Mom... I'm bored

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal, April 29, 2009


"Sign my kid up for everything."

That is a direct quote from a phone call I received last spring from a parent looking for summer activities for their child. Once again it is time to think about finding great things for kids to do during those 12 weeks of summer.

Typically the excitement of being out of school wears out after about three days. Kids get restless; parents are pulling out their hair trying to come up with something to keep the kids out of their hair.

Never fear - Hill Country Kids is here! This long-running catalog of kids summer activities pulls together the best diversions in the area. Inside is a directory listing of every single organized kids activity in Kerrville, Hunt, Ingram, Comfort, Fredericksburg, Boerne, and points in between, along with detailed information on select offerings.

For starters, you'll find every Vacation Bible School in the area. Then there are the camps, from MO Ranch to the YMCA. Is your child interested in tumbling, dancing, riding, swimming, or playing music? Look inside - see what you find. There are even some diversions that don't fit any category. Try taking a trip to the Wild Animal Orphanage just this side of San Antonio, where you can spend a day visiting more than 150 lions, tigers, bears, and other exotic animals.

Or round up your cowgirls for a summer camp at the Enchanted Springs Ranch, where the buckarettes will learn how to care for animals, cook dutch oven style, garden, and rope.

These activities are not just mindless diversions to fill time. Don't let your children know, but they might actually learn something. Club Ed for Kids is sending up rockets again at the Shoot For The Stars rocket camp. We also are running the full array of science and art camps featuring Lego building bricks, engineering, claymation, robotics, and junior engineering. We even snuck in one class for adults - Beginning Guitar. No reason to take the summer off from playing music!

The Hill Country Arts Foundation is offering a theater camp, Boerne Gymnastics is reprising its popular and fun Circus Arts camp where kids will learn acrobatics and clown skills. Speaking of clowns, our cover clown "Sunshine" is putting on a magic class and balloon sculpting class for wannabe show people, all supplies included.

The list is endless: twirling, tennis, tapping, drawing, karate, golf, reading. There is no reason to ever hear those grating three words, "Mom... I'm bored."

Pick up a copy of Hill Country Kids, and sign up your youngsters (or grandyoungsters) for everything!

XXX

Hill Country Kids catalog is sent home with every elementary and middle school child in public and private schools in the hill country. You can also pick up a copy at local chambers and libraries, or by visiting www.hillcountrykids.net. Or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

Send in the clown

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal, April 15, 2009


I once assessed my "skill set" as I reworked my resume in anticipation of a job search. I could juggle, ride a unicycle, was good with kids, and could do magic. Great, I realized - I'm qualified to be a clown.

Shannon Anderson, owner of the Old Thyme Fun Shop on Main Street in Fredericksburg, went through a similar process.

"When I moved to Fredericksburg, I wondered what do I already know how to do to make a living?" she said. "Well, I already know magic, and I know balloons... I'll be a clown!"

Her first attempt at clowning was not much fun. In fact, she called it a "disaster."

"I was at this house full of fifth-graders, and they had every video game and a big screen TV, and here's this clown doing magic tricks," she recalled. "All of them were saying 'when are you going to leave?'" She chuckled. "I said, 'Now! Close your eyes and count to 10,' and I was out the door! I went home and said I'm never doing this again! Kids are mean!"

Luckily, Anderson - aka Sunshine the Clown - couldn't walk away from her clowning career as easy as that. She already had another gig booked.

She decided that to be funny, she would have to work at it. So she studied other clowns, read books and watched tapes, and attended conventions to learn the art of the clown.

"Some people think anybody can do it; you just slap on some makeup and funny clothes," she said. "It's not that way. There really is an art to it."

Anderson has begun sharing her clowning expertise with young and old. This summer, she will offer Magic for Beginners and Balloon Sculpting - the art of twisting dogs and giraffes out of balloons. In the fall she hopes to add local clowning courses for adults.

Meanwhile, you can see Sunshine rule her kingdom of kitsch in the Old Thyme Fun Shop. It's the kind of store you loved to go into when you were a kid.

There is the fake fly in the ice cube, the spilled coffee, the finger-shaped nose hair trimmer, a plastic rat, and the doormat that read, "Come Back With a Warrant." And then there are the classics: the handshake buzzer, fake vomit, and, of course, the rubber chicken.

A steady stream of kids and giggling grownups hauled away bags of fake bagels with the cockroach, hillbilly teeth, rolling eyeballs, and piles of T-shirts with naughty messages.

Anderson was busy showing a customer how to perform the national anthem on a whoopee cushion. Obviously, clowning is the central part of Anderson's life.

"Laughter is therapeutic, it shakes up all your organs and makes a chemical reaction in your body that no drug can replace," she said. "Letting yourself play as an adult is one of the greatest things we can do for ourselves in this hectic, serious world. There's humor in everything, like it or not."

XXX