Activities
At Nature Camps, children and teens choose what activities they want to do each day.
Activities include hiking, nature journaling, nature crafts, cooperative games, singing, swimming, river walking, and more. Each session, we also host a Family Overnight and Concert in the Woods for all campers, families, and staff. Learn more about these activities below.
Sense of Wonder
Nature provides the setting and inspiration for children to nurture a sense of wonder. NC facilitates ways for children to experience the beauty, marvels and intricacies of nature. Children are given
opportunities to feel their environment. To draw it close to them. To love it. To understand it is an intrinsic part of themselves. They build an understanding of and an appreciation for the natural world and their place in it - that they are part of nature. Children who better understand their place in the environment become something else - they become environmental stewards. What a person connects to, they care for.
Swimming
Swimming in the pool is offered as an activity every afternoon, with two certified lifeguards present.
Cooperative Games
In keeping with our Challenge By Choice philosophy, Nature Camps emphasizes games and activities that are designed to encourage the development of mutual respect, trust, team building, enhanced communication skills, conflict resolution, self-esteem, empathy, and solution-focused techniques.
Hiking
We offer all-day and half-day hikes exploring the 180 acres of beautiful woods surrounding camp and nearby Deer Creek. Examples of past hikes include “All day stream hike”, “Half day hike to be wizards”, and other imaginative adventures!
Nature Journaling
Campers and staff alike make their own cloth-bound nature journals that they use throughout the session during small circles time with their groups and during activities. Campers use ink and stick pens to write and draw, and many add leaves, flowers, and other discoveries to their journals.
Family Overnights & Concerts
On the second Thursday evening of each session, Nature Camps hosts a Family Overnight and Concert in the Woods. Campers of all ages plus their families and friends come together to share time at camp. For all the dates and details, please check out the Family Overnight & Concert in the Woods page.
Natural Crafts
Throughout the summer, we offer pottery, soapstone and wood carving, rock paint making, slate tool making, leprechaun/fairy houses, friendship bracelets, dreamcatchers, cordage, and more. Counselors often go beyond our typical crafts and introduce new ones, like printmaking and embroidery.
Singing
At the beginning of each day, after lunch, and before leaving, we gather in Big Circle to sing songs, both silly and meaningful, and reflect on our day. Big Circle is a whole-camp circle of togetherness and gladness. The Circle Song by Harry Chapin was our camp song in the 1970s. Then along came Jean Ritchie's Bluebird Song, which remains with us today.
And More!
One of the most amazing things about Nature Camps is that children have the ability to choose their own activities. With this in mind, children and counselors come up with original and silly activities every day, ranging from "Half day hike to be upside-down" to "Nature bureaucrats!"