On Monday while making breakfast I had a great idea that I would take the kids on a camping trip for 'C' week. Luckily I'm married to a guy who loves camping and has a few supplies that he didn't mind if we used. He also let me use one of his tents that he insisted was "one of the easiest tents to pitch" as he knows I've never pitched a tent or been camping. I mean the one time I was supposed to go camping as a child the trip was cancelled. If I remember correctly the camp site got flooded out the week before we left. I've only slept in a tent during one of my best friends birthday parties as a child. But that's it. I probably haven't been in one since I was twelve. So... here I was yesterday with the "easiest tent in the world," which I never fully got the darn thing right. Oh well!
First, I pulled the tent out of the bag and staked the tent to the ground which I guess I don't have the strength to pull tight enough across each way as my poles were always needing more room. Also, I had no idea if the poles went in the inside or the outside of the tent. I had to make a phone call to Derek. As he walked me through my questions the children were also on their cell phones calling their moms or Derek for help. Haha.
We made some progress but I learned that I had to make sure the rods were touching and none of the string was showing. Because well this was my first final product.
Somehow I made it look more like a teepee than a tent. Good thing there is FaceTime as I was able to show Derek what in the world was going on instead of just trying to describe the parts, plus how do you describe THAT? Besides HOT MESS.
J didn't seem to mind the teepee. She HAD been waiting and this was perfect for the few minutes it lasted.
In the end, after maybe 30 minutes of sweating and trying my hardest to figure this easy tent out here it was! Derek says the tent looks sad but it finally looked like a tent! I learned I will probably never go camping. Tents are a pain and too much work. Maybe if i get to lay out and drink lemonade by a waterfall while Derek pitches the tent and watches the kid I'd be more willing. Anyways, the kids LOVED the binoculars that Derek let them use. They would try and spot birds and squirrels that ran by and spy on each other.
Exploring all the items. J took to the egg holder while L took to binoculars and the carafe. The babies just decided to watch.The had gathered leaves and sticks into a pile in front of the tent and pretended it was their camp fire. They had canteens, a coffee carafe, an egg holder, compasses, binoculars, and a camping frying pan to help with their imaginative play. I also gave them cowboy/girl accessories like a hat and a bandanna. They loved the cowboy/girl dress up and most of the time pretended they were out in the west. They called each other "partner" and greeted everyone in the tent with "howdy!"
J and L gathered sticks for the campfire. Since counting is a 'c' word I tried to make sure we counted the sticks they were collecting.
In the 'morning' L made everyone coffee. (It was really mud and grass)
Somehow my cowboys/girl turned into magicians and were pulling items out of their hats. Haha. It was great to see their creative juices and silliness through out the afternoon. It was good to forget about staying inside and doing trays and actually getting out and enjoying the sunshine while also reinforcing letter 'c' with camping. Since the eldest is only four right now this is exactly what kind of learning they should be doing. They grow and learn so much just by imaginary play.
What kind is a camping trip if you don't tell scary stories? L told us a scary story about a girl who heard a noise and hid under Derek's bed. She then heard the front door open and BOO! It was L dressed up a ghost. I was apparently the girl. (when i was little, last year. Or so L says.) J told a story about marshmallows.
S'mores were made and enjoyed of course! How people eat these in the woods is beyond me as they are a MESS! Baby wipes really helped but I felt like they all needed a bath. All of them returned home painted in Hershey's chocolate so of course it was a great day!
If you can't tell we had a pretty good day camping. Soaking up the sunshine, learning to pitch a tent, using their imaginations, running around, climbing up a play house, building their campfire, cooking their pretend dinners, eating s'mores and telling scary stories. I feel like they at least got the experience of camping and had a fun day together. I hope to be able to think of many more ideas for different letters which has them use their imaginative play in different settings. We'll see what I can think up during breakfast. :)
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