The Children's House

Navigators Chess Club
4th - 8th years
Park Street Campus

Schedule: 4-6 p.m. on Wednesdays: 

October 9, 16, and 30; November 20; December 11 and 18
January 15 and 22; February 19 and 26; March 19; April 9 and 23; May 7 and 14

You are invited to join Compass Chess Club! Each year we have so much practicing our chess skills and getting to know each other. Upper El through Junior High students and parents are encouraged to join!

Weekly Sign-Up Form

We order pizza and serve it mid-way through. We charge $5 and you can either bring cash or Venmo (see sign up form).

Drama Club
3rd - 8th years

Registration: Final Forms, February 1-28, 2025
Season: March – May 2025
Important Dates and Volunteer Opportunities

Student Roles: 25 actors, 1 sound, 1 lighting, and 1 stage manager

Back by popular demand, Jaime Janiszewski will be working on another production with your young thespians this year! 

2024-25 Drama Club playwright announced!
Grandma doesn’t really like fairy tales — she prefers adventure stories about pirates and astronauts.  So when her grandkids ask for fairy tale bedtime stories, Grandma puts some pretty silly twists on them!

“Twice upon a time...”  Grandma begins each goofy retelling of a once-familiar classic.  Cindy-Rella is now an insufferable neat freak not inclined to leave her chores to attend the prince’s barbecue, even if there will be a bouncy castle there.  Grandma seems to have forgotten about the Big Bad Wolf, so her stories pull Big Bad Bear away from his porridge to threaten both the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Pants.  Even Goldilocks is confused why she has cameo appearances in both these stories!

Despite the children’s occasional protests at Grandma’s absurd revisions, they beg for more.  She forges on to tell the tales of Snow White and the Four Dwarves (because four is plenty, thank you!), and Grumplegrapeskin, the magical goblin who wants nothing more than to have the game show host remember his name.  You’ll remember Grumplegrapeskin and all the rest of the kooky characters in this charming and flexible one-act packed with five fractured fairy tales that will really crack you up!

D&D Club (Dungeons And Dragons)
4th - 6th years
The Children's House

Schedule: Fridays from 3:30 to 4:30 in the Community Room

We hope to start on the 25th of October.

We are excited to announce that we are starting a D&D Club (Dungeons And Dragons). D&D is a roleplay and adventure game. The first time we meet, we will make our characters. If everyone is done with their characters we will start playing.  It will be after school on Fridays from 3:30 to 4:30 in the Community Room. We will supply the necessary equipment to play. Please have your child pack a snack. We will have Gary Ruoff as our supervisor and dungeon master. We hope to start on the 25th of October. Please sign up your child if they are interested! 

Sign up if your child is interested!

Navigators Robotics Club - Schedule
6th - 8th years

Registration: Final Forms, Fall session is closed, check back in the spring!
Season: Fall session, October 14 through December 2
Cost: $75
Practice: Park Street Campus from 3:30-5:00 on Mondays. (Nov 4 practice at our Long Lake Campus)
Tournament: Saturday, December 7 at our Long Lake Campus, 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 
Coaches: Jen Lake, Tom Young, Jeff Stewart, Carly Schultz

This email will be used for correspondence — NavigatorsRobotics@gmail.com — allowing the coaches to field questions and keep everything organized. Please use this email for any questions. 

Comets Robotics Club
3rd - 5th years

Registration: Final Forms, Fall session is closed, check back in the spring!
Seasons: Fall session, October-December
Cost: Free
Practice: Thursdays, 3:30 – 4:30
October 17, 24; November 7, 21; December 5, 12
Coach: Ashley Darga

Love ROBOTS? Have a passion for MAKING? Ready to dip your toe in the world of CODING? This club for TCH 3rd through 5th-year learners will focus on building and coding unique robots in an after-school setting that is non-competitive, hands-on, and always fun. Our Robotics club for younger students proves that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is accessible for all. 

16 students max. 

Coaches are needed! Please fill out this form if you are willing to coach or assist. We do not need expert coaches, just adults who would like to help so that we can have these teams!

Battle of the Books
4th - 5th years

Registration: December 6
Season: January until the competition in April

Here's some more info about Battle of the Books 2025 for you and your children. Our primary focus is to share the enjoyment of reading and have great discussions about books leading up to a fun day of competition (the "Battle") on April 12. And we're trying something new with registration this year!

Bottom line: State your child's interest in participating in Battle of the Books at TCH by replying to TCHbattleofthebooks@gmail.com by December 6th. If they have teammate preferences, list those as well. We'll put together teams before everyone registers on the Battle of the Books website.*
*If you already registered, no problem -- let us know that, too.

Program structure:
• Initially, all Battle of the Books participants from TCH will work/study together as one large group. Later, we'll divide the group to work as teams.
• Teams of six are ideal. We understand things are more fun with friends, and we'll account for preferences when creating balanced teams.
• Practices (for everyone) will be held at school once a week beginning late January, either before school (at 7:50am) or at lunchtime. In March/April there may be a few additional practices determined by team members' availability.

Key dates:
• Friday, December 6th: Deadline to let us know that your child will participate in TCH BoB. We will then put together teams.
• Wednesday, December 11th: We let you know what team your child is on. Team formation will be a collaborative and transparent conversation.
• Sunday, December 15th, 3pm: Team registration opens on the Battle of the Books website.
• January 5th, 2025, 3pm: Deadline to register on the BoB website.
• Friday, January 10th, 2025: Book reveal at the library! All teams are assigned the same 6 books of various genres and sizes. The announcement event at the library is a fun community experience that gets the kids' curiosity going.
• Saturday, April 12, 2025: The Battle!

FYI:
• Participants are expected to read at least 2 of the 6 assigned books. They do not need to be stellar readers. Audio books are still books!
• Your child can participate in practices even if they aren't available on April 12. (Please note this in your email if this is the case.)
• That said, each team needs to have at least 4 kids to participate at the tournament, so please block April 12 on your calendar, if possible.

Coach info:
• Virginie Kanner, Erin Gartland, and Charlotte Smith have volunteered to coach -- but many hands make light work: dads, moms, grandparents, other caregivers, please consider joining us, however you can (see below). It's a lot of fun.
• If you are interested in coaching, wonderful! If you'd like to help in other ways, please know you do not have to read the books, or even go to the meetings: there are many ways to become involved, and every bit helps. You could:

• Provide excellent snacks
• Help develop a few quiz-like questions around books
• Fill in when a coach isn’t able to make it to a meeting
• Encourage your kids to read, or read with them!

If an adult from your household can help out in any capacity, please let us know. We will likely need at least one more coach. Thank you for considering! This will help us start strong and work together from the beginning.

Please email us at this email address with any questions:
TCHbattleofthebooks@gmail.com