Continue reading »]]> My kids are athletes. They run fast, throw with accuracy, can dribble, hit, and jump!

To emphasize these strengths…

As we prepare our schedule of summer activities, we investigated a variety of camps and summer activities. We landed on a mixed schedule of the local Elementary School – After Care Program (which provides Weekly themes and field trips) and Sports Camps. See http://www.sjusd.org/school/willow_glen_elementary/info/C3081/

Selecting the After Care program was actually quite easy. We (as working parents) use it during the school year, and have established a good relationship with the program staff as well as many of the kids.

For the sports camps, we are relying on a couple of things.

1) My cousin owns the Skyhawks Sports Academy (http://www.skyhawks.com/). Skyhawks provides kids 3 to 15 years old with a Huge variety Fun and skills-based sports camps to attend around the country. I have personally worked for the organization (years ago) as a coach / counselor and have also sent my oldest son to camps last year.

2) I have done my research. When checking out Sports camps, I checked out a variety of local camps and followed some keen advice found in the “Parents Guide to Sports Camps” article (http://www.active.com/basketball/Articles/Parent_s_Guide_to_Sports_Camps.htm).

• Do your Homework. There are a ton of “camps” out there. From Professional athletes giving back during the off-season to College Kids making a buck, to the local YMCA doing the best that they can, to the neighbor kid who can keep the kids from getting into too much trouble. It is important to understand what you are going into and who will be teaching your kids and what they will be teaching.
• Managing Expectations. Understand what you want out of the camp. Is it just play time? Or is it to improve their skills? Or both? With some camps there can be a lot of pressure on both your pocket book as well as your child.

Luckily for me, my research, experience, and expectations for what I wanted out of the Athletic portion of the Summer Programs worked out well with the selection of camps offered by the Skyhawks Sports Academy (http://www.skyhawks.com/). Now the question is narrowing down the options of which sport (Soccer, Basketball, Lacrosse, Hockey, Golf, Baseball, Track and Field, Football, Tennis, etc.).

Continue reading »]]> Once you have identified a set of camps to send your kids to for the summer, there are a set of questions that you may want to ask. This website identifies these 10 questions to ask:

1. What’s the camp’s philosophy?
2. How does the camp recruit, screen and train its staff?
3. What are the return rates for counselors from last season?
4. What is the ratio of counselors to campers?
5. How old are the counselors
6. What medical staff work at the camp and what backup facilities are nearby?
7. What is the camp’s approach to discipline and how does it handle conflicts between campers?
8. What does a typical daily schedule look like?
9. Will the camp be transporting the children?
10. What are your references?

Source: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/547

Continue reading »]]> In researching Summer camps for the kids this summer, I found a comparison of the top 12 consolidator websites for Summer Camps! They measured a variety of things surrounding the value of summer camps, including Website Traffic, Site Visits, Links to the Site.

According to this finding they include:

1. MySummerCamps.com (http://www.mysummercamps.com/)
2. KidsCamps.com (http://www.kidscamps.com/)
3. CampPage.com (http://camppage.com/)
4. CampChannel.com (http://www.campchannel.com/)
5. AllensGuide.com (http://www.allensguide.com/)
6. Summer-Daycamps.com (http://www.summer-daycamps.com/)
7. SummerCamps.com (http://summercamps.com/)
8. Campresource.com (http://campresource.com/)
9. Daycamps.net (http://daycamps.net/)
10. CampDepot.com (http://campdepot.com/)
11. CampSearch.com (http://campsearch.com/)
12. GoCamps.com (http://www.gocamps.com/)

The document of the findings can be found here:
http://www.mysummercamps.com/forum/MySummerCamps.com_C4/Announcements_F13/Independent_traffic_measurement_tools_show_MySummerCamps.com_leads_the_way_P792/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=156;guest=9276858&t=search_engine

Continue reading »]]> The train has left the station! Elvis has left the building! The Horse has left the barn! The Early bird gets the worm!

These and other time appropriate Cliches might make you ask yourself “Have you booked your summer camps yet?” If not, you may be too late.

Now-a-days, the summer camp phenomenon has become more of a winter ritual than a spring one. In years past once spring break would hit parents around the country would begin to think about what they were going to do with their kids for the summer. The YMCA would send out its catalog of day camps. Churches (and other religious establishments) would send out their mailer of possible activities, and schools would send a packet of fliers home with their monday homework packets.

Today, however, with everyone having full Marketing campaigns via the internet; the details are getting out there much sooner. With the Advent of the “mid-winter break” often around presidents day, parents are now figuring out their schedules for the summer. There are several reasons to do so… Here are a couple:

Early Bird Specials – Most summer camps have early bird specials. It is what helps many parents to afford many of these camps. With the economy how it is every dollar counts. When doing your research, check out the costs for them and their scaled rates. Months ahead may make a mound of difference. Check out the blog http://www.svmoms.com/2009/02/summer-camps-i-beat-the-rush-draft.html. Some say that it is never to early to start looking for a good summer camp (http://www.parentsconnect.com/questions/finding_summer_camps.jhtml?ccc=10491&psc=10020).

Keeping up with the Jones’ – There are a ton of diference camps ot there that are available for a family to choose from. Within your circle of friends, I would bet that at least some of them are preparing now for thier camps. They are deciding which camps to choose from and for which they will sign up. Some will be partnering up with the friends of your child. While Keeping up with the Jones’ is not the best approach in life, to keep your kids in the right social circle, getting them aligned in the right camps might be critical to their summer success.

Early preparation is a good thing.

Continue reading »]]> Today, a group of parents are getting together to determine what “fun” our children will partake in during the Summer months when not in school. In our circle, there are a group of about 5 or so families that are in the same situation. As working parents our children are funneled thru public and private schools during the day time and then (many) partake in the after school programs on the campus of their local elementary school. Individually, we sometimes find it challenging to not only find out what the appropriate seasonal adventures are for our children, but also find it difficult to execute on a plan.

In our group there are several different types of parents in our group:

1. Two working parents with child(ren) in elementary school and one in pre-school
2. Two working parents with child(ren) in elementary school and one going into Kindergarten
3. Working single mother with child going to Kindergarten

Each of these has unique challenges, but also similar potential solutions.

For those working parents trying to juggle a job, daycare, and entertainment, there are a few words that comes to mind when thinking about how to best plan for the summer months: LEVERAGE, OPTIMIZE, SIMPLIFY

Leverage – With the belief that all parents want what is best for their kids, each will do some sort of research as to what they can do with them over the summer months. Instead of going into that practice blind or siloed, open up your network of friends and their experiences. Get a group of people together to learn what they are thinking about doing. What vendors have they found. What advice can they provide. What research have they gathered. Perhaps they have found a better set of search terms to use when looking up activities.

Optimize – When searching for camps for kids. check out some of the camp aggregators. There are several out there that have tried to pull in multiple camp vendors and types of activities. Some have a specific camp types (sports, arts, etc.). Some are for certain durations (overnight, full day, half day). By finding a good directory of camps, you may be able to optimize your searching efforts. Check out My Summer Camps (http://www.mysummercamps.com/), Camp Planit (http://www.campplanit.net/default.aspx), or the American Camp Asspociation (http://www.acacamps.org/) .

Simplify – With all of the stresses in a working parent’s life, determining what you want to do with your kids for the Summer can just add to the anxiety. Instead of being ultra creative and complex with camp, travel, and other selections, consider picking a vendor that has multiple camps with a robust schedule of activities (Skyhawks Sports Academy [Offers variety of sports camps to kids 3 to 14 around the country] – http://www.skyhawks.com/; YMCA [80% of YMCAs offer summer camps] – http://www.ymca.net/find_ymca_camps/). There, you can have a single (and likely safer) registration experience when selecting your activities. Saves time and effort. You may also be able to get a discount for booking multiple weeks / activities with the same vendor.

By leveraging your circle of friends and the knowledge that they bring, you can can as a group optimize your searches and simplify your summer preparation efforts.

Continue reading »]]> Happy New Year!

We have all the new photos up on the website www.kreshel.com and have added links for all our Peripatetics. Check them out.

Instead of hosting our own pictures this year Jay tried out Picasa. It hosts the pictures for you, allows you to do slideshows etc and you can buy the photos from Shutterfly if you want. We will try to stay more on top of keeping photos updated. But, you know how resolutions sometimes go, so bug us if the pictures get stale!

~ The Mom (Karen)

Continue reading »]]> FOR SALE – White Bonavita “Lisa” Crib with Pottery Barn Crib Mattress – $150 obo

Our son is moving on to a big boy bed and we need to make space.

Crib is in excellent shape. Crib comes with all hardware. It is white with slats. See pictures for full details.

The mattress is 2 years old and has had a mattress pad on it the entire time. No stains or tears. Looks new except for some fraying (1/4 inch) on a trim seam. No impact to mattress functionality. Non smoking and pet free home.

You are welcome to the fish aquarium seen in the pictures too; bedding not included.

Buyer must pick up crib.

Please contact Karen at 408.293.5475 or karenkreshel@yahoo.com if interested.

Continue reading »]]>
We have created The Krebu Catalog Collection (The KCC), a web site of online shopping resources that we consistently use to buy goods and service for our family. If you are like us, you have identified a handful of companies that you go back to for purchases. We use this page as our launching point, and we think that you should too.

Many of these vendors have agreed to give us monetary credit for purchases that we, and our friends or relatives make that originate from this page. So, if you are planning on making any online purchase, and want tp support the Krebu Kids as they prepare for College, please book mark this page and use these links.

Please pass this web address www.krebu.com to any of your friends or family members too. We could use the traffic.