Spring into Action!

ChildReach has hosted a series of family fieldtrips in the past few weeks that have promoted activities such as exercising, eating healthy, arts and crafts and reading together. Making these activities into a family affair strengthens parent/child and sibling relationships, builds teamwork and other social skills in children, and also works toward creating stronger minds and bodies for every member of the family.

Exercise

Five families joined us in Golden Gate Park for an afternoon bike ride. Many parents were nervous about riding a bicycle in a congested area like the Park but were pleasantly surprised to find the roads closed to cars and a team of pedal-carriages to ride. (A portion of Golden Gate Park, along JFK Dr near the museums, is closed to cars every weekend) Entire families piled into these 4-6-seater carriages and worked together to pedal through the park. We raced up and down hills and all had a great time.

Another weekend, parent and child pairs joined us in Sausalito for a day of kayaking on Richardson Bay. I mentioned that parents were nervous about biking; that was nothing compared to how nervous parents were to strap themselves in a kayak. However nervous they were, parents kept a straight face and remembered that this was a first for both them and their children and that no matter what, they were excited about trying something new. Some of our participants couldn’t even swim. It was very courageous of them to come out and give it their all. We rowed for 4 hours, stopped on a beach mid-way, ate lunch and played games together. It was nice to be able to laugh and play on a deserted island; we could see the city from where we were but couldn’t hear it or feel the bustle. We all took advantage of this mini vacation, appreciated each other’s company, soaked up a little sun, and learned a little bit about marine life and the ecosystem of the Bay.

Healthy Eating

Diana Moscowitz, a trained dietitian, visited Raphael House and spoke to 5 families about the importance of eating good food, and of knowing what you’re putting in your body. She stressed that we look at labels before purchasing. We learned that nutritional facts can be deceiving depending on the serving size. For instance, we found that generally twice the recommended serving size is served in the morning. Parents and children joined this really important discussion on food, learned lots and asked for follow-up workshops.

Arts and Crafts

Our kite decorating activity was a fantastic success. 33 people joined us in the After Care Building to enjoy lunch and paint kites. Children enjoyed using sea animal stickers to decorate, parents liked the painting portion, and everybody loved stapling all sorts of shapes and materials on their kite-tails. Many parents mentioned that they had forgotten how relaxing and therapeutic art projects were, and how much they enjoyed working with their children.

Celebration and Education

In an effort to celebrate the changing of the seasons and the joy of learning, we held a Spring Carnival at the end of April. We set up games on the roof, including an egg hunt, had a barbeque lunch and set up a library where parents and children could sit, read, and take home as many books as they wished.

This Carnival was a chance for parents to get some great literature in the house for kids to read, learn, and build their language skills. It was also a welcome opportunity for people to gather, visit old friends and make new friends. It was one of those rare, beautiful days in San Francisco, on which 80 people came out to enjoy this event and celebrate with Raphael House.

In an effort to celebrate each other, ChildReach has been hosting monthly birthday parties for children, which involve an art activity or game and a family-style dinner with members of the Raphael House community.

A South American Journey in Music & Stories

Last weekend, we enjoyed the music of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and the Trio Chaskinakuy. The trio plays traditional South American instruments, and they even took the time to explain them to our group.
On our journey we listened to the flute, bassoon, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, upright bass, charango, pan pipes, trumpets, drums, and the beautiful voice of Francy Vidal.

The performance was brilliant and the conductor was delightful! He was playful, ran around the stage acting out his music, let the audience clap and dance in the aisles. During the performance, we learned about lots of different instruments, including:

The CHARANGA, little brother of the Spanish guitar, which is traditionally made out of the back-shell of an armadillo:

Four different trumpets, two that were made out of cow horns, segmented and bound together with cow hide:

One trumpet made out of a shell that is most commonly known as a CONCH.

And the last was a 10-foot long trumpet traditionally used on farms where it is played on a hill into a valley to send messages to workers. The sound echoes against the surrounding mountains or hills and becomes so loud that it stretches across the field, and every worker knows at the same when to stop working or come in for lunch.

The last type of instrument we encountered was Pan Pipes. We had never seen such a diverse collection of pipes before. They are the quintessential community instrument, made with two rows of pipes so that they can be split and shared between two friends. The trio played pan pipes that were 4-feet long; these are known as “grandma” pan pipes and are known for making “the sound of the Earth breathing.” We also saw smaller pan pipes that were traditionally made out of the feathers of condors. Since condors are now endangered animals, the Trio had ones with feathers from a different large bird. These made the sound of the bird themselves, such a high-pitched sweet tune.

This concert taught us all much about the evolution of music and instruments; we learned that you can make music out of just about anything, and that music from around the world is delightful.

Lake Tahoe in the Snow

Winter in Tahoe is spectacular.

Over the recent Martin Luther King long weekend, fifteen children between age 6 and 12 joined the ChildReach crew in the snow at Lake Tahoe.   The trip to Tahoe is designed to give the kids a sense of what the changing seasons are like in places where there are distinct seasons, unlike San Francisco. 

Everyone was eager the day of, so much so that many kids showed up early, packed and were ready to go.  After we packed up our snow boots and warm coats we left Raphael House and headed for Tahoe.

As soon as we got to our Tahoe home, it was flooded with screams of joy, whoops for being out of the car, and hollers for the fun we were about to have. The sun set too early for us to play outside on the first evening, so we made grand plans to watch a family movie over some hot chocolate and popcorn but disaster struck!!! Half of the lights went out in the house, and all power to our televisions and DVD players.  This may have been a challenge for another group, but our kids just played Hide n' Seek,  and card and board games before retiring to bed.  We did still get our hot chocolate, thank goodness for that!

The blackout was an unexpected lesson for us all in keeping our heads cool in an emergency, and how much we rely on and for what things we use power. 

The adventure continued the next day. We ate a big breakfast, and braved the snow to sled on some mini slopes in the back-yard, have a giant snowball fight and make snowmen! Some children helped make a slope by fastidiously digging and shoveling snow to the top of the hill. Mostly, it got too cold and everybody retreated inside. Later in the afternoon we decided to hit the real slopes and found a great sledding hill where children slid down two by two. Some of us took a short walk to find gorgeous views of Lake Tahoe at sunset.

We then returned home to play more games, enjoy each other’s company and watch icicles melt from the roof through our windows.  Next, everyone pitched in to help make a delicious dinner. 

The electricity remained on and it’s a good thing too. We needed all of the stoves and ovens for we were feasting in honor of our birthday boy! We ate cake and cobbler to our heart’s content.

The next morning we packed up, and headed home. The drive back was just as spectacular as Tahoe itself. The children noticed our rapidly declining elevation by the ear pops they suffered. They noticed that the vast snowy peaks and pine trees disappeared quite suddenly after a certain point, and that there was a stark difference between the alpine forests we left to the farmland of the central valley.

The kids that went on this winter trip will also get the opportunity to go in summer to compare the seasons and what they like (or dislike) about each.  One child, who had been on the summer trip, decided that he liked the summer better because it didn't make his hands go numb, a common casualty of being in the snow too long.  Another child said she much preferred the winter because it was so fun to sled down hills and the snow tasted just like water!  We are all looking forward to what the kids will have to say about the next trip to Tahoe!

A Christmas Story

Every year at Raphael House, we celebrate Christmas morning by re-enacting the Christmas Story, the story of the journey of Mary and Joseph and the birth of the baby Jesus. 

This year's play was another stirring success.  The children were all in costume as they acted out the story of how the Wise Men followed the star, and came to Bethlehem to bring the baby gifts to welcome him. The children, parents, and our community and neighbors all enjoyed the show immensely.   We are all looking forward to next year's production.

Birthday Parties Are Fun For the Whole Family

ChildReach has recently started hosting monthly birthday celebrations!  This is a great opportunity for kids and parents to come back and connect with Raphael House through dinner, games, and friendship. 

This event is 1 ½ hours of family time, where we serve a sit down dinner, including birthday cake and presents.  

We start off the festivities with a chance for everyone to mingle and make friends through birthday games such as pin the tail on the donkey, scavenger hunts, or musical chairs.  Then dinner is served!  After dinner comes cake and presents!  Each month proves to be a great way for families to make valuable connections and for the children to have a true birthday party experience.

Holiday Heroes

The month of December was jammed packed with fun and festive parties and celebrations, and the Holiday Heroes party was no exception!  We had a great time at AT&T Park looking out at the baseball field.  But the party itself was filled with food, games, music, and even face painting!

Everyone had a fantastic time, and enjoyed the opportunity to stay out late, meet Santa and enjoy a truly fun holiday party.

Adopt-A-Family Holiday Extravaganza

 This year Raphael House was able to provide over 240 families with Christmas presents and/or holiday meals during the Holiday season.  By being active participants in the Raphael House After Care program, these families were  matched with community  donors who generously provided the necessary gifts and food to make their holiday that much brighter.  The event began in October, when wishlists were sent to families.  Through October and November information was collected and distributed to donors.  Once December arrived, the house was abuzz with excitement over the piles of presents and food that came pouring in the doors.  The ChildReach staff could barely keep up! 

But we all worked hard and focused on making the holidays bright and wonderous for all the families we serve.  Volunteers generously donated their time to sort gifts, making sure that everything went as smoothly as possible.

The fun of meeting the donors, and seeing the expressions on the faces of the children as they came to pick up their gifts made all the work worth it ten times over!  Some kids wanted to know why we were giving them their gifts and not Santa, and we explained that we work with Santa, and that he was so busy this year he had to enlist our help.  One child even wanted to know if I was married to Santa.  Although it was a flattering statement, I could never fill the shoes of Mrs. Claus...  

But in all seriousness, this year's program was a huge success and the contributions made by our amazingly generous donors really did make this holiday one that will live on in the memories of the families and the staff of Raphael House.  So, a HUGE thanks to all the families and donors that participated, and we look forward to next year’s Adopt-A-Family give-away!