Camp Philosophy

  "A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement,……If I had influence with the good fairy …… I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength."

                                                                                  --Rachel Carson (1956!)

The Nature Place Day Camp is based on three principles:

1. Children have an inherent connection with the natural world. Activities using the outdoors as a safe, fun and wonder-full learning environment are designed to nurture a child's sense of wonder and enable him/her to feel comfortable in and joyful about the world around us.
   
   
2. Children thrive in an environment that fosters cooperation. Camp activities are non-competitive, joyful, hands-on and positive.
   
   
3. Each child is unique, possessing special interests and needs. We follow a non-competitive, age appropriate approach in working with children. Our low enrollment, camp structure and professional staff enable us to tailor the program to meet the needs of children.

Our Mission Statement: To give campers a safe summer, in which they can be themselves, have fun, be challenged, connect with others and the earth, develop new skills, and be supported throughout.

Why do we take children out-of-doors?

• The outdoors offers opportunities for direct, hands-on experiences.  We all spend too much time thinking that life is something we view through screens.
  
  
• To protect and nurture the senses.
  
  
• Children have an innate sense of wonder and the outdoors is a place to practice and to hone that a bit further.
• Children take in very deeply what they are surrounded by and are exposed to.
  
  
• There is a sense of slowing down, of real time, of a breathing-out when we are outdoors.
  
  
• Beautiful natural environments, and nature in general, are healing.

"I go to nature to be
                   soothed and healed,   
and to have my senses
       put in tune once more"

                                                --John Burroughs

 

• Our third planet from the sun is very often referred to as "Mother" earth, and for good reasons.
• We are a part of the natural world that always surrounds and supports us.
  
  
• Free, natural play happens most readily in nature.
  
  
• Children take in, absorb, the whole (holistic) picture when they are outdoors.
  
  
• Nature provides a non-imposing, open-ended place to be and to learn from.
  
  
• FUN, FUN, FUN
  
  
• Caretaking and responsibility as keepers of our home (planet stewards) naturally arise.

                            "Nature is not a place
                                   to visit.
                             It is home."
                                
                                           --Gary Snyder

• Nature is non-sexist, non-judgmental.
  
  
• There is time away from the adult world.
  
  
• Creativity can have time and space in which to blossom.
  
  
• Surprises abound!
  
  
• Nature can provide joy and reverence.
  
  
• A sense of humbleness, of something greater than ourselves that we are a part of, can be found.

 

"There was a time when
           meadow, grove, and stream
the earth, and every common sight,
            To me did seem
            Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness
            of a dream."

                                   --William Blake

 

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