We are eagerly anticipating this, our first Springfield Camp for older children(because that’s where ours are!), and thought, because it's a new format from what we have offered in the past, we'd share a few more details to help you envision your child's possible experience with us. We are able to do more advanced, focused work with older kids, allowing them a bit more freedom and diving a bit deeper into the educational segments. Each day is a little different.
We first referred to this camp as "Survivor Camp", but moved on to being inspired by Henry David Thoreau's chronicle Walden; or, Life in the Woods. This is our theme:
"I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life!"
Wednesday, June 18th:
learn & prepare
9 am-noon
Bring a water bottle labeled with
your name.
No lunch today, but a snack will be
served mid-session.
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
Today we’re working on our shelters
and a leather craft, while learning about stars and local plants and weather
and animals and our muse for the week: Henry David Thoreau.
Thursday, June 19th:
hike & campfire
5-10 pm
Bring a water bottle labeled with
your name.
Dinner & snacks will be
provided.
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes,
and prepare for evening weather;
we recommend a sweatshirt, flashlight, and blanket.
This evening we will enjoy the woods
with a hike, then build a campfire. While we wait for the fire to burn to good
coals for cooking, we’ll make tin punch lanterns and play games. We will cook
dinner together, learning about our dusk friends, owls & fireflies, then
enjoy both them, the stars (heavens willing!) and some tent/shelter time.
Campfire stories and songs? Of course!
Friday, June 20th: enjoy your wood sense
9am-noon
Bring a water bottle labeled with your name.
No lunch today, but a snack will be served mid-session.
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes, and bring a change.
We’ll be recapping and journaling, then running about on treasure hunts in the morning, then finishing in the spring, so water shoes (old tennis shoes are perfect), a towel, and a change of clothes are helpful.
*Hours and to-brings listed below, but we may change the evening date, depending on the weather. We will notify you of this via email, so please check your email Tuesday night for updated plans, and let Valerie, our scribe, know if you would prefer a phone call. In case of extreme weather, we also may reschedule a date to The Thought Lot in Shippensburg.
$110/$120 w/tee
for children finishing grades 4-8
Held at Springfield Farm:
600 Big Spring Rd, Newville
This week is a wholehearted exploration of the woods for older children: hiking, building, learning and delighting in our beautiful Pennsylvania woods, with a special campfire dinner and firefly extravaganza. Spend your days fostering development of basic survival skills (native plants and animals, weather signs, building shelters, orienteering) with useful craft (leather work & tin-punch lanterns) and good exercise (hikes, obstacle courses, treasure hunt design). We’ll make sure to leave time for peaceful moments of cloud therapy and nature journaling, too!
In a twist on a festival favorite, we let the young artists loose on each other with washable paint sticks. They were very pleased with their results!
We followed our first session (wet felted puppets, balloon poppers, chalk & face paint) with a hike in the hidden treasure of borough trails between Dykeman Pond and the Doc Norcross ball fields. 
After lunch and play along the way, a cooler moment indoors was welcome. Children alternated between making clay medallions with botanicals gathered on the hike and playing charades with Miss Audrey. 
