Week 4: Nature

This week the whole family packed our bags and went to youth camp in Cloudcroft, NM. I went ahead and prepared to do the activities in case we had down time at camp. We actually got to the activities, just on different days. 

Water Monday

I knew Wednesday’s water  activity, “Make a River” wouldn’t be able to be done at camp, so we did it Monday. 

We have this bush in the backyard we have been removing little by little, and there’s this ditch around the bush. We put some bath toys and a toy boat in there and watched the boat move as Ollie poured in the water

I got ambitious and tried making a moat around the bush, but the water leaked where the foil pieces connected. Ollie had fun with this, but we had to cut it short to get some last minute shopping in. 

Take a Trip Tuesday

The activity suggested was to take a nature walk, and we exceeded expectations for that assignment.

The camp we went to was in a valley in between New Mexico mountains. So gorgeous. Some people’s happy place is at the beach. Mine is the mountains. 

This was a prime place for echos. Ollie fully tested it out.

We did a lot of walking and had opportunities to see butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, mushrooms, and even elk, cows, and deer. 

During Ollie’s rest time, I made him a blanket fort and Ollie would play with his toys and read. He likes to bring the book out and have you read the book to him first so he can read it by himself. 

Make it Wednesday 

We made clay imprints.

Ollie got to choose from different colored clay and rolled out different flowers and leaves on it. 

Ollie had a great time with it. It was good having it on hand any time we had some down time.

We brought them home and painted them so we could see the imprints better. Ollie said it looked like a volcano. 

Thinking Thursday

We did a science experiment showing how plants breathe. We went on a mini-hike to find a leaf. Considering we were surrounded by pine trees, I knew we had to focus more on the ground to find large enough leaves.

Ollie kept seeing the kids climb the hills so he was excited anytime he could too. 

We put the leaf in some water and came back a couple hours later. Ollie picked up the leaf before I could take a picture, but we did get to see bubbles around the leaf showing it breathed. 

 Before:

After:

Im not completely convinced Ollie saw the bubbles like claimed, but he had fun playing with the leaf, anyhow.

We didn’t make a snack this week, but we ate camp food. And I feel that that is something everyone needs to experience at least once in their life.