Tag: ladue-school

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Edu-and-Ladue-School Saint Louis

Gentrification of Olivette 橄榄村的绅士化?

Reading Time: 3 minutes
1006 N Warson, original built in 1894, probably one of the 1st houses in Olivette, not sure if Warson road existed then

Gentrification:

The process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current inhabitants in the process. Oxford Dictionary via google

Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has been used to describe a wide array of phenomena, usually in a pejorative connotation. Wikipedia

Also see Google Chinese translate for gentrification (not very good, in my opinion. But 绅士化 is actually the official word on Wikipedia :-). I usually translate Olivette into 橄榄村, btw.

I don’t know how you think, personally as I lived in the area (Creve Coeur, Olivette) for almost 20 years or so (since April 2005), I saw quite a bit development in the city of Olivette recently, both commercial and residential, and government as well (the city hall, police/fire station, and the new community center, Five Oaks on Warson). That pushes up the home prices in the area too (see Zillow), which has both plus and minus. Keep in mind Olivette also has one of the fastest population growth from 2010 to 2020 in the St. Louis county, per the census.

Five year home price chart from Zillow – Olivette

About Olivette (City of Olivette website)

History of Olivette (old PDF file from Olivette website, copied something I liked here, “diversity”, page 10):

In the late ’60s and early ’70s a fair housing commission called the “Freedom of Residence Program” helped stabilize the community. Core values such as good education for children, high housing standards and safe neighborhoods brought different ethnic and social groups together around a common cause. It is partly due to this program that Olivette today enjoys a diverse yet cohesive population.

The PDF file above talked about this building, note I took picture from the back road (opposite of the main road Olive Blvd). It’s still the tallest office building in Olivette as of Feb 2024. I’ve beeing to the building once or twice (Gateway Tour Travel Agency)

Recent development in Olivette (my blog post written a few years ago, updated many times since then).

Also YT Video – Olivette retail center across street from USPS (中文解说）

New Apartments Developments Along Olive Road And Its Impact On The School District (more recent blog post from yours truly)

Jacob Peistrup is a realtor in St.Louis, I just noticed his YouTube Channel and the above video is about Olivette

Noticed Jacob has a nice and comprehensive video introduction on YT the St. Louis city, St. Louis county, St. Charles county and Jefferson county, mostly from residential real estimate point of view. The video is 43 minutes long: in the order of St. Louis city, county, St. Charles county and Jefferson county.

PS: gentrification is a new word I learned over last few years… it has both good and bad. For example, in Frontenac they used to have a trailer park, it was developed into new homes in recent years. I read an article on the topic, and I hope the families (people) especially the kids got impacted are doing fine.

Latest newsletter from Olivette (this march 2024 issue), quote a bit here:

The 208-unit apartment complex
now known as Irvington Place,
located off of Alice Pl. between
Hilltop Dr. and N. Price Road and
the new Aldi grocery store and the
multi-tenant Lot 3 of Olive
Crossing should begin initial
construction work this spring.

Initially I was worried the builder may have backed out. I recently walked by and this is the YT shorts I got. I took a YT video last year too.

All newsletters are here.

(Update 02-26-2024)

Paris Baguette looks yummy 🙂

Categories
Edu-and-Ladue-School

Move families and kids to better school community

Reading Time: 3 minutes

(Update 02-07-2015) Sterling K. Brown talks growing up in St. Louis on Drew Barrymore Show. Quote below:

“At that point in time in my life, I didn’t know what my track was scholastically. My mom worked in the public school system in my neighborhood—it was a good school system—but she felt like the young Black men were being tracked along the lowest common denominator, and she felt like she wanted more for me; the potential to be as fully realized as possible,” he said on the show.

I am fairly certain that Mr. Brown lived in Olivette (the city I live now), also attended Spoede Elementary School (where my kids attended). Mr. Brown went to MICDs for high school.

(Original 09-15-2023) The recent tragedy in our community (Olivette and the Ladue School Community): Two boys in the fatal University City crash were best friends, next-door neighbors

Quote: Deion and Demetrius, known as “Meechie,” were next-door neighbors. Both of their families moved in 2018 from Pagedale to the 9300 block of Rothwell Heights Lane.

Reference: school districts serving Pagedale

The other day I also happened to come across the below tweet in Chinese, which is relevant.

左手墨迹
@Pandazhq “怎样让一个家庭变富有？这篇文章可以看看。”

I am putting some English articles here.

Opinion | Does Moving Poor People Work? – The New York Times

Moving | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

My family experience in China when we (the 3 kids) were little

I think it’s fully understandable that all parents want their kids to be successful or do better than their parents when the kids grow up. Also many parents believe their kids are gifted.

My parents moved me from village school to town school in grade 5 and moved my big brother to a better middle school in 8th grade. Those moves were probably strategic helping us get into the Zhenhai Middle (High) School. The reason I said “probably” is my other bro just got into Zhenhai High School after graduating from our hometown middle school.

Some random thoughts

One thing from my own experience and observations is it’s very important for kids to have friendships during their adolescent age. As parents, we should all pay attention to that. No judgment, just to make sure they hang out with the right friends, don’t do drugs, solely focus on appearance or getting Lululemon, etc. You get the point.

Another thing, maybe more relevant in Ladue, is we have a diverse community in terms of economic conditions, and races. Try to integrate (from school, and parents’ point of view) and hang out with kids from all backgrounds, if possible. Some kids could really use some friendship. Remember Mr. B asked why we don’t let the kids pick roommates for the 6th-grade camp 🙂 Hint: don’t just hang out with the “cool” kids.

Our goal is we have one integrated school community.

Last but not least, this whole thing reminds me of 孟母三迁 story.

Equality

(Update 09-16-2023) Something I just recall. I thought of team sports. Note I don’t think my kids can make the Ladue varsity team, be it basketball or tennis, at this time. But a few years ago I did try to push my older daughter to the basketball, and we played a few leagues and games in the process. At one time, I think the girls wanted to get hold of one of their friends, but we could not because we didn’t have her mom’s (or dad)’s contact info. I tried to ask the school, but the school couldn’t give out the info. I recall the girls just passing out the info themselves. We didn’t get the specific girl to sign up for the team. A related thing I could think of, is we need to consider health insurance too, what if the girl didn’t have health insurance, what if she played basketball and got hurt? This is a uniquely American problem because in all the other developed economies in the world, there are universal healthcare.

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.

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.

========

*: 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

Categories
Business Economy Fun Saint Louis

Recent Olivette Developments

Reading Time: 2 minutes

(Update 03-09-2025) Irvington Place, Chevy’s 墨西哥餐馆后面的新大公寓在建设中.

Centennial Green Way is breaking around near Indian Meadows Park/Napoleon Blvd near Dielman Road – Feb 2024

(Update: 10-04-2023) The Olive Crossing apartments at Olive and 170 just opened as the Clover luxury apartment. I have a recent YouTube video on this.

(Update: 09-11-2023) Yesterday I noticed the new Hilltop West development: My YouTube video when I walked by yesterday am, the Olivette City Website, and a Zillow link (and developer website, not much info there, by the way). Again I saw quite a few torn down and rebuilt in that neighborhood. The new house in the school district went up probably 50% in the last 3 years. For average wage earners, the salary didn’t go up that much. I recall in the good old days the rule of thumb was that we buy houses about 3 times our before-tax income. So in order to buy a $ 750k home, we need to earn about $ 250k (which is still quite a bit of money for the average worker salary in the St. Louis area).

(Update: 06-22-2022) Besides new apartments below (again The Oliver which is almost done as of June 2022, and The Opus Group Multifamily Redevelopment Project at Irvington and Reyem Courts which I assume will take some time / years or months), there are also two townhouses complex. Hilltop West-attached home redevelopment project and Olivette Townhouse Redevelopment (this is the 35 new townhomes below). (Update 04-01-2025) Irvington Place is taking shape. See my recent YouTube video here.

(Update: 12-30-2021) I heard about this one, but the new 35 townhomes at Dielman and Olive Road are official. Here is the developer’s website. I took a short video here. As of 04-16-2023, I saw earth-moving equipment flattened the surface when I was driving by Olive Road passing the Dielman. (Update 04-01-2025) Looks like it’s going to be 33 units now – see my youtube video here. I am guessing price starts at $750k.

(Original) We can see a lots of new developments, both residential and commercials, at Olivette along the Olive road in last year or so.

Some of the bigger development projects I am aware of: are the Oliver (apartments and some retail), Olive Crossing at Olive and 170(apartments now opened as the Clover luxury apartment, hotels, retail and dining), and the Opus group olivette project. , one of the new neighbors in my neighborhood moved from the last project site (a single-family home sold to a developer and bought a new home in my neighborhood). We briefly discussed the trend of apartments over single-family houses (SFH) in the younger generation. I think it’s also a desire from the city and the developer as well. Maybe the apartments are more environmentally friendly compared to SFH. (Update 09-06-2023) It seems the apartment behind the Chevy Restaurant didn’t take off: all I can see right now is weeds and bushes in that empty lot 🙂

Back to the topic, there are also two smaller projects along Olive Road, the Firestone project (near Price). and the Planthaven commercial center (this is next to the Olivette Shopping Center).