Down to Earth Summer Camp Part II

What an amazing week at the farm. It was so wonderful to have this bunch of moms (and dad, Evan) and the kids at the farm for the whole week. On day three the children collected rocks from the children's garden, washed them and painted them! The little ones used tempera paints and it was fun to have an all out messy day. Actually we had two great messy days as day four's task was staining our picnic table with beet juice and painting decorations on top of that. But really, where is it more approriate to have messy days than on the farm?

For our final day we focused back on the firepit preparing our finale feast. The children chopped zucchini and put them on skewars and we cooked hotdogs over the fire as well as baked apples! What a feast it was. Here are a random assortment of pictures from the week.

Down to Earth Summer Camp

Yay! Our first ever (first annual?) summer camp is underway. The brain child of our dear friend Rachel, the camp is a small gathering of families working together to give our kids the time to explore the farm a bit, participate in artsy, earthy, innovative projects and also the ever important free space for just being kids. I'm blown away at the collaborate effort of the parents involved and really excited that other kids can spend a good chunk of time at the farm. It really is a special place - and so filled with wonder for the little ones.

Here's a recap of the first 2 days:

Day one: The big activity was building a fire pit (for our big last day cookout). Little hands got down into the dirt, digging, moving earth and rocks with their little shovels and a whole crew of pint sized wheel barrows. The older kids went to pick peas for the day's snack before getting their share of rock moving. I think all the kids would have been in seventh heaven doing this task all morning. But alas...every one needs snack time. A simple game of leading a partner (with eyes closed) to a special surprise rounded out the morning and was followed by a picnic lunch.

Day two: Big kids learned that you could use the sun to cook food! when they made their own solar ovens. Fresh goat milk and eggs were shaken up into a simple custard and left to cook. Unfortunately they weren't ready for lunch, but we can't wait for snack time tomorrow. The Little ones trekked out into the fields to dig carrots for snack time. We dug oh so carefully with our shovel to just wiggle those carrots around gently before pulling them up. The children were really delighted with all their "finds". Our bunny was then treated to a delicious meal of carrots tops. After such a hot and busy morning we all cooled off after snack time in the sprinkler before lunch.

We'll be exploring different places on the farm but our home base is a shady section of recently grazed cow pasture. Lots and lots of pictures coming soon!