Ag Camp, Day 1

Isn't it great to do "school" when the rules change, the atmosphere is looser, and the FUN stuff comes out?

For a number of years (I'm not sure exactly how many) my school sponsors an Ag Camp. It is usually a week or so after school has ended, and the activities are as varied as the grown ups that run it.

This is a smallish year, but mighty in the fun factor. Here are our five groups for this week-long camp:

1. Archery (in the gym, with our very qualified PE teacher and principal)

2. Cooking (in the kitchen, with our head and sous chef, today they made dog biscuits and strawberry jam)

3. Garden/painting (out back, with our teacher/gardener and art teacher, today they worked the garden--perhaps harvesting, I'm not sure--and painting fence posts)

4. More gardening (out front, with a couple of teachers that researched garden beds and know stuff, today they started getting the beds ready for planting)

5. Art (in my room, with me who is trying to find her artistic self and another teacher, today we made oil pastel drawings of a wheat field)

Fun, right?

Each group lasted about 20ish minutes, then they rotated. At some point, we gave the kids some grapes and a cheese stick snack. And I had the BEST conversation with a couple of boys about The Avengers, Age of Ultron during our snack time. So glad to be able to talk with knowledge about that movie. And maybe I tacked on a couple of "she's cool" points... But we never really got in to the girly stuff...

Each year the response we get is, "It is so much FUN."

To be at school, where the school rules still apply, but it's relaxed, and FUN.

The materials and teacher stipends are paid for by the camper's fees, and our local Farm Bureau even offers scholarships. Cool, right?

We will work all week to beautify our school, harvest produce, make baked goods and paintings and then sell it all on Friday at our "Farmer's Market" to cover more costs and have a little left over to do more ag-related projects next school year. 

Here's a sneak peak at today's artwork...

Come back tomorrow to see what we create with our time...