Camping Sharing

Wow!  Fabulous Camping Experience

Our home school club of 8 families is comprised of young keepers of the home from ages 8 to 13. Our camping experience was only an hour away from the city in rustic cabins, although admittedly in a campground offering pool swimming and an enormous playground. Our fantastic adventure began days before when the 11 girls planned the meals, scheduled the events (including a hike, storytelling, a campfire, and swimming), and pitched a dome tent in someone's backyard.

No moms were allowed to vote for menu items. Each Keeper volunteered to supply menu items; they were given instructions to plan and shop for everything; not mom's job! They were also instructed to pack, load, and unload. We downloaded camping checklists and recipes from ReserveAmerica at http://www.campfirechronicle.com.  All rules and campground etiquette were reviewed in the planning meeting. Our two day trip was a great success. Thank God for leading us and protecting us. We had a great time starting a fire from kindling collected from around the site, cooking omelettes in a pouch over boiling water on the campfire, and making muffins in orange rinds over the campfire. Best of all, the girls and the moms had a fabulous time of fellowship and time to deepen friendships.  (San Diego, CA)

A Backyard Campout and Hiking Too!

Keepers of the Faith group of Rogers County proudly shares moms teaching our daughters how to camp!

• Group size—13 girls
• Ages: 7-13
• Date: September 2009
• Place: mom/daughter’s backyard
• Skills practiced in overnighter in backyard with NO use of home or RV except bathroom.

Learning this skill meant teaching our girls to be responsible meeting needs for food, sleep, recreation, and preparations for things that go wrong!

What happened!

• Put up tents
• Made a fire/making chili
• Stayed warm when temperature dipped to the 40s
• Each mom/daughter made their own meals and then we shared them with one another

• Hair braiding
• Learned some more about character traits—kindness/gentleness through devotions
• Learned the history of a marshmallow!
• Praised God for His wondrous creation and adventure!
• Practiced a rigorous hike, rock climbing, found caves, fossils, wild flowers, did leaf imprinting, and found our lost walking stick!

A Practice Campout!  What a Great Idea!

We are a club at Agape Christian Fellowship. Our stepping stone group is working on the camping badge. We have been learning about camping skills during our winter meetings. We recently had an overnight in the church to practice for our summer campout. We practiced putting up the tents. We slept in sleeping bags with the heat turned low so we could be cold. For our snack, we learned about building a fire but this one we could eat. As the leader talked about how to prepare a fire, we used food to demonstrate. Our napkin was for the place that we cleared out to make this ground safe for the fire. Marshmallows were our rocks. Pretzels, the thin ones, were the kindling. Tootise rolls were the logs. Coconut was the ashes. Candy corn makes a nice flame. Each girl built their fire as we talked. Then, we had a cup of ginger ale for the water to put out the fire if we needed. When we were finished, they were allowed to eat their fire. It was a fun evening and a learning experience to prepare them for the real thing.  (Brattleboro, VT)

Several Skills Started by One Camping Trip

Our local homeschool group has a campout planned for this weekend. We will be at a state park. The children will be required to help plan the trip, pack, set up camp, and cook. We will also hike a trail, participate in a Clean Up the Park Day by picking up trash. We also plan to have the park interpretor tell us about the local trees and learn to indentify them. We will be able to complete or start working on several skills on this trip.  (Camden, AR)

Three Camping Trips Teach So Many Things

For our camping skill, we first discussed safety and equipment needs. Then, we made a list of everything we would need to take camping. The first campout was held in the country in our yard. The boys were required to set up their tents, organize camp, and help cook supper on Coleman stoves. They were taught how to build a fire and use a pocketknife to whittle a stick to roast marshmallows. We used old Coleman lanterns, so the boys learned to pump them, and carry them properly. We took a walk through the dark woods with the lanterns before bed.

The next morning the boys had to pour and flip their own pancakes, a first for most of them!, then clean up camp and re-pack the tents. We played games for a while and everyone went home. Our second campout is scheduled to be at a state park on a lake. We will hike the 3 mile trail, learn how to figure the height of a tree, fish, play volleyball and football and build a fire to roast marshmallows. The boys will again be required to cook over a fire and set up their own camp. We have a third campout scheduled at a leader's home in his backwoods. We'll shoot bb guns and bows, hike through the woods, set live traps, fish and once again, the boys will be in charge of setting up and cleaning up camp. They will have to demonstrate fire building and cooking abilities and sleep in a tent.  (Sapulpa, OK)