Adventure Camp

Ever wanted to send your children to camp, but something held you back?  It could be money or time or challenges related to special or medical needs or a variety of other things.  I know that for my family, we have enjoyed camp in past years, but we haven't done one recently.  I really wanted that for my children this year.  In the past we have hosted "theme camps" around topics such as nature, explorers, artist and more.  For me this year, I didn't have the energy for that kind of camp.  Also, our FIAR group has such a wide range of ages, that we thought a fun adventure camp might be more fitting for the group.  So ... Adventure Camp was created!

A group of moms gathered to brainstorm ideas on what we could do for a week.  We chose activities that were easy to plan for the moms and high on fun for the kids.  We also selected a variety of locations in the area.    Most of the days were low cost as well.  I highly encourage you to consider this type of camp for your own children.  Its a lot of fun!

We started out with a picnic on a Saturday night as a kick-off for our camp.  This is a fun way to include the Dads as well.  We met at a park for a picnic supper, to make t-shirts and a potluck dessert.  The children played and ran around having fun.  

Some of us started with dessert.  Who can resist and yummy ice cream treat?!  Eliana was introduced to chocolate covered almonds.  She loved them!  I didn't take a lot of photos, but Eliana helped by taking some.  She took the top two here.  Didn't she do a great job?

 We made camp t-shirts.  These are super easy and fun for all ages.  We used paper letters/numbers/shapes, items from nature and stencils.  Put a piece of cardboard in the middle of the shirt so that the design doesn't go through to the other side.  Then lay down your design.  Squirt the shirt with clorox until the color begins to fade.  You want to use dark or very bright colored shirts.  Once the fading is an amount that you like, you need to plunge it into water.  If you don't do this, the design will continue to fade until the color is completely washed out.

The shirts looked great and it was fun seeing them during the week!

Day1 - It was a rainy day so we planned an indoor activity.  Game day!  Sadly, Eliana came down with a fever during the night so I planned to drop off my other kids.  Rebecca however volunteered to stay home with her, so I took the boys to play.  We met at a friend's house and brought some games to share.  

 It was fun playing old favorites and trying new ones as well.  Even the moms took a turn.  We decided that we need to do this more often!  Cost:  Free

Day 2 - Jordan Lake.  We had beautiful weather!  Warm, but not hot.  Perfect for camp!  I still wasn't sure if Eliana should be out in the sun though.  It had been less than 24 hours since her fever broke and I didn't want a relapse.  It was hard deciding to keep her home as I knew that she would LOVE this outing.  Sand and water are two of her favorite things.  It was made easier by the fact that we were going to the beach at the end of the week.  I was fortunate to have a sweet friend offer to take the rest of my children so that they could enjoy this fun day.  No pictures since I wasn't able to go.  Cost:  $6 per car/van.

Day 3 - Boating at Lake Jordan.  Again, we had a beautiful day!  For boating, you need at least one person in each boat that is age 16 or above.  We chose to do pedal boating first since it holds the most people in a boat (4).

Joshua and a sweet little friend.

Isaiah up front helping me to pedal!  This is much harder than it looks like too!

 It was fun meeting up with friends in other boats too!

 The kayaks were very popular as well.

Daniel and I rode in a kayak across the lake.  We were able to see turtles sunning on a log.  Neat.  No camera in the boat though.

 We had a picnic up on the porch.

Beautiful girls.  Note the pins that Rebecca and Hanna are wearing.  Know what they are for?  Here is your hint.  It was June 5th when I took this photo.  (Answer at the bottom of the post)

Just loved this photo of Isaiah and Hanna heading out across the lake.  Did I mention that it was a gorgeous day?!

We treated ourselves to frozen yogurt on our way home.

 Day 4:  Biking at Falls of the Neuse State park.  This was the one day that I knew I would miss since Eliana had a hard to schedule appointment at the Down syndrome clinic.  I didn't want to cancel as we can't attend during the school year due to scheduling conflicts.  It was a long appointment.  I had hoped we would finish sooner so as to meet up with the others.  It was a good appointment though.  The doctor is so very encouraging!  I'm thankful to have those types of doctors in our lives!  Having had a couple that weren't this way has made me even more appreciative of those that are!

When clinic was over, Eliana and I drove over to meet the rest of the group.  We knew we were trying to beat out a storm.  It started raining on our way there.  And was continuing to rain when we arrived.  Eliana fell asleep and took a long nap.

As we waited for the boys to arrive, I hoped that it was fun for them.  The trip and in the rain.  Well, they loved it!  Despite having problems with repeated low blood sugars and fatigue (Daniel ended up feverish that day), they loved this outing!  And are wanting to do it again!  I'm up for that too!  Again, I didn't get photos.  The trail that they went on was chosen for safety factors - contained trail with a lovely view that did not cross any roads/highways.  Cost:  Free.

Day 5 - We had planned to go to the Eno River to play, but the tropical storm effects that started on Thursday continued on Friday so we opted to postpone this for another day.  This is another event that has no cost.

All in all, this was a fun week for our campers.  Due to the schedule, it was easy to have people come on some days even if they couldn't attend all of them.  My children had a blast and I love that this was a fun, low-cost way to have camp!  I highly encourage you to try it out!

Blessings
Leslie

(Answer:  For the June Revolution.  Can you tell that they are fans of Les Miserables?)

Camp - Day 4 - Ice Cream

This was Rebeca's biggest camp day. She had 10 children attending. It was a lot of fun!  The beginning was a devotion and then a book on ice cream.  We did a unit study on ice cream a couple of years ago and had a blast with it!  It's a wonderful topic to explore.  I highly recommend it if you are looking for a fun thing to do this summer!



Next was an experiment about the effects of salt on the temperature of water.



The children were then given 10 tasks to accomplish.  They were to split up so that each child had one task.  This was so much fun and the kids loved it.  After going through it once, many of the children then wanted to go through the whole thing themselves.  Here were the items in the obstacle course.

Walking the balance beam - backwards



Carrying a beanbag on your head across the yard and back.



Hitting the golf ball into a large hole - blindfolded.  This was actually quite funny as the kids were trying to help him with his aim.


Carrying an egg on a spoon to the cones and back.



Limbo.



Jumprope 20 times


Kicking the ball around the cones and back again.



Crabwalk - forward and backwards across the yard


Jump through the rungs of the ladder



Handstand



Next was the moment that they had all been waiting for - ice cream.  They took turns adding their ingredients into a baggie to make their own ice cream.  Rebecca also had an assortment of toppings - fruit and sprinkles - that they could add if they wanted to.



Another ice cream book and how the waffle cone was invented.



After listening to the story, the kids were to come up with their own ideas of how the cone was invented.  They split into 3 groups, gathered props from a box Rebecca provided and the acted out their story for the others.







The morning ended with some quizzes.  They tried to work together to figure out which countries eats the most ice cream, the top 5 ice cream flavors and the top 5 ice cream producing states.  Some of the kids held signs while the others tried to sort them. 



Fun day.  I think a lot of sweet memories were made this morning!

Blessings

Leslie

Camp - Day 3 - Birds

Rebecca hosted her third day of camp on the topic of birds.  She used the same format and began the day with devotions and reading a book.



They made bird feeders from small orange juice containers.  They painted them and then later Rebecca sealed them, punched a hole and added string to hang them up.  They were also given a baggie of bird seed.



Snack today included a bird's nest made from rice krispy treats.  For the eggs they could put in blueberries or jellybeans.  They also had some seeds to eat - popcorn, sunflower as well as raisens and nuts.



I just can't resist pictures of this sweet little face.



After reading a book about bird nests,



and learning some facts about bird nests,



Each child made their own nest.  Rebecca had scattered some ribbon and feathers in the yard.  They could use this as well as any natural items such as mud, twigs, leaves, etc.





Isaiah was excited about his nest and went to get a bird to put in it!



They also played some games to round off the day. 



I'm proud of the hard work that Rebecca is putting into these days.  She has dealt with challenges and is learning from them.  What a great experience this is for her and the children!  I love seeing how she is willing to use her gifts and talents and to stretch herself.  She has two more days of camp left - ice cream and science are the topics coming up.

Hope you have a great week-end!

Blessings

Leslie

Camp - Day 2 - Seeds

I'm going to be playing catch up for a few days.  We  were gone for the week-end and I'm working on uploading pictures.  Rebecca held her second day of camp last week and the topic was "Seeds".  I loved watching how she learned from her experience and planning accordingly for the next camp day.  She has really worked hard and poured a lot of herself into planning fun activities.  I've enjoyed watching her.

She started the day with a devotion and then reading a book.  She read a Magic School Bus book on seeds.



She then shared some facts about seeds with them.  Next they took a closer look at some seeds.  They took apart some lima beans (soaked overnight in water) and corn seeds to see the difference between a monocot and dicot. 





For snack, Rebecca chose some foods that were from seeds.  Sunflower seeds, watermelon, apple slices and smoothies.  Yum.  What a nice, healthy snack!



After snack was craft time where they each painted a small pot.  She used watercolor paints and then covered it with modge podge. 







They then played a bingo game that Rebecca made up.  She made a bingo board with pictures of various seeds. 



She drew a picture from her bowl and called out the name of the seed.  The children could read the names or look at the picture to match it up.  When they found it on their board, they covered it with a lima bean.  Each board was different.  The first to get 5 in a row was the winner.  There were two tied for first place.  For the next round, they worked to make a T (the top row and the middle row) on their boards.  There was also a tie in this round and it was the other two children.  Nice how that worked out.



When the pots were dried, they filled them with potting soil and planted some flower seeds. 





The morning ended with another game.  Rebecca made this one up too.  The children each had a different role.  One was the seed that had to move in tiny baby steps.  One was the sun and that person skipped.  One was water and that person took large steps.  The last was the bird who hopped.  The seed was trying to catch the sun and the water.  Once tagged those people were with him.  If the bird caught the seed before the seed caught the water and the sun, then the game was over and the bird won.  They had great fun playing this!





During the morning, Eliana and I just hang around, watch and play nearby (mainly so I can take some photos and just enjoy the camp too!).  Here's a blurry one of Eliana having a blast on the swing.  Can you see her grin?



It was a beautiful day weather wise which was so very nice!!!  Wish the whole summer could be like this.  As I look at what she has done, I'm so proud of her.  She is a creative and fun-loving young lady that really enjoys children. 

She has three more camp days planned for the summer.  I'm sure that they will be lots of fun too!

Blessings

Leslie