Second Post: Adventure Camp & Beach Times

AH, the Beach. So i had a few more pictures about beach times than i thought i did, and this post is significantly LONGER than I meant it to be. Oh well. Here goes:

We all loved the beach(es), although at some points i thought to myself: how am i EVER getting this superfine sand off of everything???? (once home i did a full vacuum of the entire van, and i am still in the process of washing absolutely everything that came camping with us.)
We went to three different beaches on this trip, each one very different from the next. The "mud" made sammy VERY happy. The rocks made mercy VERY happy. the friends to swim with made julia VERY happy. baby napping on the beach made mommy VERY happy. Exploring new places made daddy VERY happy. :)
















Adventure Camp:
So i had this idea.... you see when we were out west with my folks, my dad created the "hiking club" or something like that. the children (6 of them on that trip) were enthralled with his lessons. SO, i thought to myself, we should make something like that for this trip (8 children involved). Not only would it be SUPER FUN, but if/when things get a little harried because 8 children are tired, bored, disgruntled, etc etc... we can pull out the "it's time for a meeting of the Adventure survival club". and the day is saved!! :) Well, as it turns out, there were hardly any moments where kids were bored and disgruntled. I never felt like we needed Club to save the day, but it was a HUGE hit. They loved it. All the adults agreed: this is now a staple of the Naus & Van Oordt camping trips.

How it works: i researched some survival tips, what is imp't and what is not, i narrowed it down to what a group of 3-9 year olds would like to learn and went from there. I ended up with a trifold pamphlet for each child and a "teacher's guide". From there, i knew the guys could teach these kids a lot of practical skills (even though i didn't know what i was talking about!!) Lesson One: what to do if you get lost. Lesson Two: how to build a shelter if you are REALLY lost. Lesson Three: finding water and making fire. Lesson Four: Finding true north without a compass Lesson five: knot tying. Lesson six: how to read a compass.

For the fire building lesson, each child was then able to build the campfire for one of the evenings we were on our trip. it was "their fire" and the adults mostly just supervised their progress. (sweeeeeeetness)

For Compass reading, the dads set up this AWESOME treasure hunt, complete with a birchbark map and a made up story of the "Glad Pirate Macgregor" (hahahaha) that the kids TOTALLY thought (and still think) was real!! They had to work as a team, and follow the clues, measuring the paces with a piece of rope...and their prize... buried a foot and a half below the surface of the sand: their very own compass/whistle/magnifying glass combo. :)

For Shelter building: the first time they taught on this topic, the kids ran off and built miniatures of what a shelter COULD look like. Later in the week, Dave took them to an empty camp site and they made a ridge line and lean-to shelter that one could fit into.

Dave taught the kids two different knots that he has been learning himself. Julia was then found teaching a little girl at the playground how to do these. she was fiddling with her rope on the picnic bench there, and the little girl wanted to know what she was doing, haha.





The end of the week arrived, and all the kids had their booklets signed off for the skills they had learned and tried. Dave and I then held the Closing Ceremonies, where we had one child at a time stand on the top of our picnic table while dave announced what they had learned, asked them a skill testing question, and presented them with their very own water pistol and set of water balloons. :) VERY VERY FUN. i thoguht i was more excited about this idea than the kids would be, but i was wrong... they were totally into this!! :) very rewarding!