Day #153/175 Days - 4-H Day Camp

Unfortunately I did not go to camp today. Conductor woke up not feeling well with a high fever. We stayed home for the morning and then I was able to bring Lego-Man and Happy in for the afternoon. Their Daddy was able to get out of work early and see their plays. Thanks to him, I have some photos of their theater debuts.

"Grim Pig" 

Yes, that is a pig head on his head. 

Happy to the right of the photo. He was "the 2nd Pirate."

Day #152/175 Days - 4-H Day Camp

The schedule stayed the same as yesterday except Happy did not help make snack today. He participated in a morning workshop instead. We discussed mothers and baby animals and insects. Each child (and adult) was given a photo of one or the other and then we had to find out matches. The animals were easy. The insects were impossible without a lot of help!

Morning snack was yogurt parfaits. YUMMY! Morning swim happened on the west side of the lake today (the side we were already on). It was a hot day and the east side was full so no extra parking. The kids still had fun although it was a lot more rocky and there was no sandy beach to play in.

After lunch I taught the older kids a class on photography. It went well. The younger crew were at theater. 

Then the younger crew came down and had a workshop on wind power. First they made pinwheels.

Then the instructors showed them how wind power can actually work. 

The fan was powering a pinwheel. The pinwheel was hooked up to a small light/sound board. At first a red light would light up and then the music would start playing. The kids really enjoyed the workshop (so did I!).

My kids are having the time of their lives but they are pretty tired. We leave the house by 8am and don't arrive back home until 3pm or later. I had to run some errands after today so it was close to 4:30 before we were home. Early bedtimes though!

One of the only photos I have of the older kids working on the garden.

Day #151/175 Days - 4-H Day Camp

We just joined 4-H (late in the year) this past April. While we've been busy trying to get our fair project ready, there has been a lot of fun involved as well. Because we are now official "4-H'ers" we were able to participate in 4-H Day Camp. It's held at a local state park and all I can say is WOW! The staff was excellent and my kids are exhausted.

Happy was in the Cloverbuds (ages 5-8) and I was with him most of the time so he will feature prominently here.

Lego-Man and Conductor were with the regular group (ages 9-19) and there schedule each day was this:

• Gardening project - they added a nice garden complete with rocks to the park property. Each 4-H'er also was given a small gardening tote with gloves and gardening tools. They got to bring those home on Wednesday.
• Snack (made by the Cloverbuds)
• Free Swim
• Lunch
• Afternoon workshop (Conductor chose to do a birdhouse basket project that took all three days to complete. Lego-Man chose different workshops. Monday it was a Rocks & Minerals class, Tuesday is was Photography, and Wednesday is was Fly-Tying and Fly-Fishing.)
• Theater

Today I tagged along with Happy. He started out by heading to the Snack cabin to put together the morning snack. They made peanut butter balls. All of the snacks were done without cooking. They kids mixed peanut butter, powdered milk, and corn syrup (although you could use honey) and mixed that together. Then they rolled them in Rice Crispies. They had a blast doing this and the other campers all got to enjoy their efforts during morning snack.

All the little helpers sanitized their hands before helping. ;-)

After morning snack we loaded up all the children and took them to the east side of the park where there was a nicer beach. They enjoyed about an hour of free swimming time. Really enjoyed! It was a hot and sunny day so the cool water was nice.

We had lunch on the east side as well. Then we all headed back to the west side. The Cloverbuds went up to their theater workshop. Wow. The lady that was lined up to teach this was wonderful! She talked to them about theater and worked on getting them comfortable acting. They were also able to go through all of her costumes and pick out something. Then they will start working on putting together a play to perform for family and friends on the last day.

They played the "Name Game." They formed a circle. Then each child moved to the center of the circle in whatever way they wanted and said their name. Then the rest of the children copied what they did and said their name as well. Here is Happy having his turn.

The Cloverbuds ended their day with a talk by our favorite museum educator (Serena from the LC Bates Museum). She talked to the kids about bugs and insects. Great stuff.

But my absolute favorite part of the day was during the morning. The older kids were hauling rocks and granite out from under one of the cabins (it was elevated) in order to make the garden. My 13-year-old looked at me and said, "Mom, I am so happy right now." He had the time of his life and that made me happy for all the extra driving and time away from home.