Given the temperature this morning, it’s hard to imagine summer camps start up next week! It hasn’t been exactly summery yet but everybody at the Nature Center has been scurrying around getting ready to greet our kids on Monday morning. We have such fun with our campers. There are always a few tears and some trepidation amongst our littlest campers on the first day – much like the first day of school – but by Tuesday, they’re bursting through the door anxious to get started. Many of our second and third graders are old hands who have been anxiously awaiting camp for weeks now.
Camp is a great opportunity for kids to discover that learning doesn’t always happen sitting at a desk and listening to a lecture. At nature camp, they run, dig, splash, explore, and even laugh while they learn. They get exercise, sunshine (we hope), make new friends, and often learn as much about themselves as the bugs they study. For many, it’s the first time to hold a fishing pole, to eat a mulberry right off the bush, to feel quicksand. The time to establish a connection with nature is during childhood as it can lead to a life-long interest and maybe even a career.
And, there’s no friend like a camp friend. Are YOUR kids coming to camp?