY移民加拿大，从端盘子做起，如今笑的比蜜甜

Shanghai Lockdown Week 4: FREE AT LAST???

True stories under current Shanghai COVID-19 lockdown丨43/25,000,000

2022年中国真实做电商的中产家庭，也是难上加难，还要帮小舅子找工作

Categories
401k and Personal Finance Fun Investing Life Tips Stocks

Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting 2022

Reading Time: < 1 minute

PDFs

Genenal info; Omaha visitor guide

Hotel (below is copied from the general info PDF above)

TRAVEL & HOTEL ASSISTANCE
If you need assistance in arranging lodging, we recommend contacting Travelink, American Express:
Travelink, American Express
Hotline: (866) 301-3011
(615) 277-5179 (Outside the U.S.)
Email: to teampearl@travelink.com


Hotels fill up fast, especially in the downtown area. There are many options outside of the downtown area that offer more competitive rates and conditions. Berkshire provides shuttles to many of these
locations and they might serve as a nice option to the higher priced downtown hotels.


VISIT OMAHA – Find hotels and view rates

Health info; note the Clear app and website (for health / vaccination pass)

Please note proxy material varies by broker: e.g., TD Ameritrade website, it’s under “My Account” => “History and Statements” => “Shareholder Library”, this is the direct link just in case. If you have multiple accounts with TD Ameritrade, please make sure you select the account that has $BRK.A or $BRK.B . Vanguard sends an email, and I have’t tried, but I believe if click on it. It will lead me to the proxy materials after I log into Vanguard website. This leads to the meeting credentials.

Meeting credentials: one shareholder can request at least 4 meeting credentials. And it can only be obtained by following the instructions laid out in the ami.pdf file (again it’s bundled in the proxy material above), and get it in mail.

Last but not the least, investinyourself5k

PS: I made the trip and wrote this blog post.

Categories
Life Tips Technology

Math in Focus, Singapore Math Textbook

Reading Time: 2 minutes

(Update 12-04-022) Today a friend told me about another book, prealgebra, which is roughly about a 7th or 8th-grade math textbook in the USA. My daughter (7th grade) is doing the exercises on Afficient (this is a bit like the online version of the good old Kumon).

(Original) In my daughters school, we started this math curriculum about 5, or 6 years ago. One thing I noticed in the US, the kids usually don’t have paper textbooks that they can bring home. My impression is the school usually provide the books when kids are in school, during the class. I also think each teacher can do it in a different way.

For the Math in Focus (a variant of Singapore Math) though, the textbook is available online. Here is the link to get it (this is the Clever portal, note one needs to be in Ladue School and has the right login information in order to access). Once one logs into the Clever portal, go to “think central”, and it has the links to the math textbooks (or student book, exercise book). There is .epub format textbook to download too. Note we have not really taken advantage of the ebook yet. But it’s probably a good idea to know where the textbook is, especially when we try to explain the bar model to the kiddos 🙂

Btw, please note Clever is a single sign on platform in which we can see other apps in addition to thinkcentral. For example, I saw the “Big Ideas Math” there too, which is used by my 6th grader. I am guessing other school districts (or other schools) may use the Clever platform too.

We used to find a place that the old textbook is online. It seems it’s no longer available. For big ideas math, I did see an online book (free, no need for login), for example this is grade 6 book (from a school link here).

Last but not least, we also bought the “big ideas math” (common core) textbook for my older daughter the 6th grader as well. We asked around and bought it online: it’s a bit unusual for book sellers as they usually work with schools (wholesale as opposed to retail). I believe Amazon has math in focus textbook too.

Categories
gadgets Life Tips

Dental work

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Dentist is usually not the person people like to see. But at the same time, dental health is both important aspect of personal health, as well as important perception (impression) in the professional world. Since my background and bad habit (grow up in China, and never truly serious about dental health when I was young), it’s an issue that I tried to get away but at the same time I could not. So long story short, I was seeing a dental periodontist at the recommendation of my general dentist. After consultation, and I did the scaling (to clean up plaques between gum and the teeth), and they recommended some newer tools and suggest I do daily clean better. Here are some of new gadgets I just had or bought.

Oral-B iO Series 9 Electric Toothbrush (link is Amazon Smile link).

GUM Proxabrush Go-Betweens Interdental Brushes, Wide

GUM – 872FC6 Proxabrush Go-Betweens Interdental Brushes, Tight

and better floss Gum Butlerweave floss

I am also trying to do a better job each day after eating. And I only did this for 2 weeks, and I can say I feel better.

Categories
Edu-and-Ladue-School Featured Fun Life Life Tips Saint Louis

Summer Camps in Saint Louis metro area

Reading Time: 9 minutes

(Update 01-17-2025) Sanborn Western Camps: this is “An OUTSTANDING summer camp in Colorado”. The price is not cheap, but personally I think it’s probably worth to consider if the kid is ready, and the family can afford. There are some other cheaper options such as Boy Scouts per a mom I know.

(Update 06-13-2024) I gave summer camps more thoughts. I think for different families: the need for summer camps are also different. For example, doctors, nurses, restaurant workers, and some other jobs that parents or guardians need to be in office and usually have a 8 or 9 hours working day. If we add commute time, it means those families who need probably 9 to 10 hours of child care (younger or little kids). In those cases, the families likely need before and after care. Not all summer camps do that. If I can categorize camps, I think there are two types: one with the need I just mentioned above, another one is more like “give parents a few hours break, also give kids a few hours of camp / play time”.

Also, for me personally, I am at a stage of my career that I can work from home, and also I can be quite flexible. In that case, I will choose the later camps or camps without before/after care.

(Update 04-18-2024) Ms Donna Matthews, Ladue School District Gifted Specialist, shared this list (google spreadsheet) for summer camps that are suitable for middle school and high school kids.

(Update 12-05-2023) from LCC FB group I came across this Camp ThunderBird at Minnesota. It seems lots of outdoor fun. Seems like a good option for sleep away camps, for the families/kids who want to do sleep away camps (also see Sleep Away Camps (added 05-08-2023) below). I also vaguely recall there is a thunderbird camp in Arizona. I could mixed it up with the Thunder bird school in AZ though.

I know I know, when my older daughter was doing the sleep away camp at Cub Creek in summer 2021, I was refreshing their photos and emails website every 5 minutes in the 1st few days 🙂

(Update 07-01-2023) Came across this one at Webster U. But I could not find it at their website. It seems Webster U has quite a few camps for middle school and above age kids.

(Update May 2023) Added more sleep away outdoor summer camps. Scroll down or search for “sleep away” on this blog post. Also Creve Coeur Racquet Club.

(Update Spring 2023) Some minor edits including adding the FB link for the D & A basketball camp. Added Master Qi Martial Arts school (at the end of this post, good thing takes time and needs patience 🙂

Spring break camps: the J (or JCC), Olivette, and McCormack basketball camp.

Two horse riding camps: Kennedy Farms and The Stables at Lake St Louis. And one cheerleading camp.

(Original Spring 2022) I wrote a piece on summer camp choices a while ago, to be precise, 5 years ago. My kids are growing older and they have attended more summer camps in the past 5 years. Below are some of the camps they attended and are planning to attend this summer, in alphabetical order. Also since a few years ago the Missouri legislature passed a law that pushed back the fall public school opening by about 10 to 14 days, and that makes the summer camp a bit more important for the kids and working parents. Private school were not impacted. I think a general rule of thumb for summer is: take some family vacation if the work schedule allows, spend a few days or weeks at home (if parents work from home); for younger kids, it’s important to put them in a routine, provide some fun activities as well as get off the screen and games when possible.

All American Gymnastics and Super Ninja: this is a popular place for some of the Spoede, Creve Coeur and Olivette kids. They do gymnastics, games (hide and seek), arts and craft (tie dye shirt etc.), and water (field) day. The kids need to bring own lunch. 9 am to 3 pm. Pick up along the car pool line. (Update 01-08-2024: they usually do promotions on early Jan) 🌞Summer Camp Registration Is Open to ALL! | Save $100 until 1/14!🌞

Andrews Academy: our go to camp before pandemic, especially for our old kid who is 6th grader now. She used to go to the neighboring Hope Montessori when she was pre-schooler. They have fantastic activities, food, and field trips. They also do one gathering / open house, with food for parents (picnic, food from Kenricks) for parents and siblings (before pandemic). There are activities after dinner too. Last but not least, before pandemic we had friends come from China did summer camp at Andrew’s academy too. They had good experience there (I recall the kids were about Serenity’s age now about 11 years old).

Cub Creek Science Camp: this is a sleep away animal science camp in Rolla, Missouri. (from FB Ladue community or Ladue parents community group: this camp is popular among Ladue kids. Note the cost is about $1100 for a week 🙂 We signed up our old daughter for one week this summer. Update: she was very happy with the camp. She is going there for a week this summer too.

JCC: they have different tracks too. They usually do swim daily. My older daughter went there the summer before her kindergarten year. They drop off and pick up at the back of JCC, by the pavilion next to soccer field. (Update summer 2023) My younger daughter did 2 weekly sessions there: she made a friend in the 1st week, and later she came back for another week so that they two can be together.

Kids Camp Ladue (KCL)*: lots of kids in the ladue school district and neighboring area. Mr. Long, Ladue Middle School science teacher has been doing this (mostly as a community service for working parents) for many years. Btw, I saw a familiar face on the website 🙂

Ladue Camp Legacy: for the older kids who are entering grades 6 through 9 in the fall.

Maryville U robotics program: signed up my two girls for summer 2022 (one week each). The camp is two weeks long, btw. My girls like to do one week, which is okay. Btw, the school campus map here. It looks like the checkin is at Auditorium. I am hoping to write a post on Arduino soon. Personally I think it’s interesting. Note: parents for the girls, you may notice there are usually more boys than girls as this is STEM arena. Please don’t get discouraged. Send your daughter over to explore, and they usually love the activities there, and those enhanced their confidence on STEM as well. So win-win 🙂 I am speaking from my own younger daughter’s experience, she felt more comfortable with the MIT Scratch game at school after doing this at Maryville last summer.

MICDs Summer Camp*: it’s not cheaper compared to Andrews Academy (the after hour care cost extra money). But MICDs has good facilities including the fairly new indoor swimming pool. They usually have a play (a show) for parents come to watch.

Olivette: usually held at Olivette Community Center. It’s popular among the kids in Olivette and Creve Coeur (did you know some people pronounced it like Creamed Corn 🙂 || Btw, heard Webster Groves has some camps such as fire safety, soccer etc. Sounds similar to Olivette summer camp. Our younger daughter attended one week of Camp O this year (year 2022).

Also, some specialized camps. Bobby McCormack basketball camp.

SPICE Chess Camp at Webster U: my older daughter Serenity did a week in summer 2018. I believe she participated the “girls only” session.

St. Louis Chinese Language School: 圣路易中文学校 2023 Summer Camp During pandemic Serenity attended a few classes (math came to mind, Zoom only). They have in person culture and martial arts camp this summer (maybe more are coming).

Some Ladue school specific camps or camps led by Ladue School Teachers

there are also D&A basketball camp (Dockery & Anderson, they are Ladue PE teachers and basketball coaches) , as well as Jessica Mitchell’s Spanish camp (Ms Mitchell is Spanish teacher at Spoede elementary).

Spoede teachers / coaches Dolan and Williams have a PE and STEM Math camp too. My old daughter did Dolan / Williams camp before pandemic (once), and my younger one did Spanish camp (twice). (Update 04-06-2023 new for summer 2023), Dolan and Williams’ camp is back, here is the peachjar flyer.

(04-19-2023 added Hadfield Enrichment Camp, as a friend asked about the writing enrichment.) This is the flyer.

Cross Country: saw 2 familiar faces right there, Coach Strayhorn is Ladue Middle School math teacher and Ladue High School girls cross country coach. He has been doing the camp for a while too. I signed up Serenity for session 2 this summer (2022). Interesting question on the google form: on scale 1 to 5, 1 means “my parents make me do it”, 5 means “I love running”. I thought in America, we don’t force kids do things they don’t like. LOL. Our old daughter did this camp in summer 2022.

Ladue School District Summer Enrichment Programs (July 6-30, 2021) An invitation and details will be shared with eligible families.(copied from Ladue Schools e-Connect Newsletter — April 30, 2021). Note some of the program are invitations only.

Ladue Camp Legacy (new in Summer 2022, and it’s there for 2023 as well, note this is a fee based program, and open to all.

(04-12-2023) Today I learned there are also ESL (English as Second Language) and Ladue LEAP program (this one is for selected incoming kindergarten kids).

(We have not done the below camps) There are other Ladue teachers led specialized camps: reading, baseball etc. Those are usually communicated via peach jar (email). Contact me if you like to get some more information.

Below are some of the camps in the area that I am aware of, or we think we may attend.

Community school summer camp: I learned they have a summer camp when our Spoede teachers (coaches) used their campus (facilities) once for summer PE / Math (STEAM) camp. Of course some of people may know CS (community school) is a feeder school for MICDs and John Burrough school (JBS)

Creve Coeur Tennis-Camps-and-Lessons: please check with the city of Creve Coeur, the Parks and Recreation dept.

Creve Coeur Racquet Club: “We are going to start offering Day time (tennis) clinics on Tuesday and Thursdays starting May 30th from 1:30-2:30 for orange and green ball kids. You register by the day. A minimum of 3 kids must register for the clinic to go for that day. Registration is open online. If you have difficulties registering online, please email the proshop at proshop@ccrctennis.com. Please let me know if you have any questions. -Toni”

Forest Lake Tennis Club: Summer Junior Camp

GRC: gifted resources council summer academies. This is open to everyone. Unlike the gift programs in many schools that require a test. They have activities (learning labs) during regular school year too, it’s being held at Wydown Middle School (clayton), on Saturdays. Before pandemic, I have been to their “Creative Convention” and my older daughter also attended the “equation competition”.

Camp Invention: saw it from school communication, I don’t have any knowledge about. If you have any feedback or comments, please email to minjie.xu@gmail.com. Thank you.

Highland Golf & Tennis Youth Camps: at forest park. This seems to be a popular place for many families. Note on some summer afternoons, St. Louis could be really hot and I assume they will put kids in indoor facility with AC (as playing outside could be dangerous).

John Burroughs summer program

Laumeier Sculpture Park art camp:

Missouri Fine Arts Academy: this is actually in Springfield, MO, the Missouri State U campus. Note invitation only: it’s a selected program. The kids can apply and the camp will decide who are chosen. || I came across it from FB: “A total of six Rockwood School District students – 5 kids’ names (Eureka High) and 1 kid name (Rockwood Summit High) – were chosen to participate in the Missouri Fine Arts Academy this summer! The Academy, which runs June 4-17 on the campus of Missouri State University in Springfield, is a two-week summer residential program for highly motivated student artists in visual arts, theatre, dance, creative writing and music. The Academy offers an intensive schedule of classes in interdisciplinary and discipline-specific arts and a wide range of co-curricular activities. Congratulations to these outstanding student artists!”

St Louis Academy of Dance (SLAD) summer program: our daughters go there during regular school year. Typically they have quite a few Spoede/OB/Ladue kids.

SIUE (Edwardsville, IL): my old daughter’s percussion teacher at LMS send us the information on percussion institute.

More Sleep Away or Outdoor Camps (added 05-08-2023)

I am aware of a few, and I saw friends sent kids there. My kid so far only went to the Cub Creek Animal Science camp I mentioned above.

Camp Manitowa: 12770 North Benton Rd., Benton, IL 62812

JCC Camp Sabra: this is in the lake of Ozarks.

YMCA Camp Lakewood: 13528 State Hwy AA, Potosi, MO, 63664

Those looks quite fun both in terms of outdoor actives, as well as let the kids have some independence (a necessary training, so that we know when we send them away for college, they would have some experience on their own). Also I did notice the price is more steep than a normal summer camp: consider the room and board. It’s a good experience for the kids though (both being away from parents, bonding with new friends, at a cabin, outdoor environment, doing new activities).

St Louis Modern Chinese school: check back for more info.

SLU Summer Camp: I just heard about it. One friend recommend the swim camp, another the cooking camp. It sound like something I can send my 2 girls next summer.

UMSL bridge program: saw a parent sending kids there (FB friend)

Webster U middle school challenge (assume a bit similar to wash u program below): saw another parent sending kids there (from Twitter)

wustl summer camp for middle school kids: link here. We were thinking about it, the cost is $780 for a week (wustl employee / family has 10% discount). Noticed the 6th grade is full now. We won’t go this year due to a conflict. Personally I feel 9 am to 5 pm is too much for the kids. For that matter, I feel 9 to 5 is overrated for grownups too (which is off topic, I know). Also noticed they have need based scholarship, too.

St Louis Master Qi Kungfu School : 麒师傅 (Master Qi) has opened the martial arts school in the Olivette/Ladue area for a while. He has after school program for the kids, and summer program as well.

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*: means the older kids (incoming 7th graders and above for KCL, and high school for MICDs camp) will have opportunity to be a counselor, think that as an leadership training opportunity.

No longer actively maintained posts on summer camps

03-10-2017 : Summer Camp Recommendations

04-14-2014 : Kids Summer Camp In St. Louis Area