STEAMing for a week in Penang

Over the lunar new year a friend that we met in Penang’s mom told Mom and Dad about a day camp happening at a local international STEAM school. We signed up and had a great week. A few things I enjoyed during camp were using the schools campus and equipment, playing basketball after lunch, and most importantly – interacting with kids.

The school’s campus was very nice. It had a large an indoor basketball court, two outdoor courts, a pool, a full size soccer pitch, an open air cafeteria, and a treehouse playground that had tunnels and hills. We didn’t get to use many of the facilities, but the ones we used were very clean and well maintained, so they felt new.

We used the indoor basketball court every day. The flooring was a composite material (not wood) which made them good for jukesing (cutting hard, faking people out). The balls fit perfectly with the hard court, as they were a little less pumped up (soft court needs a harder ball to bounce at the right height).

The soccer pitch was real grass, perfectly green and trimmed. The goals had nets and the balls were pumped up. We only got to use it once, but when we did get to use it, it was fun. We scrimmaged and the counselors had to mark me.

The campus playground was really fun. We didn’t get to play on it much. We did get to play on it after an intense game of frisbee golf. It had three hills with tunnels weaving through them and a tree house with ladders up and slides down.

My favorite part each day was after lunch, because our lunchtime lasted an hour, but if we finished early we could go play basketball in the indoor gym. Everyday me, luka, jude, jacob, grace, and daisy would all play a scrimmage against each other. It was always fun and no one every kept score.

It was fun to have more people to create teams, because usually I”m just playing 1 v. 1 against Dad. It was fun to play with other kids my age, as well. Playing with more people also allowed me to work on dodge-draw-dish … meaning dodging a defender and dribble past them, then drawing another defending trying to help, then passing to the person that the “help defender” left.

If I finished lunch before others, before we started a game, I’d practice freethrows and other inside shots. When playing with others I got to work on dribbling and and shooting including mid-range jumpers and foul shots.

Haven’t met many kids on our trip so far. It was fun to meet some kids that were in the same boat as Liv and I – for example not being in school, but having to do school work. Discuss what they think about their worldschooling trip and just to meet new people I hadn’t met before and that share interests, specifically sports.

The week came to an end. It was definitely one of my favorite weeks of the trip. We plan to meet up with some of these same families next week in Yogyakarta, Indonesia at a Woldschool Pop Up, where families currently worldschooling meet up, do activities together, and generally socialize with people in a similar situation. I’m looking forward to it!