We Asked, You Answered July 2018 What Does Your Family Get Up to Do Now That School is Out for Summer? By Ann Carin Niland Mike Hance, 37, of the West Side, two girls, 5 and 2. Interviewed atAnna Jean Cummings Park “Both girls will be in preschool this summer,“ said Mike. “that will be for most of the day. I’m a teacher at the University, so I have a relaxed summer schedule and so I spend some time with them in the afternoon. Will go to Tahoe for a week. Will go to visit family for a week. And then they start back at school in August.” Coryn Gardiner,…
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Special Needs Families Hidden Among Us
Special Needs Families Hidden Among Us By Susan H. Shane There are families in Santa Cruz with special needs kids who do not fit the usual categories. These families are deeply traumatized, but few outside the home know about them and the reality they live. The children, initially, present within the norm at school, but have severe emotional and behavioral problems at home. In fact, their behavior poses a genuine danger to the health and safety of the child and family. There are, literally, no resources in town sufficient to help these families. Jane, already a mother of three girls, knew that her two year old, Natalie’s, long, intense crying…
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July 2018 Letter from the Editors
July 2018 Letter from the Editors By Brad Kava and Jennifer Ford The day after our 14-year-old got out of school, she overheard us talking about summertime blues. “That’s not a thing,” she said. “How can you have the blues in the summer? School’s out and you can do whatever you want.” A week later, she had a change of heart. She missed her friends, her theater group, her water polo team and a schedule filled with activities. That inspired one of the themes of this issue: how to find the most unusual and interesting things to do in Santa Cruz for the summer. And, man, did we find them.…
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Reinvigorate Summer with Youth Camps at Cabrillo
Reinvigorate Summer with Cabrillo Youth Camps By Suki Wessling It’s the middle of the summer and the realization has hit: your child needs something more to do. If your kids are like mine, they’ll need their brains as well as their bodies engaged. It’s been a while since my child took a Cabrillo Extension Summer Youth Program camp, so I decided to check out their current offerings. The most important aspect of this camp is that Cabrillo partners with local organizations and teachers to provide a wide variety of offerings. This summer, Cabrillo Extension has partnered with Seafloor Science Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), Mini Mermaid Running Club, Code Naturally, Kuumbwa…
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Have Fun, Save Lives at Junior Guards Since 1966, Local Teens Have Learned to be Lifeguards
Have Fun, Save Lives at Junior Guards Since 1966, Local Teens Have Learned to be Lifeguards By Bryce Stoepfel If you haven’t noticed kids in the house, or if Alice Cooper hasn’t reminded you yet, schools out for summer. For parents that can mean expensive day care bills or dread over the evils of idle hands. Or, send them to the beach to be part of the Santa Cruz Junior Guards. For some parents, it’s the best day care out there. “Parents can drop their kids off and know that they have great instruction and that they’re in a safe environment,” Junior Guards Lieutenant Colin Herric said. “They get in…
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Kids with Kids at Goat Yoga A Different Kind of Flexibility in Your Yoga Practice
Kids with Kids at Goat Yoga A Different Kinda of Flexibility in Your Yoga Practice By Ann Carin Niland Photo Credit: Kevin Painchaud I don’t know how I goat here. Kids playing with kids. Whatever floats your goat. Totes ma goats. Okay, now that that is out of my system… Goat Yoga is the most ridiculous bit of fun your summer is lacking. When I think about yoga, tranquility, focus, and stylish yoga gear come to mind. But add goats to the mix and all the seriousness leaves the atmosphere. There are goat snuggles, goat kisses, laughter, and more than a few goat farts. “It’s opening your heart to new experiences,” said Kara O’Loughlin, 37. O’Loughlin leads…
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Fly and Get Wet in Two New Area Amusements: Always Amused
Fly and Get Wet in Two New Area Amusements: Always Amused By Erik Chalhoub For those of us who live in Santa Cruz County, we are lucky when it comes to finding thrills the whole family can enjoy. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, named the best seaside amusement park for 10 years by Amusement Today, is right in our backyard. But we are also fortunate that two stellar parks, Gilroy Gardens and California’s Great America, are both within an hour’s drive from us. And 2018 is shaping up to be a major year for both of them. Gilroy Gardens, nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains on 3050 Hecker Pass Highway,…
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Electric Mountain Bike Ride Shifts One Rider’s Perspective
Electric Mountain Bike Ride Shifts One Rider’s Perspective By Karen Kefauver Photo Credit: Mark Woodhead. Karen Kefauver gives the electric mountain bike another try a week later in down- town Santa Cruz at current e-Bikes. I finally tried an electric mountain bike after years of dismissing the beefed up bikes as “cheating.” to zip uphill on a trail on a battery-powered bike, passing fellow cyclists huffing and puffing up the same climb on traditional mountain bikes just seemed wrong, like doping in the Tour de France. Plus, safety issues seemed more urgent: No one wants to be startled — or possibly hit — by a rider barreling towards them uphill…
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Taking the Plunge: Birth Matters
Taking the Plunge: Birth Matters By Laura Maxson, LM Warm, weightless, relaxed, soothed…what better way to experience labor? Getting into warm water during labor is almost universally popular and readily available to most. All the local hospitals provide access to warm water in labor with showers. Laboring in a tub is an option at Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center, where they offer four labor rooms with tubs and one separate tub room; or at Dominican Hospital’s single available tub room. Watsonville Community hospital does not offer tubs at this time. While actually giving birth in the tub is a popular request of expectant parents, waterbirth is only an option for…
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Hands On Chalk Art
Hands On Chalk Art By Jennifer K. Mahal What You’ll Need CHILD SAFE CHALK * 1 1/5 cups cornstarch * 1 cup water * mixing bowl * stirrers * small wax-lined paper cups * Food coloring PARIS CHALK * 1 1/2 cups plaster of paris (can be found at craft stores) * 3/4 cup warm water * 2-4 disposable containers (large yogurt containers work well) * popsicle sticks or disposable spoons * tempera paint * small wax-lined paper cups * Optional: silicon mold The lazy days of summer are a wonderful time to play hopscotch, race your friends to a finish line and draw funny faces on your walkway. What…
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Pajaro Valley Schools Collaborate on Illustrated and Animated Book
Pajaro Valley Schools Collaborate on Illustrated and Animated Book Terrorizing Tacos, Immigration, Poems, and Movies By Elaine Ingalls Manuel Madrigal, an eighth grader at Alianza Charter School, brought tacos to life in his play, “The Terrorizing Tacos.” “I was thinking of a game I could play with my friends,” said Madrigal, a Prunedale resident. “They (the tacos) like attacking people and you have to try to escape from them.” Madrigal, a student in Amparo Yodar-Jiménez’s Spanish Language Arts class, worked with the other students in the class to create a collaborative literature and art project. The project consists of 18 pieces: five theatrical acts and 13 poems. Students originally wrote…
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Health Coverage – Protecting Your Personal Investment: Letter to the Editor July 2018
Health Coverage – Protecting Your Personal Investment: Letter to the Editor July 2018 By Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer and Cástulo de la Rocha The two of us are among dozens of commencement speakers at California’s colleges and universities this year who are calling out the importance of having health insurance coverage in our remarks to new graduates and their families. We congratulate you on what you have accomplished and offer our good wishes for what lies ahead. Like us, many of you are the first in your family to get a college or advanced degree. You have worked hard and made many sacrifices. Indeed, you have made a big investment…
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Making the Most of Summertime Schedules: Ask Nicole
Making the Most of Summertime Schedules: Ask Nicole By Nicole M. Young MSW Last summer, my daughter was a junior counselor at a day camp next to the preschool she used to attend. As I dropped her off one morning, she noticed several young children also getting dropped off and asked, “Those poor kids have to go to preschool during the summer? Don’t they get a summer vacation?” I laughed and reminded her she used to be one of those “poor kids” who went to preschool year-round (and loved it) because her parents worked year-round. Our conversation made me miss the simplicity of summer during the preschool years and having…
