Challenge Island – NE Seattle

Specialties

Birthday parties, camps, after school programs, in-​school field trips, and team building, anti-​bullying, and team-​building events for adults, too! Challenge Island is a whimsical, wildly popular enrichment program that promotes creative and critical thinking skills in children. Loosely based on a well-​known reality TV show, Challenge Island has kids dividing into cooperative tribes and taking on a vast array of exciting challenges set on action-​packed thematic «islands». Our innovative programming reinforces STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and core language arts skills (but let’s keep that last part under our hats, because as far as kids are concerned Challenge Island is just plain fun!).

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History

Established in 2013.

Challenge Island was produced by family expert, teacher, and author, Sharon Duke Estroff, in Atlanta, GA. It has been in operation nearly 15 years. Challenge Island is owned by Creative Learning Corporation, which also owns the popular Bricks for Kidz franchise. Both of these offerings are very popular in Georgia, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, and many other states. Challenge Island has finally made its way to Washington State! Tamara Menteer Gonzalez is the proud owner of this amazing business where teaching children STEM while providing them a wonderfully fun and fantasy-​filled experience is the goal. By landing on islands of various thematic content and facing challenges to test their STEM learnings and overall imaginative, creative, and critical thinking skills, children gain confidence in learning in this new, kinesthetic way. Extensive research went into the making of this program, and Tribes​.com lent itself strongly to use of learning communities we call «tribes».

Meet the Business Owner

Tamara Menteer Gonzalez O.

Business Owner

Tamara Menteer Gonzalez has spent years in management roles in Seattle area. Her last corporate position was as Patient Housing Manager at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Tamara found herself yearning to be with children, after she became a grandmother, and sought a way to fulfill this dream. Finding Challenge Island was a dream come true! Tamara received her MA in Transformational Spirituality from Seattle University. Her focus of study was on how play and spirituality intersect, and her interests include the study of InterPlay, an integrative practice for group and individual development, using improv dance, story, and song. She uses much of her InterPlay Leadership Training in her camps. Additionally, Tamara has been active as a mediator and ombudsman, and teaches group process to her students in the Challenge Island process. Her strong mediation skills suit this program perfectly.