At Home Summer Camp - Sneak Peek

Only one more day of school before our summer vacation officially begins!  I think I'm just as excited as the kids!  A little break from the rushing to and from school, homework and projects will be nice in exchange for carefree, relaxing days by the pool.

But, I know the kids will get restless probably by noon of the first day, so I've created an at home summer camp schedule of fun stuff for us to do.  This is the second year I've done this and it was a BIG help last year in keeping us busy.  The schedule of crafts, activities and learning opportunities is vast, but very flexible.  If we get to it, great; if not, it's ok and we can either move it to another week or save it for next year.  But, at least I have a resource of activities to choose from so we don't get stuck in the rut of watching tv all summer.

Today, I wanted to share a sneak peek with you of what I have planned.  I hope that at the end of each week, I can share with you all the details of our fun.  I assigned each week a theme and included day trips, crafts, recipes and learning activities that revolve around that theme. 

Here is our schedule of themes:

Week of 6/20 - Camping in our own Backyard
Week of 6/27 - America the Beautiful
Week of 7/4 - Weather Around Us
Week of 7/11 - Archaeology
Week of 7/18 - Moving Science
Week of 7/25 - Nature: In the Garden
Week of 8/1 - Beach: Sea Life
Week of 8/8 - Space Exploration
Week of 8/15 - Pioneer Days
Week of 8/22 - Back to School

Some of our day trips, recipes and crafts may change with our themes, but some activities will be a constant each day or week.  Every week, we'll visit our local library to pick up new books for our theme as well as check in for our summer reading program.  And daily (or almost daily) we will make time for some workbook practice, journal writing and reading.


Want a better idea of what we'll be working on for a theme?  Here's a look at our first week's theme of Camping:

Monday

• visit library for new books and summer reading
• make a bead bookmark

Tuesday

• decorate a summer memory box
• make a personalized name camp sign

Wednesday

• complete summer activities journal
• make friendship bracelets and mail them to friends

Thursday

• make ice cream in a bag
• weave a summer sun

Friday

• complete the camping checklist activity
• make a paper bead necklace

Saturday

• participate in the Great American Backyard Campout
• make smores
• add camping badge to bandana

I hope you'll join us for some summertime fun with our at home camp ideas!

This blog post is written in memory of Naida Scaggs.

Rest in sweet peace, dear friend.

Empowerment Pebbles

I made these empowerment pebbles for my son after seeing the idea HERE.  He's a big rock collector and was so excited about adding these to his collection.  He's also a nature and animal lover and enjoyed reading how each of the animals on the pebbles represented a special gift children have.

We used the animal descriptions from Marghanita's site, but my son wants to add his own animal designs to more pebbles and make up his own new descriptions for the animal's gift.  I love the creativity and writing opportunity this will provide and will come back and share his creations soon.  Here are the animal descriptions for these pebbles:


WOLF: Special Person – Just as the wolf howls its proud song to the moon, you too can recognize that you are a unique and special child. You are a lovable and wonderful child!


RAVEN: Curiosity – The raven is never bored, always curious, always exploring every corner of the world. So too can you awaken your sense of wonder – discover nature and its endless wonder.

SALMON: Sharing – just as the salmon shares its body with the bear, otter, eagle and human, so too can you learn to share your food, your feelings, your fears, your books and toys. Sharing is one of the most important traditions.

SPIDER: Patience – Spider spins her web and waits, and waits, and waits…Spider knows that her patience will be rewarded with a fly in her trap and a meal for her young. You too can learn the lesson of patience; all things will not come to you instantly.

BEAR: Strength – The powerful grizzly bear will bring you to the gift of strength-inner strength to help you through sad moments in your life. Like the mother grizzly bear who overturns logs to feed insects to her cubs, or to protect them from danger, you too can learn to be strong.

HUMMINGBIRD: Happiness – Hummingbird, this joyful little spirit, brings happiness into your life. All the sweetness in the nectar is yours. Remember to take time and smell the flowers and find joy in all you see and do.

DEER: Peacefulness – The gentle deer brings you the gift of a peaceful spirit. Deers are always aware, always alert, but at the same time they are peaceful and gentle. Take time to be quiet. Ask your parents to take you to a beautiful meadow of wildflowers or the hushed silence of the forest and you will know the gift of the deer.

Planting Flowers

"Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.”

Luther Burbank, botanist (1849-1926)

Did you know that today, March 12th, is National Plant a Flower Day?  Although it was a beautiful start to the weekend here in Maryland, it's still a tad too chilly to plant anything outdoors.  But I know that Spring is on it's way, so we decided to take advantage of this day to plant some flower seeds indoors.

I like to do our part to recycle and reuse as much as possible, and our seed planting today gave us a good excuse.  We used some empty toilet paper rolls to create seed starting pods.  We started by cutting each roll in half, then cutting four slits on one end of each, to make tabs to fold over and create a bottom.  If you bend the tabs into the tube, then straighten them out to create the bottom they stay down, and the added soil will keep them in place as well.

 

Next, I cut the bottom from an empty cereal box to create a tray to hold our seed pots.  I lined it with aluminum foil so when there was water drainage, the box didn't fall apart.

We headed outside to gather some dirt to fill our seed pots, and found a few friends along the way.

Then, we started planting our seeds.  My daughter used a small stick to make holes in each seed pot, then added a few seeds to each.

We watered our seeds with some water and plan to sit them in our front window for plenty of sun.

My daughter was pleased with her seed planting, choosing Zinnia, Morning Glory, Snapdragon, Daisy and Poppies to plant.  We even made plant markers with some craft sticks to keep track of the flowers.

Sharing at the following blogs:

Quirky Momma

Fall Exploration Box

Fall keeps sneaking in and out on us here in Maryland. Two days ago my kids were in shorts and t-shirts and this morning it was pants, long sleeves and jackets! But, the signs of Fall are all around us. So a few weeks ago, we gathered some Fall items to add to our exploration box - a box of items that the kids can explore and observe.

This month our exploration box is all about Fall.  This box was pretty easy to put together because we found almost everything right in our own backyard or at our local garden center.  The Fall exploration box includes leaves, acorns, pinecones, pine needles, chestnuts, walnuts, twigs, corn, corn tassels, small pumpkins, small gourds, and fall grass (sorry not everything is pictured, my little scientists were busy exploring some of them).

The kids also have science journals and magnifying glasses to assist them with their exploring.  It's really fun to see what they do on their own when checking out the exploration box.  In their journals, my daughter did some leaf rubbings and my son drew the items he observed.

Flower Prints

My kids love being outside to explore nature.  One of their favorite things to do is cut and collect flowers from our gardens, so I thought we would give flower prints a try. 

The only supplies you need are light colored paper, a hammer, and scissors to cut your flowers.

We started by collecting 6 different flowers and trimming the stem as close to the head of the flower as possible.  Our paper was cut and folded in half, about the size of a greeting card.  We placed the flower inside the folded paper, then gently tapped the paper with the hammer.

Tapping gently breaks down the flower and the color comes through the paper, creating the print.  Some flowers worked better than others.  A flower with a defined center and petals seemed to work the best.  Very fragile flowers were nearly destroyed, even with the most gentle tapping from the hammer.  And bunches of small flowers, like from our butterfly bush, just didn't transfer well and looked like a big blob after hammering.  Here are a few pics of the prints that turned out the best...

 
We let ours dry for the day on the porch, then stapled the pages together to make little books.

The kids had so much fun with this!  I think I'll be making my own prints to frame...

This activity was featured in the Nature Rocks Spring Activity Guide!

Sharing at the following blogs:

Sun Scholars