Say “summer school” and kids are likely to say: Yuck! Say “summer camp” and kids say: Yay!
But summer camp isn’t what it used to be. With the standard swimming, sports and field trips, many camps teach kids the skills they’ll need to survive in life. Just don’t tell them!
We spent some time with two camps in St. Petersburg, Fla., in June 2006, finding out what they do to help kids in a way that is hardly yuck.
Click here to read the other story in our package, “Kindness’ unlimited budget.”
At first sight, 45 children leading their barefoot and blindfolded parents through a maze of mousetraps might seem more like an evil prank than a lesson on trust. But to Lynn Marshall, 53, this activity, which caps the week at Boyd Hill Nature Park’s Pioneer Camp, is meant to teach respect, cooperation and trust.
“Mr. Lynn,” as the campers call him, started the summer camp, sponsored by the city of St. Petersburg, Fla, nine years ago. He hosts about 45 kids between 7 and 13 years old each week for nine weeks.
They leave their Game Boys, iPods and laptops behind. Instead, they learn as the pioneers did – churning butter, building fires and feeding livestock.
It’s all about “fun without batteries,” Mr. Lynn says.
The goals: get kids outside, working hands-on, solving problems and learning to rely on one another.
“We teach curiosity,” Mr. Lynn says. “All you have to do is be curious and life will be exciting. Everything at camp is designed to show what you can do when you work together.”
On the first day, campers try to cross a “raging river” – a 5-foot-wide lane filled with tennis balls. Teams must get down the river, riding a pallet that rests on the balls. Ropes help campers pull the pallet, but the children soon realize that without everyone’s effort, they can be stranded or even fall into the river.
Not all campers come planning to learn. Malcolm Wells, 10, signed up for Pioneer Camp because his best friend did. But he found himself having fun.
“We learned about working together,” Malcolm said at the end of camp Friday, June 9, 2006. “We made scarecrows to get us working as a team and learned that we have to work with everyone or it’s hard to build.”
Mr. Lynn provides the straw, sticks, clothing and markers for the scarecrows. Teams of campers are left to decide what kind of scarecrow to make and where to make it.
“If the groups put the people first, the scarecrow will happen, but if not, they will fail,” Mr. Lynn says.
After several hours, the camp is guarded by several lumpy yet lifelike scarecrows fit for any farm.
Without the distraction of TV and electronic toys, the campers spend all day doing activities that emphasize cooperation, leadership and problem-solving. Some of the activities set the campers up for failure, teaching the importance of taking risks.
“They can’t succeed without being willing to fail,” Mr. Lynn says.
Other activities introduce outdoor skills. Teams of campers build fires, construct shelters, churn butter and make homemade sets of tongs at the blacksmith’s shop.
Malcolm’s mother noticed the difference.
“He’s had a lot of fun and been very busy,” said Malcolm’s mother, Kim Wells. “I like the idea that young kids are out doing things in the fresh air, without electronics, and they learn they can have fun without electricity.”
The camp is held at Boyd Hill’s Pioneer Settlement, which provides a living history experience, with century-old attractions such as the blacksmith shop and saw mill. Campers take care of the goats, chickens, calves and a llama that live on the grounds.
“I just want to make sure these city kids get to be around critters,” says Mr. Lynn, who spends the rest of the year working for Pathfinder Outdoor Education, a nonprofit training organization that works on team-building skills with adults and children throughout Florida.
As the camp comes to a close on Friday, parents join the kids, and some of the activities. To get the children riled up, Mr. Lynn stomps on packets of pudding, spraying everyone in a 5-foot radius with a fine mist of vanilla and chocolate. The campers also test their luck scurrying inside a giant hamster wheel coated with slick pudding.
Aislinn Robbins, 7, darts to greet her mother with a hug. Cyndi Robbins politely rejects the offer, sending her pudding-covered child to rinse off with the water hose.
“She had a great time and came home each day with new and interesting stories,” Cyndi Robbins says. “She didn’t do everyday things like coloring and playing with clay.”
“I like that they’re outdoors a lot,” agreed Vickie Peksens, mother of Eric, 10, and Alexandra, 11. “They do different things than a lot of other camps. But they also learn a lot and always come home and say, ‘Oh at Pioneer, we did this, and at Pioneer, we learned about that.'”
However, the final day of camp isn’t just about the pudding. Mr. Lynn also prepares activities that help bring the children together with their parents. He creates a maze by planting 50 loaded mousetraps around the grounds. Campers must guide their blindfolded and barefoot parents through the maze, forcing the adults to trust their children.
“I like mousetraps because they are a perceived risk,” Mr. Lynn says. “The adults cannot really get injured, but it sure gets their attention. In a role reversal, the parents’ children guide them through the mousetraps; the children protect their parents and have to do so through effective communication.”
As for Malcolm, who tagged along to camp with a friend, he admits that if he had stayed home, he would have spent most of the week in front of the TV. But after a week outside, he confesses that he had fun getting dirty and playing in the water. And, his hair matted with pudding and his clothes coated with mud, he adds this:
“Yeah, I learned a little bit while I was here.”
Interested in more? Click here to see the related design project “Two camps, two missions.”
Back to “Maggiore” | Back to “On the Beat” | Back to the Poynter Summer Fellows main page
