This week has heralded the first ever Discovery Learning Center summer camp experience. This year
we are offering two camps, all volunteer-led, very homeschool-friendly. It's an experiment, and so far, a successful one.
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For some reason the lines on the map don't show up here.
The kids are having a great time interacting with the
floor map of the US. |
This week's camp is Camp USA, with a focus on the United States and its geography. Heddi is doing the geography part with games and activities, including a huge US map she made on a rubberized table cloth. The kids are having a great time getting down on the floor and interacting with the states.
Heather is doing crafts, games, and food. She's outside with each group getting messy and having fun. Today, to fit the Midwest theme, she had the kids make potato people, create paper quilts and watch
this hilarious take on Gangnam Style, Midwest style. (A homeschooling aside: we adults discussed how amusing it is that our kids see the parodies, such as the Mindcraft Gangnam Style parody, before they actually hear the original pop song!)
I am doing folk stories and songs. So far the biggest hits have been a tale told from the point of view of
Davy Crockett, The Erie Canal, and Camptown Races.
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| At work on Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs. |
How is a homeschool summer camp different from others? Well, actually, it's not THAT different. First of all, it's cheap, because we know that homeschool families need to watch their budget. Second, all of us are donating our time - the three of us every day, with parents coming to camp for one day to help out. Finally, it's a mixed-age camp that assumes that learning is fun and interactive is always the way to go. My daughter was complaining the week before about how she didn't want to go, but she's been perfectly happy learning geography in the middle of the summer.
Whether your a homeschooler or not, we have more to come.
Check out our upcoming Worldview camp, which happens next week.
