stlplaceInflation adjusted bond
Series I Savings Bonds (wiki)
S&P 500 index funds
How to Invest in the S&P 500.
There are many, below is one from Vanguard. I know fidelity has one too. There should be others.
Some of the stocks I think it’s safe to own for long time
BAC (bank of America)
KO (Coca Cola)
BRK.A or BRK.B (Berkshire Hathaway)
I went to Omaha last weekend, left STL on April 29 Friday, attended meeting on April 30 Saturday, and left Omaha back to STL on May 1st Sunday. The full comment and Q&A session (including the actual shareholder meeting) is broadcasted by CNBC and available at YouTube.
Note when I drove to Omaha on Friday 4/29, the market was in a tail spin, and so did the market perform poorly this week. But at the Berkshire church, we are value investors, and we don’t care about the daily (weekly, monthly) fluctuations. I think with the modern technology (don’t recall exactly at which year Berkshire starts to broadcast its annual shareholder meeting), the technical side of things can be learned at the comfort of home. On YouTube there are a lot of materials on Warren / Charlie spoke at past shareholder meetings, such as this YAPSS channel, note there are others too including Warren and Charlie’s other talks especially to college students. The whole #BRK2022 meeting video is about 6 hours long, with the last hour being the official shareholder meeting, with questions related to shareholder proposal (somewhat politics related). One thing surprised me a bit is the tone of some of the shareholder proposal, and Buffett’s patience on answering some of those, such as this one at 5 hour 18 minutes mark of the video. My sense is very few CEO would have that kind of patience. This is shown in the Q&A part of the meeting as well, I imagine some of the questions have been asked again and again because they have done this probably for 20 years. But Charlie and Warren answered those regardless.
The movie at the beginning of the meeting: I noticed Susan Buffett (Warren’s daughter) is the executive producer, and it was fun to watch overall. It has some ads, as well as some old video clips such as Warren’s testimony during Salomon Brother crisis. Other notable things are the exhibits, which has things from Brooks Running, to Clayton homes (manufactured home), DQ, Netjets, See’s candies. The movie also showed all Berkshire managers including Ted and Todd (investing managers). Warren’s skit with Bill Murray was a bit interesting too (confuse Warren Buffett with Jimmy Buffett, the singer). I noticed Bill Murray is a BRK shareholder and recently he got into hot water. I was not 100% sure that Susan Buffett (or Warren Buffett) was taking a side here. Also I am not positive the movie is available online: this seems like one benefit that’s only available for shareholders attending in person. Overall I liked the movie especially on the side of “don’t take oneself too seriously”, “poke fun at self” (again Warren vs Jimmy Buffett) and so on. It’s a strength of American culture, as poking fun at politicians are allowed, sometimes I felt bad for Bill Clinton as I saw comedians and talk show hosts pounced on him all the time, but hey, why would he looked at Aliana Grande (who could be his grand daughter’s age) in such a creepy way. Okay I will back to the topic.
International audience: there are many international audience in person, as some may have see from the questions being asked, also I noticed in the hotel I stayed, there are quite a few private jet pilots. Maybe next time I will fly the private jet, instead of driving back and forth. Talking about driving, I was a bit tired on the way home, both due to the 5k I ran in the morning (the invest in yourself 5k), and also because of I was a bit sick coming in, plus I had a small incident on Saturday.
The incident was I messed up my only long pant in the morning when I was waiting outside CHI health center. The line was long at about 7:30 am, so I decided to go to the nearby hotel to see if I can use the restroom. It was a bit too late… thus on the rest of the day I only had a swimming trunk as my bottom. The temperature was in 50s that day, and people may think I am a runner or something. Yes I do run, but I would probably wear a long pant in that kind of weather. The lesson here is always have some margin of safety (room for error or unexpected), so I will bring an extra pants next time when traveling. Another lesson is try to look out for restroom in a new area, just in case, in this scenario it seems the nearest one is Marriott hotel across the street.
Some other odds and ends: I noticed there are a few homeless people near the downtown hotel I stayed. I stayed at the Hyatt Inn near old market in downtown Omaha. I also found a bit authentic Chinese restaurant (Blue and Fly) eventually, after eating ramens at two Japanese restaurants near downtown. I found and walked near the Berkshire HQ office as well. CHI Health center: it’s a big place, noticed they did not charge sales tax for See’s candies etc, don’t know why. But they don’t allow outside snacks or food, drinks in (to protect their concession sales). I did not bring much, but they threw away a few small snacks I bring in the case I don’t know where to get lunch. Warren said “midwestern time” instead of “US central time”. I noticed Gerald Ford, the former US president, was born in Omaha (saw a sign on highway on Ford). I think “midwestern value” can be seen in both in Omaha, and in Berkshire (Warren and Charlie). In addition to international audience, there are lots of domestic audience including US, midwest and Omaha residents too.
PS: this is my dream 16 years in the making. Back in 2006 I thought about going, but didn’t due to various reasons (maybe mostly financial). I am glad I am in a better position now 🙂 All in all, I like what I saw in this trip, and hope to visit sometime in the future too. If my kids and my wife can join, that will be even better.
Photos and video
Berkshire Hathaway HQ outside view
Tweets thread (Mine, Thomas Chua, The Rational Walk)
Past BRK Shareholder meetings (full sessions)
2011 (before 48 mins mark, there are quite a bit coverage on David Sokol. Tom Murphy: you can always tell a man go to hell if this is such a good idea. -Charlie Munger summed it well)
2005 (TIMESAVER EDIT – FULL Q&A) (Fun momemnts: at 43 minutes mark, a kid asked about See’s Candies and Petro China) (One hour 30 minutes: public school systems in Omaha) (2 hours mark: the comments on AIG and Hank Greenberg are interesting, as we know AIG blew up about 3.5 years later, amid 2008 financial crisis)
2001 (3 hours 54 mins mark: don’t go short. At 4:12 mark, Warren talked about California utility does not have incentive to produce more electricity due to new regulation. This sounds like what the US oil industry is doing in recent years. Note I am not taking sides on politics / climate change)
1999 (At one hour 4 minutes mark, shareholder asked about a question on Chinese stocks, Charlie commented “I don’t know much about China”. This is interesting, as Charlie grew closer to Li Lu in last 20 years or so, and Berkshire bought $BYD shares too. Also at one hour 8 minutes mark, “rich vs wealthy” is interesting.) (Books Charlie and Warren recommended: The Warren Buffett Portfolio, Titan the biography of the original John D. Rockefeller, Guns, Germs, and Steel,” which was a physiologist’s view of the economic history of man, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations.” And the guy’s name is [David] Landes; “Common Sense on Mutual Funds,” by Jack Bogle)
1998 (TIMESAVER EDIT – FULL Q&A, I just noticed all the TIMESAVER EDIT video have all the notes)
1997 (At 3 hours 28 minutes mark, an audience asked a Disney question which is relatable to today’s political environment. Buffett’s answer: I’m delighted to have my grand children expose to full range of #Disney products, and I love to take them to #DisneyLand #DisneyWorld, Disney movie and videos…I don’t have problem gays being employed (clap). Ditto here for me taking my kids to Disney. At 4 hours 19 minutes mark, the comments about McDonald’s are interesting.) || I just noticed the video has all the notes too, such as the McDonald’s vs Coca-Cola… this is excellent.
Last but not least, below is a tweet thread of interviews of “becoming Warren Buffett”, total 11 videos. I noticed YouTube (HBO) has a condensed version too (a documentary movie).
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
Do you want to be an “involved parent”? I guess at least, we don’t want our kids watching ASMR on youtube all day… or for that matter, watching YouTube shorts, TikTok, Instagram and doing Snapchat? And may I add roblox, adopt me, Minecraft, and Fornite 🙁
Sorry this is the only games I know my girls do these days (except Fornite?) I am not against the social media and mobile games, for that matter, I think some exposure to those are okay. I just think both myself and my kids are wasting way too much time on iPhone (me) / iPads (them), this is not too surprising considering the pandemic and personally I spent way too much time on Twitter and WeChat (think WeChat is a combination of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and PayPal / Venmo, mainly in Chinese).
Anyway, enough Ted Talk from me. Integirls Math (math competition) is something I was working with my daughter Serenity (6th grader), math or other stem problems that’s a bit interesting. For example, since I mentioned Ted Talk here, I recall recently Serenity asked me this locker problem when I was driving. This is a bit intimidating problem at first look. But it was similar to some of the problems that I worked when I was learning computer programming, when I was in middle school (or high school? Sorry I forgot the exact timing), and it’s similar to some of the coding problem that I asked candidates during technical interview in recent years. Full disclosure: I am a software engineer with about 20 years of software development experience.
I understand Math sounds hard or may not be interesting to some
As parents I encourage my daughter to learn more math, more STEM, and more coding if possible. But at the same time, I do understand in our Ladue school, there are many talented kids and sometimes it could be a bit intimidating to participating the math club, the science club etc. This is probably applicable to my daughter (her introvert personality), as well as being a girl. I recall at the beginning of this school year, she was invited to join a team for math competition, and she does not want to do it. The reason: “I don’t like math“. Personally I think she probably does not like competition. I am okay with that. But I don’t want to leave her an impression that “my math is not that good”, or something along those lines. I think looking purely from the grade level, her math is very good.
What I like to see
No, I don’t expect her to solve the locker riddle in the TedEdu. Or some of the “math / algorithm” problems I collected in this file (some day I will organize it better 🙂 But I want to work with her, and show her some of problems in the InteGirls is doable at her level. “Empowering girls in STEM” is my goal, to be more specific, my selfish goal is empower my daughter in STEM.
How I plan to do it
Again I will work with Serenity, and potentially some of her friends. Here is the pdf file location for one set of sample problems (how I get here: I click on “Winter 2021 Math Contest” from the home page, from there, I scroll down, click on the Solutions – MS folder, it leads me to the google drive folder that has the PDF problem (and solution). I will try to work on a few problems (say 5) in 30 mins to 45 mins session. And ideally I want to make sure the kids know how to approach a problem. Teaching is not my strength, but I feel comfortable with English and middle school math (numbers, algebra, geometry etc.).
Are you going to form a team and compete?
I don’t know. But again my goal is first to practice then we can mutually decide if it’s something we can do. Again from the web page, score card, I saw some familiar names. I am not keen on winning a certain place, but if the girls are getting more confident, even if they only solve one problem (on their own), I will be happy 🙂
PS: yesterday I came across a video which is about basic finance and investing, and (at about 45 minutes mark) it has two interesting math (and psychological) problems too. Now I think about it, when I was in China, attending Zhenhai Middle School (its equivalent to both middle school and high school here in the US), and from time to time, I met some really good teachers and had some inspiring or interesting discussions or problems. Just think math teacher like Po Shen Loh here in the USA (CMU). If you know Chinese, I think 李永乐老师 is the best on math, science, life and literature (yes I said it he is good on everything 🙂 And Po Shen Loh (CMU math professor) is pretty close on that too.
(Update 03-24-2022) I just noticed the Spring 2022 contest is on: April 16 Saturday. Here is the link. Noticed this too: We will also be hosting a game and math review session on Wednesday, April 13th at 8 PM CT. You will have the opportunity to play fun games with your team, review math concepts for the contest, and meet others all over the country! Sign up for the session by registering for the contest.
Appendix: I collected some interesting math problems at this GitHub repo. I started collecting during the pandemic shutdown and that’s the reason it’s in that repo.
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.
(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.
I wrote this review a few days late, due to a few factors. One is the war in Ukraine which get many people’s attention including mine. I know there is a lot of tension on WeChat as well (especially the WeChat shorts for the lack of good word, basically its the WeChat’s answer to TikTok, or YouTube shorts). The sanction on Russia is quite swift (no pun intended, I do understand the SWIFT international money remittance / messaging system has shut Russian banks). And yesterday the last few US holdouts Coca Cola, McDonalds’s and Starbucks all decided to pause operation in Russia. Most US companies did offer some compensation for local Russian workers. The sanction reminded me in 2008 there was an incident on Olympics torch relay in Paris, France, and there was a short boycott against French. I also wrote two short blog posts on the topic (1 and 2).
My view on boycott and sanctions has changed since then (14 years ago), especially after the pandemic last 2 years, and after I saw the horrific images of the children’s (maternity) hospital in Mariupol was bombed by the Russians (video by cnn) today. I understand the sanctions will impact the lives and jobs of many ordinary people. But this is also a price that’s needed when we are trying to achieve greater good, in this case stop Russian invasion and the loss of lives of innocent civilians.
Saturday 03/05 was also my old daughter’s 12th birthday.
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.
(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).
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
I bumped into a youtube talk on Lin Biao (who was the No. 2 between 1966 and 1971, at least figuatively, behind Mao Ze’dong in PRC. See wiki: this English wiki has information regarding his death aka the 9.13 incident as well). The talk was given by Professor Gao Hua (who passed away about 10 years ago at a fairly young age), in Mandarin Chinese. It was an interesting talk to say the least.
Along those lines, I also bump into an interesting person who was dragged into the infamous 9.13 incident (wiki Chinese), and his name is 李伟信. And here is his brief intro or story. Sorry this is again in Chinese.
My point here is “it’s never too old to learn”. I understand this is more or less a cliche. And the world famous investor said something along similar lines too, and btw he is a learning machine per his sidekick Charlie Munger. Back to Mr. Li, he was born in 1934, and he was about 37 in 1971. Almost died from the 9.13 incident. Was put in prison for 15 years. Started to learn architecture in prison (he may have some artistic training, aka drawing when he was young). And later on he became an important in the architecture world. Here is some information re: him at Zhihu (more or less like China’s wiki or quora).
李伟信，九十年代中期加入贝聿铭设计事务所，主管上海办事处，成为华裔建筑大师贝聿铭的得力助手。李伟信在全国各地设计了不少项目，还多次到上海的知名高校讲课。也算是中国建筑行业的大牛了。
所以说，奋斗在任何时候都来得及，改行在任何年龄都不算晚。你条件再差，也不会比一个年过半百的老头子差吧。
PS: I was born on the year in which Li Biao 9.13 incident happened (1971). I remember my mom told me she was called to a meeting on that topic when my elder brother was about 2 years old. At that time, I have 2 old brothers, they were 2 and 4 years old.
I do remember quite vividly when chairman Mao died (1976), and that’s the first time I heard someone died, and was 5 years old. In my hometown tradition, the new born is 1 year old, so I was 6 in Ningbo tradition. My main memory is the sad music in the broadcast system (wired to every home, we probably had electricity from year 1973 or 74 in our village). And many people are making the white paper flower, as well as the black elbow clip (both symbols for memorize someone recently died). For a little kid like me, it was quite significant event. Remember that year we also had the Tangshan earthquake, and I do recall we spent a night in the yard instead of the house, just on the safe side.