Summer Music Camps

For the summer of 2021, I hosted several music camps at my house and in the park on Whaley Avenue! I want to remember how busy and how much fun I had doing teaching the camps. While I taught these camps, Tanner and Dallin enjoyed their zoo camp, comic camp, surf camp and YMCA camp.

Ukulele Camp

Strum along to a beautiful song in the great outdoors!

This camp teaches basic skills for playing the ukulele in child-centered ways. With games and multi-sensory activities, students will explore the parts of the instrument, learn various strumming patterns, and play simple chord progressions that they can use for multiple songs. We will also play solos and group numbers to folk, pop, rock and jazz music.

Each day includes Movement Time with ribbons, parachutes and scarves. Sensory Art activities will include playdoh and water beads to strengthen hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills needed for the ukulele. Every day ends with a Jam Session, where students play their ukulele, shakers, sticks and more!

Students will also develop creativity, teamwork, critical listening, perseverance, spatial awareness and self-confidence.

Recommended for beginners on the ukulele, entering 1st-5th Grade. Class size is limited to 6 students.

Piano/Voice Camps

Let your child experience the joy of music making through piano or voice!

Through in-person lessons that are engaging and active, students will receive one-on-one instruction with Mrs. Zavoral for five days in a row, at the same time each day. This camp-style approach for summer session has proved to help students make substantial progress during the summer months.

Ideal for children ages 4-12. New and continuing students are welcome!

Songwriting Camp

Does your child like to hum around the house, tap on the kitchen table or make up tunes in the car?

This camp is your child's chance to harness that creativity into making their OWN music!

Through one-on-one instruction and musical exploration, your child will experience all the steps that composers take to make an original work. From pre-writing an idea, to drafting the music on paper, to recording a finished product, students will gain confidence in their own musical ideas! The student to teacher ratio is 1:1 to ensure that your child reaches full potential as a young composer!

Ideal for children ages 4-12. No prior musical knowledge needed. Students may write songs for voice, piano or both! This camp is offered in-person only.

Musical Theatre Camp, performing Arrow to the Sun

My teaching partner for this camp was none other than the amazing Taryn Stickrath!! We had an amazing time working together. This week of camp was easily one of the biggest highlights of my entire career. The other awesome part of this camp is that Tanner and Dallin were joined the camp! It was their first experience doing a play. When I told them they were going to be in the camp, they weren't so sure about it, but they ended up getting really into it. They also made a lot of friends. Tanner was the young boy (the arrow to the sun) and had a big solo! Dallin was the corn planter and a lion. They and all the kids did such an amazing job.

Here is what we did:

Let's put on a show in the great outdoors! Students K-6th Grade will prepare and perform ARROW TO THE SUN, adapted from the Pueblo Folktale by Gerald McDermott, using music, dance, acting and the visual arts.

Children will enjoy age-appropriate lessons and workshops in the following areas:
Acting for the Stage
Singing & Music Making
The Parts of a Theatre
Dance & Stage Movement
Set, Props & Costume Design

These classes involve multi-sensory activities that engage students of all skill levels in telling the story of ARROW TO THE SUN while learning lifelong skills in the performing arts. Activities include dancing with jumbo scarves and parachutes, creating stage sound-effects with percussion instruments, painting sets and head pieces, playing acting games, and singing Native American songs and Broadway singles.

Students will also gain rich knowledge in language arts and cultural awareness. They will develop their creativity, confidence, teamwork, problem solving and social-emotional skills, too!

Camp size is limited to 12 students, entering Kindergarten through 6th Grade. All skills levels and experience is welcome! Directors will gauge student interests and skills to assign appropriate roles in the show, ensuring that all have a fun and successful experience.

Here is a sample of the photos. There's a lot more in my hard drive and on my business FB page. I also have videos of their performance in my hardrive and on my Youtube channel.

August 2021

 We did a lot of fun things in August, from beach to water parks, to the pool, comic camps, fun restaurants and more! 

This is Tanner. He worked hard to grow his hair as long as possible.

Homeschool work at Station Tavern (a local burger joint). Almost finished with our math curriculum before going back to public school in a few weeks!

Tanner sleeping

Grandpa Davidson stopped by on his way to the airport!

Jeremy and Matt did a brother trip. They went hiking, ax throwing, and eating yummy food.

While the brothers were off doing brotherly things, we played with Johanna and her dog Callie. We went to Little Italy and ate really fancy Italian food, the bay (same spot that we watched fireworks from on 4th of July).

We all met up together on Sat night for gelatto at Gelatti & Pescatti in our neighborhood.

I took Dallin on a special outing, just him and me. We got McDonalds breakfast and then went over to Balboa Park, found a secluded garden all to ourselves and played chess in the beautiful morning sunshine!

Two trips to Aquatica because the first time most of the slides were closed and we got free passes to return.

 Dallin was stung by a bee.

McKinley movie night! The kids ran into a group of friends from their Musical Theatre camp, and all 6 of them were thrilled to see each other, and then started singing the songs that they learned from their show in Arrow to the Sun. It totally warmed my heart!!

Homeschool work at Balboa Park, house of nations courtyard.

Jeremy went to Mazatlan, Mexico for a business trip. The factory that makes the cans for Bumble Bee Seafood is located there, and he had to do some quality control to make sure the correct colors were being printed. He had a great time.

Comic Camp

Friends from Minnesota were in the neighborhood for a trip! I tagged along with them at the zoo and then our whole family met up with them at the beach for a dinner.