Camp Mujigae is in the news thanks to Camp Director Heather Murphy (WOO HOO!!!!!!! LOVE YA HEATHER!!!!!) and YNN's Innae Park. Camp Mujigae is definitely THE CAMP to attend, to build friendships with not only other campers but also Korean Americans, and Koreans (my shout outs of thanks to the women of SIWA from Sookmyung Women's University from Seoul, South Korea and their instructors who prepare this group of women).
If you want to learn more about Korea, please attend our Family Day, see the wonderful events for it, eat a wonderful delicious Korean meal, and send your children/grandchildren/nieces/nephews to camp to learn more.
Mingle Restaurant is having a wonderful fundraiser for Camp Mujigae on March 30th so if you're in the area, please attend that day from 11:30 to closing. We are planning on attending and you should too!!!
~Jen
Showing posts with label Camp Mujigae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Camp Mujigae. Show all posts
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Camp MuJiGae is done for now...
Camp MuJiGae is over for this year for us. Mommy was the coordinator for the youngest campers (5 years old and younger) this year. She had learned 2 new Korean songs to teach this year and didn't get to do them since the SIWA women had their own program this year which was absolutely wonderful. The group had a play about a Goblin and most of the 24 campers sat their and listened with their parents to the play. They handed out masks for the kids to decorate. If the campers showed their masks to the SIWA students, they got a prize of school supplies which included a ruler, a pencil case, a pencil, an eraser, and more.
After the SIWA students' program, the older campers (the 3 to 5 year olds) had a Tae Kwon Do program that a Korean adult adoptee who is a 4th degree black belt did for me. He was former camper and former counselor for camp and wanted to give back. The kids had a blast and they got to break boards at the very end of their session. He signed the boards for the kids and handed out gift certificates for one month free lessons with 2 private lessons and a uniform. That was totally unexpected and I thanked him several times. He stayed through the family day events and made sure that he said goodbye to us before he left.
Every time that I saw "The Big Kahuna" for camp yesterday and today, he mentioned to me that he got rave reviews from parents that this was the best camp for the youngest age group in several years. The last thing that was said was this: "we've filled the position of coordinator for Curiosity campers and you're doing it". Wow
I'm taking some time to relax and regroup and then start planning next year's camp for the youngest group of campers for MuJiGae.
After the SIWA students' program, the older campers (the 3 to 5 year olds) had a Tae Kwon Do program that a Korean adult adoptee who is a 4th degree black belt did for me. He was former camper and former counselor for camp and wanted to give back. The kids had a blast and they got to break boards at the very end of their session. He signed the boards for the kids and handed out gift certificates for one month free lessons with 2 private lessons and a uniform. That was totally unexpected and I thanked him several times. He stayed through the family day events and made sure that he said goodbye to us before he left.
Every time that I saw "The Big Kahuna" for camp yesterday and today, he mentioned to me that he got rave reviews from parents that this was the best camp for the youngest age group in several years. The last thing that was said was this: "we've filled the position of coordinator for Curiosity campers and you're doing it". Wow
I'm taking some time to relax and regroup and then start planning next year's camp for the youngest group of campers for MuJiGae.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Preparing for Camp Mujigae
Camp Mujigae is around the corner. Yours truly is the co-coordinator for both Rising Stars and Curiosity campers (so all of the campers 5 and under). I am coordinator for Curiosity (the 3 to 5 year old group of campers).
So far I have learned Arirang on the recorder without using sheet music I might add, still learning 3 Korean songs (can't seem to get one in time to the music just yet---arrrggghhh so frustrating for me), designing some lovely things on Publisher (gotta love that program and the ideas that I have), chopstick classes and more.
I'm just a little nervous in performing on the recorder with a solo and pray that I don't get performance jitters or be overcome with stage fright!!! So far the kids have been my audience and they have been humming away to the music.
Back to the prep work!!
So far I have learned Arirang on the recorder without using sheet music I might add, still learning 3 Korean songs (can't seem to get one in time to the music just yet---arrrggghhh so frustrating for me), designing some lovely things on Publisher (gotta love that program and the ideas that I have), chopstick classes and more.
I'm just a little nervous in performing on the recorder with a solo and pray that I don't get performance jitters or be overcome with stage fright!!! So far the kids have been my audience and they have been humming away to the music.
Back to the prep work!!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Memories of Camp Mu Ji Gae 2008
Jeff, Bella and myself along with my parents who brought Ryan and Katie attended our Korean cultural camp's family day on Sunday afternoon. We saw friends of ours there at camp. Some of them are local and one from far away that we met last year while we were in Boston at the KAAN Conference. Some of them were familiar faces we have seen since our first camp experience in 2004 when Jeff and I went to check it out.
We met up with Katie's mentor, Kathleen, her mother and my friend Maggie, Mike and his daughter Gillian.
It was so good to meet you again Chris, author of A Euro-American on a Korean Tour at a Thai Restaurant in China, at Camp Mu Ji Gae. I'm glad that you finally got to meet my kids in person. As you can tell, they keep me on my toes!!
We watched the Korean drummers and the women from SIWA at Sookmyung Women's University (also in Korean at Info about SIWA in Korean and Info about SIWA in English) do their mask dance.
~~~~~~~~~~~SIDE NOTE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These women paid their own way to the US to help out our camp. And we are appreciative of them doing so!!!
~~~~~~~~~END OF SIDE NOTE~~~~~~~~~~~
The drummers then had asked if any of the campers wanted to join them dancing around they could. So Ryan and I went up and danced along with some of the other campers. We also went in under the arms of the drummers, parents, grandparents and other campers similar to what we do with the Mu Ji Gae train. Then after dancing with Ryan, I took Bella up as well and danced with her. She enjoyed it as well. Katie was watching us from the rest of the crowd. She opted not to join in the dancing and Mu Ji Gae train and we respected her wishes.
Ryan mentioned afterwards that he was upset with us. When I asked him why he told me that he "wanted to bring our Korean drums next year". So next year, if he is still interested, we'll be bringing those drums with us to camp. But that will be his choice.
Monday night, my mom and I attended our camp's guest speaker (Chris Winston) and her discussion about how we build a relationship to the Korean community, why is it important, all about race (does it matter, our perspective on diversity versus our children's perspective, etc), and more. I'm so glad that I attended this event even though I heard some of this at the KAAN conference last year. I still learned some information from this event.
Adoption is a lifelong learning experience...you can't possibly know everything that there is to know to help your child at each stage of their development (infancy, toddler, elementary school, pre-teen, teenager, and adult adoptees) when you bring your child home. Hence my reason why I'm attending these events when I can. Jeff mentioned on Sunday that it would be like going to a KAAN session and in a way it was.
In attendence were Korean adult adoptees to talk about their experiences and without them sharing their personal experiences it wouldn't be the same. I am forever thankful to them for their willingness to talk to us, the adoptive parents, especially face to face to tell us what their experiences were when they were growing up and are now as an adult. Other people in attendence were adoptive parents like myself with young kids, adoptive parents with teenagers, and adoptive parents with adult adoptees. Also in attendence were representatives from a Korean language school in this area. I chatted with them after the talk and gained some valuable information just in case my kids are interested in learning when they turn 5 years old. I learned that they also have a parents' class as well.
Tuesday afternoon we went back for the kids' sessions. My parents came to help us out and to videotape and take pictures. Katie graduated into the older kids class (Curiosity for ages 3 to 5 year olds) so she joined her big brother for the class. Jeff took them into their class while I helped out a friend of ours, Angie, and watched Bella in the younger kids class for under 3 year olds called Rising Stars.
We started off with group pictures and went into the gym for music time, free play, story time, more free play and then snack time.
I sang London Bridges in Korean and taught the parents as well as the kids. In their goody bags they got some arts and crafts stuff to do made by Angie and Jennifer, flashcards that I made up for the campers and particularly their parents to learn some basic words/phrases and included a link to a website that has all of the words/phrases and their correct pronunciation for the parents to listen to, a Korean flag sticker, and more. After that we had freeplay and then gathered back together to do one of the 3 crafts in their goody bag. After that we listened to the book Bibimbop read by Jennifer and 2 other books. After some freeplay, the group had mandu, orange wedges, and popsicles for snack. Bella and I shared our Korean rice cookies that we picked up at the local Korean market with the other campers. I was complimented on the flashcards by several of the mothers and a few of the fathers as well and that they would definitely be using these to learn a bit of Korean themselves.
We had 2 big folding tables set up for resources for the parents to take and one big folding table for books for them to look at. It contained a packet of 5 pages of websites for parents to check out, catalogs from various adoption related businesses, a map of Korea for them to look at, and more. We had Korean children's music playing for all to hear.
In Curiosity, they had paper folding, a song and dance with the girls from Sookmyung Women's University SIWA group, snack and more.
After that camp was done for us for this year. The kids are already talking about next year's camp. We are looking forward to family day events and the kids individual classes for as long as they want to participate in it. I need to make a mental note to ask the kids if they want to bring Korean drums with them to next year's family day since Ryan wanted to play his drum along with the Korean drummers on Sunday.
Katie said the sweetest thing last night to me as I was tucking her into bed that I'll close this post with:
Thank you Mommy for bringing me to camp.
My response to her is the following: Thank you Katie for bringing me to camp.
Katie's simple sweet sentence is why we will expose my children to things Korean for as long as they show interest. Her simple sweet sentence is why we will bring our kids to their Korean cultural camp for as long as they show interest.
~Jen
We met up with Katie's mentor, Kathleen, her mother and my friend Maggie, Mike and his daughter Gillian.
It was so good to meet you again Chris, author of A Euro-American on a Korean Tour at a Thai Restaurant in China, at Camp Mu Ji Gae. I'm glad that you finally got to meet my kids in person. As you can tell, they keep me on my toes!!
We watched the Korean drummers and the women from SIWA at Sookmyung Women's University (also in Korean at Info about SIWA in Korean and Info about SIWA in English) do their mask dance.
~~~~~~~~~~~SIDE NOTE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These women paid their own way to the US to help out our camp. And we are appreciative of them doing so!!!
~~~~~~~~~END OF SIDE NOTE~~~~~~~~~~~
The drummers then had asked if any of the campers wanted to join them dancing around they could. So Ryan and I went up and danced along with some of the other campers. We also went in under the arms of the drummers, parents, grandparents and other campers similar to what we do with the Mu Ji Gae train. Then after dancing with Ryan, I took Bella up as well and danced with her. She enjoyed it as well. Katie was watching us from the rest of the crowd. She opted not to join in the dancing and Mu Ji Gae train and we respected her wishes.
Ryan mentioned afterwards that he was upset with us. When I asked him why he told me that he "wanted to bring our Korean drums next year". So next year, if he is still interested, we'll be bringing those drums with us to camp. But that will be his choice.
Monday night, my mom and I attended our camp's guest speaker (Chris Winston) and her discussion about how we build a relationship to the Korean community, why is it important, all about race (does it matter, our perspective on diversity versus our children's perspective, etc), and more. I'm so glad that I attended this event even though I heard some of this at the KAAN conference last year. I still learned some information from this event.
Adoption is a lifelong learning experience...you can't possibly know everything that there is to know to help your child at each stage of their development (infancy, toddler, elementary school, pre-teen, teenager, and adult adoptees) when you bring your child home. Hence my reason why I'm attending these events when I can. Jeff mentioned on Sunday that it would be like going to a KAAN session and in a way it was.
In attendence were Korean adult adoptees to talk about their experiences and without them sharing their personal experiences it wouldn't be the same. I am forever thankful to them for their willingness to talk to us, the adoptive parents, especially face to face to tell us what their experiences were when they were growing up and are now as an adult. Other people in attendence were adoptive parents like myself with young kids, adoptive parents with teenagers, and adoptive parents with adult adoptees. Also in attendence were representatives from a Korean language school in this area. I chatted with them after the talk and gained some valuable information just in case my kids are interested in learning when they turn 5 years old. I learned that they also have a parents' class as well.
Tuesday afternoon we went back for the kids' sessions. My parents came to help us out and to videotape and take pictures. Katie graduated into the older kids class (Curiosity for ages 3 to 5 year olds) so she joined her big brother for the class. Jeff took them into their class while I helped out a friend of ours, Angie, and watched Bella in the younger kids class for under 3 year olds called Rising Stars.
We started off with group pictures and went into the gym for music time, free play, story time, more free play and then snack time.
I sang London Bridges in Korean and taught the parents as well as the kids. In their goody bags they got some arts and crafts stuff to do made by Angie and Jennifer, flashcards that I made up for the campers and particularly their parents to learn some basic words/phrases and included a link to a website that has all of the words/phrases and their correct pronunciation for the parents to listen to, a Korean flag sticker, and more. After that we had freeplay and then gathered back together to do one of the 3 crafts in their goody bag. After that we listened to the book Bibimbop read by Jennifer and 2 other books. After some freeplay, the group had mandu, orange wedges, and popsicles for snack. Bella and I shared our Korean rice cookies that we picked up at the local Korean market with the other campers. I was complimented on the flashcards by several of the mothers and a few of the fathers as well and that they would definitely be using these to learn a bit of Korean themselves.
We had 2 big folding tables set up for resources for the parents to take and one big folding table for books for them to look at. It contained a packet of 5 pages of websites for parents to check out, catalogs from various adoption related businesses, a map of Korea for them to look at, and more. We had Korean children's music playing for all to hear.
In Curiosity, they had paper folding, a song and dance with the girls from Sookmyung Women's University SIWA group, snack and more.
After that camp was done for us for this year. The kids are already talking about next year's camp. We are looking forward to family day events and the kids individual classes for as long as they want to participate in it. I need to make a mental note to ask the kids if they want to bring Korean drums with them to next year's family day since Ryan wanted to play his drum along with the Korean drummers on Sunday.
Katie said the sweetest thing last night to me as I was tucking her into bed that I'll close this post with:
Thank you Mommy for bringing me to camp.
My response to her is the following: Thank you Katie for bringing me to camp.
Katie's simple sweet sentence is why we will expose my children to things Korean for as long as they show interest. Her simple sweet sentence is why we will bring our kids to their Korean cultural camp for as long as they show interest.
~Jen
Friday, June 20, 2008
Preparing for Camp Mu Ji Gae 2008
I have been in the midst of preparing for the Rising Stars (age 0-3 years old) group of Camp Mu Ji Gae. I'm helping out two other mothers with this group, the planning, the prep work, and my donation to camp of the items I'm working on. I need to come up with a list of stuff that I'll need to bring to camp that evening (the kids' Hanboks).
Ryan and Katie liked looking at the flashcards that I created for Rising Stars. Ryan asked if he could have a set which of course my kids are getting a set each.
I have to admit that they are pretty cool looking. They have a picture and the English word for that picture on one side and the Hangul and the romanization of the Hangul on the other.
I did up flashcards for the parents to learn London Bridges in Korean as well which I will be teaching them during the class. Sorry folks no picture with the London Bridges flashcards.
The two oldest are excited to attend camp again this year and are very excited that they are in the same class (Curiosity for ages 3-5 year olds). Jeff will have his hands full but he might have some from my dad.
I'm excited to be giving back to the camp in a more volunteer capacity which is amazing since I have kids ages 4 and under. Jeff thought that I was nuts just nuts since I'm busy with the kids. But for me helping a friend of mine out who was running the Rising Stars group this year was far more important. I didn't think that I would be singing in front of a group of parents and grandparents though...but it's not a problem for me since I'm not talking on the steps near the Lincoln Memorial like I did in April 2001 on the Endometriosis Walk for Awareness in Washington DC.
Did I tell you before?? Since Ryan likes to help others in need, for Ryan's birthday instead of toys we asked for donations to be sent off to Mu Ji Gae. So Mu Ji Gae got some monetary donations from Ryan's birthday guests.
Off to prepare more flashcards and read my ESWS newsletter that I just got in the mail yesterday,
~Jen
Ryan and Katie liked looking at the flashcards that I created for Rising Stars. Ryan asked if he could have a set which of course my kids are getting a set each.
I have to admit that they are pretty cool looking. They have a picture and the English word for that picture on one side and the Hangul and the romanization of the Hangul on the other.
I did up flashcards for the parents to learn London Bridges in Korean as well which I will be teaching them during the class. Sorry folks no picture with the London Bridges flashcards.
The two oldest are excited to attend camp again this year and are very excited that they are in the same class (Curiosity for ages 3-5 year olds). Jeff will have his hands full but he might have some from my dad.
I'm excited to be giving back to the camp in a more volunteer capacity which is amazing since I have kids ages 4 and under. Jeff thought that I was nuts just nuts since I'm busy with the kids. But for me helping a friend of mine out who was running the Rising Stars group this year was far more important. I didn't think that I would be singing in front of a group of parents and grandparents though...but it's not a problem for me since I'm not talking on the steps near the Lincoln Memorial like I did in April 2001 on the Endometriosis Walk for Awareness in Washington DC.
Did I tell you before?? Since Ryan likes to help others in need, for Ryan's birthday instead of toys we asked for donations to be sent off to Mu Ji Gae. So Mu Ji Gae got some monetary donations from Ryan's birthday guests.
Off to prepare more flashcards and read my ESWS newsletter that I just got in the mail yesterday,
~Jen
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Camp Mujigae...posting # 2
Hi all of our readers,
Camp Mujigae registration is still open (see Camp Mujigae). I am volunteering for the Rising Stars group which is the youngest group up to age 3 years old. For those of you who read this blog who have kids you have adopted from Korea, please consider attending camp.
Ours is a wonderful one and the other two co-leaders and myself have planned on having a parents' resource table full of information for the new parents.
And for those of you who think that this is just open play time for little tikes, think again. I'm teaching London Bridges in Korea to parents and campers and I'll be without my two star singers as well, my two oldest kids!!! YIKES!!!! And I'm working on learning Head Shoulders Knees and Toes (although I have to admit that I feel a little less comfortable with that one right now).
I'm working on Oral Korean, Hangul and English flashcards, gathering up catalogs and magazines for that table and more.
The other co-leaders are working hard on other fun things to do as well. One of which is storytime with a Korean book!!!
For those of you out of state, please consider attending. I know that we are one of the few in the neighboring states of NY that have programs geared for kids under age 5.
My two oldest love to talk about Camp Mujigae, wear their camp tee-shirts and more.
For those of you who are reading this who aren't in the states or who can't come to this particular Korean culture camp, please enroll your child in camp so that they can learn about their culture, being around other Korean kids, eating Korean foods, and more.
If you have adopted from Korea, please consider bringing your kids to a Korean cultural camp. It'll do them the world of good to learn about their culture, to eat Korean food, to make Korean friends, and for them to learn that you love them enough to care.
Back to Camp Mujigae stuff!!!
~Jen
Camp Mujigae registration is still open (see Camp Mujigae). I am volunteering for the Rising Stars group which is the youngest group up to age 3 years old. For those of you who read this blog who have kids you have adopted from Korea, please consider attending camp.
Ours is a wonderful one and the other two co-leaders and myself have planned on having a parents' resource table full of information for the new parents.
And for those of you who think that this is just open play time for little tikes, think again. I'm teaching London Bridges in Korea to parents and campers and I'll be without my two star singers as well, my two oldest kids!!! YIKES!!!! And I'm working on learning Head Shoulders Knees and Toes (although I have to admit that I feel a little less comfortable with that one right now).
I'm working on Oral Korean, Hangul and English flashcards, gathering up catalogs and magazines for that table and more.
The other co-leaders are working hard on other fun things to do as well. One of which is storytime with a Korean book!!!
For those of you out of state, please consider attending. I know that we are one of the few in the neighboring states of NY that have programs geared for kids under age 5.
My two oldest love to talk about Camp Mujigae, wear their camp tee-shirts and more.
For those of you who are reading this who aren't in the states or who can't come to this particular Korean culture camp, please enroll your child in camp so that they can learn about their culture, being around other Korean kids, eating Korean foods, and more.
If you have adopted from Korea, please consider bringing your kids to a Korean cultural camp. It'll do them the world of good to learn about their culture, to eat Korean food, to make Korean friends, and for them to learn that you love them enough to care.
Back to Camp Mujigae stuff!!!
~Jen
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Camp Mujigae 2008
Mommy just got word that the camp registration is now up at their website (see Camp Mujigae). She has already printed out the paperwork and started filling it out. We are heading to camp this year with Mommy volunteering with the Rising Stars group. She is singing a Korean song or two to the campers.
We're not sure if only one of us will be with her in the Rising Stars group or if there will be two joining her. Unfortunately she won't have both of her singers with her for the song or songs.
If you have adopted from Korea, please consider bringing your kids to a Korean cultural camp. It'll do them the world of good to learn about their culture, to eat Korean food, to make Korean friends, and for them to learn that you love them enough to care.
~Ryan, Katie and Bella
We're not sure if only one of us will be with her in the Rising Stars group or if there will be two joining her. Unfortunately she won't have both of her singers with her for the song or songs.
If you have adopted from Korea, please consider bringing your kids to a Korean cultural camp. It'll do them the world of good to learn about their culture, to eat Korean food, to make Korean friends, and for them to learn that you love them enough to care.
~Ryan, Katie and Bella
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