Summer 2023

The following classes are currently available for enrollment.

Please note that we also teach small private classes that are not listed here.

If the offerings below do not fit your schedule, feel free to email us, and perhaps we can find a class for your young writer.

To register, please send an email to [email protected].

Please provide:

The title of the course
Your child's name
Your child's age as of June 15
A daytime phone number for us to reach you.

Either Writing Coach Shu-Hsien Ho or Royd Hatta will respond as soon as possible.

For the safety of all, we require masks during our in-person sessions.

Creatures and Conundrums

An Online/Zoom Story Workshop

For Tweens, Ages 11-13

Taught by Writing Coach Royd Hatta

June 27 – Aug 1, 2023 (5 lessons)

Tuesdays, 4:30PM - 5:30PM Pacific Time

(No Session July 4th)

Minimum 5 students, Maximum 8

Tuition: $265 per student

Includes detailed feedback & 1:1 coaching.

The summer is the perfect time to let our imaginations fly and create characters that we love, worlds that we want to explore, and creatures and villains that we can’t wait to defeat.

We’ll do fun exercises to flex our storyteller voices and set our hero or heroes on page-turning adventures. We’ll discuss novels, movies, and everything in between as all stories have a similar core. With our story map, and other tools, students will be able to begin a solid tale that makes us worry and care throughout. Writers will walk away with their own map and path to continue after the workshop is done.

To register, please email [email protected]

Photo by Freepik

Flying Cows and Galaxy Cats:

An in-person Story Camp for Students Ages 7-11

Taught by Writing Coaches Shu-Hsien Ho and Royd Hatta

July 24-28, 2023

Monday - Friday: 10:00am - 12:00noon

Redwood City: Hosted by Parent Janne in her backyard

Minimum 6 students, Maximum 10

Early Bird Tuition before April 30:

$355 per student

Regular Tuition:

$455 per student

Imagine facing thousands of flying monkeys as they send bolts of lightning towards you and your towering castle keep. Luckily, your long-bearded mentor has a solution. But, too weak to call upon the mythical flying cow himself, he teaches you the ancient, tragic song of the Unicorn Cat, the only ear-splitting noise that will raise the winged-cow from her sleep and defend those who know this song!

This workshop will invite students to develop unique heroes, mentors, and tricksters, as they delve deep into the adventures, struggles, and unexpected solutions of their story worlds. We will introduce the Hero’s Journey, the hidden, underlying structure that permeates all stories.

Throughout the week, we’ll provide a highly interactive, playful environment to inspire students to create their own tales of fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, science fiction, or anything in between. This course will walk through all steps of the writing process:

• generating first ideas

• writing new scenes

•organizing the plot

• integrating details

• revising for clarity and logic, and

• editing towards a final draft.

On the last day of the camp, students will have an opportunity to present readings from their stories.

To register, please contact: [email protected]

Queens & Pawns

An in-person Tween & Teen Fiction Writing Workshop For Students Ages 12-18

Taught by Writing Coaches Shu-Hsien Ho and Royd Hatta

JUNE 19-23, 2023

Monday - Friday: 10:30am - 12:30pm

Burlingame: Hosted by Parent Min L. in her backyard

Minimum 6 students, Maximum 8

Early Bird Tuition before April 30: $375 per student

Regular Tuition: $475 per student

What happens when a nine-year-old chess prodigy attempts to rebel against her proud mother? Or a king plays a deadly game of chance with unexpected gladiators in a crowded arena? In this workshop, we will explore the internal and external conflicts of our story protagonists, as well as the ethical questions that they face.

Join us to invent your own stories in a genre of your choice. We’ll provide a highly interactive, playful environment to inspire this creative process. Our workshops will walk through every step:

• understanding the structure and the power of a compelling story

• generating and organizing ideas

• researching & applying details/facts

• writing with momentum

• revising for clarity and logic

• editing towards a final draft

Students will be invited to present a reading on the last day of class.

To register, please contact: [email protected]

Talking Tigers: A Comic Book Workshop

A NEW in-person Morning Camp For Students Ages 7-11

Taught by Story Coaches Royd Hatta & Shu-Hsien Ho

JULY 31 - AUG 4, 2023

Monday - Friday

10:00am - Noon

Foster City: Hosted by Parents Rain & Peter in their backyard

Minimum 6 students, Maximum 12

Early Bird Tuition before April 30:

$355 per student

Regular Tuition:

$455 per student

This new course is inspired by the wonderful Calvin and Hobbes comics illustrated by Bill Watterson. Our camp will give students an opportunity to create their own series of comics by discovering and exploring:

• Techniques to Make Comics Pop with Illustrations

• The essentials of Story: Beginnings, Middles, and Clever Ends

• Playing with Action Scenes & The Action Between the Panels

• Funny, Meaningful, and Inspiring Comics

• Beyond Superheroes and Telling Our Own Stories

To register, please email

[email protected]

Math & Story Writing Camp - CLOSED

for Rising Gr. 3-6 Students

An in-person, full-day program with Math Teacher Amelia Chan

and Writing Coaches Shu-Hsien Ho and Royd Hatta

Monday - Friday: Jul 17 - 21, 2023

9:00 am - 12:00 pm: Fun with Math

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm: Supervised Lunch

1:00 pm - 4:00 pm: Adventure Story Writing

Location:

Bridges Community Church, Los Altos

625 Magdalena Ave, Los Altos, CA 94024

Early Bird Tuition before March 15:

$695 per student

Regular Tuition:

$795 per student

Math Enrichment Camp Taught by Math Educator Amelia Chan

A high quality summer program that provides a challenging but fun educational environment for all students in a small group setting. The math camp is filled with hands-on learning and games. Kids will develop new knowledge and problem solving strategies. Most important of all, they will have fun while learning math.

Story Workshop: Flying Cows and Galaxy Cats

This workshop will invite students to develop unique heroes, mentors, and tricksters, as they delve deep into the adventures, struggles, and unexpected solutions of their story worlds.

We will introduce the Hero’s Journey, the hidden, underlying structure that permeates all stories.

This course will walk through all steps of the writing process:

• understanding the structure and the power of a compelling story

• embedding colorful details and facts

• generating and organizing ideas

• writing with momentum

• revising for clarity and logic

• editing towards a final draft

Each student will be invited to present a reading on the last day of class.

What people say about the Writing Camp:

"Thank you for being such an inspiration for my daughter!"

"Isabella looks forward to Fridays because creative writing is her favorite class. She plans to continue with your classes."

"We are eternally grateful to you both for helping our boys so very much. Julian was not at all stressed with his creative writing final. This is because of all his work with you both - he told me! Miles' library persuasive essay was handed in and VERY well received! We're very blessed, thank you!"

What people say about the Math Camp:

"Best math camp ever. Miss Amelia is hilarious."

"My kids enjoyed the summer camp a lot last year - they told me about building geometric shapes with candy and playing with balloons. The camp makes math fun, and a love in math is important and sets the foundation of success in school."

"I thought this was a math camp; how come it's fun?"

Math Instructors

Amelia Chan - Please see her bio here and read the testimonials here.

Our guest speaker Dorr H. Clark has taught math at the Graduate School's Math Department in Santa Clara University for over a decade.

Creative Writing Coaches

Writing Coaches Shu-Hsien Ho and Royd Hatta are passionate about teaching youth and teens how to organize their thoughts and write with power, clarity and ease. Since 1996, their students have learned to write essays, research papers, poems, short stories, and even their first novels. After working with Ms. Ho, one teen writer independently published her 400-page fantasy novel. Their students have earned acceptance into top colleges and universities, such as UC San Diego, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, MIT, NYU, and Brown University. Ms. Ho has a B.A. from Pomona College and an M.A. from Lesley University.

Mr. Hatta has a B.A. from Cal State University at Long Beach, with specialties in history, theater, and philosophy. For ten years, Ms. Ho and Mr. Hatta taught after-school creative writing courses at the Chinese American International School in San Francisco. Today, they continue to work with many homeschooling groups. They run two thriving writers clubs with over 675 families: Bay Area Young Writers and Bay Area Teen Writers. Since 2011, Ms. Ho and Mr. Hatta have published eight anthologies of their students’ fiction: Strokes of Lightning, Real Heroes Wear Sneakers, Bones of Mystery, Encroaching Ink, Special Worlds, Piercing the Unknown, Colorful Characters, and Hues of Hubris. These books are available on Amazon.com. Ms. Ho and Mr. Hatta are currently teaching both in-person and online writing workshops.

To register, please contact: [email protected]

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