Context: New Programming This year the Staff are going to be asked to provide an additional family opportunity each week. Please provide some ideas for additional family opportunities. (eg. I propose leading a wild edible hike in the afternoon).
I second the idea of having a wild edible hike. I would ideally go even further and try to offer some sort of family canoe trip but I doubt we would have enough canoes.
I really want to continue doing square dances, I thought that those attracted a lot more people to the dance than usually attend, and almost all of them were dancing. It's attractive to the adult crowd, and the kids seem to be diggin it too.
Other than that, I feel like the families do a really good job of entertaining themselves and creating events.
I'm totally in favor of the aforementioned ideas, and I'm especially interested in anything concerning 'outdoor survival skills.' I'd personally like to know a lot more along those lines, and it'd also be cool to integrate some wilderness training into the youth activities. It'd be especially cool to design some hiking/camping/canoe trips that are interspersed with common 'survival scenarios' (broken leg/heat stroke/dehydration/concussion) that we'd walk the kids through, so at least everybody would come out of the experience with some basic knowledge of wilderness medicine.
I just realized the original question was about 'family programming,' and I think that adults would be interested in a 1 or 2-hour 'wilderness medicine' hike.
I just had another idea - I'm in an entomology course right now and we're going to be collecting insects throughout the term, so by summer I'll have some good experience in collecting bugs. The coolest would be to get a portable blacklight and take some people on a nighttime bug hunt - we could find some really cool stuff that way without even having to leave camp property.
I second the idea of some kind of night wilderness thing, bug-related or otherwise, ten ways till Sunday. It's just amazing how different a place can be after dark.
Also, I would propose some kind of debating forum. UUs tend to have a lot of pet issues they feel passionately about, so I think a chance to discuss those in a sane way would be fairly popular.
The disclaimer I'd like to make is that I have never been to Unistar before, so if I say something that's completely off or doesn't make sense or apply, please let me know.
That being said, I have an idea that I think would be cool to implement, if it doesn't exist already.
Is there a garden? I would love to plant a vegetable garden early in the season. Every week, people could work on it at whatever point the plants are at. The garden's an ongoing project, and we could try to plant things that have a variety of harvesting times.
It's a good activity for families because everyone can do what they can according to their abilities.
Easy, Freesia. We know you're new to Unistar, but you don't have to think that's some looming spectre, waiting to invalidate your contributions to each topic - you've had some neat ideas.
Speaking of which: the camp does, in fact, have a small garden. To my knowledge, however, there is very little to help encourage capers to get involved with it, and help them do so in a way likely to leave said garden in good shape. Maybe we should work to develop that aspect of it?
I like all posted ideas. To add to the square dancing i would like to try out different types different weeks, swing, folk...
I don't know ho any of you know Bud, but every work week he puts on a game of Dictionary and while it would be hard to get the whole camp into it we could have a "game night" of sorts. Intergenerational games are some of my favorites and are great for inter-group social mingling. If the demand is low one game would suffice, with high demand multiple staffers could lead different games (this idea need not pertain only to dictionary, we could ask around or just lead games we like).
Ah, Mr. Joselyn. I was wondering when you would reveal yourself. Good to see you!
As I recall, Mary Ellen arranges a book club one night each week, which generally proves quite popular. Something similar involving Dictionary, Apples To Apples, or the like probably could, too, methinks.
I would be very interested in kick-starting the garden by getting campers involved in it. How big is the garden and what is produced? Food, flowers? I'm in a permaculture class right now and would be interested in implementing some permaculture into Unistar, if it hasn't been already.
I like the game night and bug hike ideas as well.
How about a recycled sculpture contest? The teams could be intergenerational and the winners would get prizes (or even just a grand title).
I recently went to a rocket stove workshop (similar to this, but simpler and only using four old food cans--(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uh2VExcdbY&feature=related). This was a good group activity. We could also do a workshop building solar ovens and solar dehydrators. We could tie it in with the edible hike and cook lunch from things we find. Is this too much? My tree hugger tendencies are coming out.
Group cooking in general is popular. This has the potential to get expensive, but cooking or baking with all ages goes over well.
Has anyone played exquisite corpse? It's a group writing game that's really fun. Also, creating found poetry together by cutting out phrases from old magazines and the like would be cool as well.
My name is pronounced FREE-zshuh, like the flower.
While I am not the person one would turn to for, say, edible nature hikes or gardening I am the person one would turn to for matters of personal care.
In Esthetics School I learned how to use kind of every day foods in skin care, such as using whole milk as a cleanser, chamomile tea as a tonic and aloe for a moisturiser. I think it'd be fun to show people at camp about this sort of stuff since we tend to be kind of a hippy bunch.
I know it's not as integral or naturey as bug collecting or learning wilderness survival skills but, well it's what I'm good at and it's what I know.
I am so happy that this idea is being accepted. I am so excited to do different things. I am thinking sailing lessons, sponge tag, star gazing, going on a sail/chimney expedition. So many things to do so little time.
I love all of the ideas. Especially Fresia's and Sonja's, This is what I was hoping for when I proposed the idea to Tommy. That we would have activities that the staff are interested in/specialized in to provide a better communal feel. The campers wont be able to complain that we aren't friendly enough this year!
I think that with a little work we could perhaps transform the garden into a better source of herbs for the garden, and with a little work maybe even eke out a little fresh produce like tomatoes. The problems with the current garden seem to be space and location, but I am not sure what we could do to solve either problem. Herbs, however, could be incorporated into more cooking, and both with camper help.
A note about the garden. I might be making this up but I seem to remember Mary Ellen bringing up some sort of minor Health Code rule about using things grown at camp for Food Service use. I feel like on one or more occasion we used like some thyme or something from the garden so I'm pretty iffy on the actual subject matter.
It's just something to think about that what we grow might just be for personal camper/staff use for Happy Hours and such and perhaps not able to be used in the Main Kitchen.
14 comments:
I second the idea of having a wild edible hike. I would ideally go even further and try to offer some sort of family canoe trip but I doubt we would have enough canoes.
I really want to continue doing square dances, I thought that those attracted a lot more people to the dance than usually attend, and almost all of them were dancing. It's attractive to the adult crowd, and the kids seem to be diggin it too.
Other than that, I feel like the families do a really good job of entertaining themselves and creating events.
I'm totally in favor of the aforementioned ideas, and I'm especially interested in anything concerning 'outdoor survival skills.' I'd personally like to know a lot more along those lines, and it'd also be cool to integrate some wilderness training into the youth activities. It'd be especially cool to design some hiking/camping/canoe trips that are interspersed with common 'survival scenarios' (broken leg/heat stroke/dehydration/concussion) that we'd walk the kids through, so at least everybody would come out of the experience with some basic knowledge of wilderness medicine.
I just realized the original question was about 'family programming,' and I think that adults would be interested in a 1 or 2-hour 'wilderness medicine' hike.
I just had another idea - I'm in an entomology course right now and we're going to be collecting insects throughout the term, so by summer I'll have some good experience in collecting bugs. The coolest would be to get a portable blacklight and take some people on a nighttime bug hunt - we could find some really cool stuff that way without even having to leave camp property.
I second the idea of some kind of night wilderness thing, bug-related or otherwise, ten ways till Sunday. It's just amazing how different a place can be after dark.
Also, I would propose some kind of debating forum. UUs tend to have a lot of pet issues they feel passionately about, so I think a chance to discuss those in a sane way would be fairly popular.
The disclaimer I'd like to make is that I have never been to Unistar before, so if I say something that's completely off or doesn't make sense or apply, please let me know.
That being said, I have an idea that I think would be cool to implement, if it doesn't exist already.
Is there a garden? I would love to plant a vegetable garden early in the season. Every week, people could work on it at whatever point the plants are at. The garden's an ongoing project, and we could try to plant things that have a variety of harvesting times.
It's a good activity for families because everyone can do what they can according to their abilities.
Easy, Freesia. We know you're new to Unistar, but you don't have to think that's some looming spectre, waiting to invalidate your contributions to each topic - you've had some neat ideas.
Speaking of which: the camp does, in fact, have a small garden. To my knowledge, however, there is very little to help encourage capers to get involved with it, and help them do so in a way likely to leave said garden in good shape. Maybe we should work to develop that aspect of it?
Side note: how is your name pronounced?
I like all posted ideas. To add to the square dancing i would like to try out different types different weeks, swing, folk...
I don't know ho any of you know Bud, but every work week he puts on a game of Dictionary and while it would be hard to get the whole camp into it we could have a "game night" of sorts. Intergenerational games are some of my favorites and are great for inter-group social mingling. If the demand is low one game would suffice, with high demand multiple staffers could lead different games (this idea need not pertain only to dictionary, we could ask around or just lead games we like).
Ah, Mr. Joselyn. I was wondering when you would reveal yourself. Good to see you!
As I recall, Mary Ellen arranges a book club one night each week, which generally proves quite popular. Something similar involving Dictionary, Apples To Apples, or the like probably could, too, methinks.
I would be very interested in kick-starting the garden by getting campers involved in it. How big is the garden and what is produced? Food, flowers? I'm in a permaculture class right now and would be interested in implementing some permaculture into Unistar, if it hasn't been already.
I like the game night and bug hike ideas as well.
How about a recycled sculpture contest? The teams could be intergenerational and the winners would get prizes (or even just a grand title).
I recently went to a rocket stove workshop (similar to this, but simpler and only using four old food cans--(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uh2VExcdbY&feature=related). This was a good group activity. We could also do a workshop building solar ovens and solar dehydrators.
We could tie it in with the edible hike and cook lunch from things we find. Is this too much? My tree hugger tendencies are coming out.
Group cooking in general is popular. This has the potential to get expensive, but cooking or baking with all ages goes over well.
Has anyone played exquisite corpse? It's a group writing game that's really fun. Also, creating found poetry together by cutting out phrases from old magazines and the like would be cool as well.
My name is pronounced FREE-zshuh, like the flower.
While I am not the person one would turn to for, say, edible nature hikes or gardening I am the person one would turn to for matters of personal care.
In Esthetics School I learned how to use kind of every day foods in skin care, such as using whole milk as a cleanser, chamomile tea as a tonic and aloe for a moisturiser. I think it'd be fun to show people at camp about this sort of stuff since we tend to be kind of a hippy bunch.
I know it's not as integral or naturey as bug collecting or learning wilderness survival skills but, well it's what I'm good at and it's what I know.
I am so happy that this idea is being accepted. I am so excited to do different things. I am thinking sailing lessons, sponge tag, star gazing, going on a sail/chimney expedition. So many things to do so little time.
I love all of the ideas. Especially Fresia's and Sonja's, This is what I was hoping for when I proposed the idea to Tommy. That we would have activities that the staff are interested in/specialized in to provide a better communal feel. The campers wont be able to complain that we aren't friendly enough this year!
I think that with a little work we could perhaps transform the garden into a better source of herbs for the garden, and with a little work maybe even eke out a little fresh produce like tomatoes. The problems with the current garden seem to be space and location, but I am not sure what we could do to solve either problem. Herbs, however, could be incorporated into more cooking, and both with camper help.
A note about the garden. I might be making this up but I seem to remember Mary Ellen bringing up some sort of minor Health Code rule about using things grown at camp for Food Service use. I feel like on one or more occasion we used like some thyme or something from the garden so I'm pretty iffy on the actual subject matter.
It's just something to think about that what we grow might just be for personal camper/staff use for Happy Hours and such and perhaps not able to be used in the Main Kitchen.
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