Ed's Corner

We invite you to join our camp family this summer.

Greetings!

Why do we take children, young and old, out-of-doors?  Some of the reasons follow:

1.  The outdoors, and all the kinds of exploring and adventures we do in      different outdoor environments, provide children with an unmediated experience.   We all know how media-saturated our society is today.

2.  To protect and nurture the senses.

3.  Children have an innate sense of wonder and the outdoors is a place to practice and to hone that a bit further.

      "If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder he needs the             companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in."

                                                                                  Rachel Carson

4.  Children take in very deeply what they are surrounded by and are exposed to.

5.   There is a sense of slowing down, of real time, of a breathing-out when we are outdoors.

6.   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

7.    Our third planet from the sun is very often referred to as "Mother" earth, and for good reasons.

       "Nature is not a place

                         to visit.

                    It is home."

                                             Gary Snyder

8.    The outdoors is everywhere.  There are always opportunities to connect with nature.

9.    Free, natural play happens most readily in nature.

10.  Children take in, absorb, the whole (holistic) picture when they are outdoors.

11.  Nature provides a non-imposing, open-ended place to be and to learn from.

12.  FUN, FUN, FUN

13.  Caretaking and responsibility as keepers of our home (planet stewards) naturally arise.

14.  Nature is non-sexist, non-judgmental.

15.  There is time away from the adult world.

16.  Creativity can have time and space in which to blossom.

17.  Surprises abound!

18.  Joy and reverence, perhaps that will last a lifetime.

19.  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

 Please look over our Open House and Public Program dates.   I’d like to meet you at one or more of these events.

All enrolled camp families are eligible to become members of the Threefold Pond (our camp swimming facility)!  If you would like to be part of a swim community where there are no radios, no smoking, no crowds on weekends, but where you’ll find plenty of kids, shade and sun, more nature than concrete, and like-minded families, then call Bonnie Johnson, Pond Manager, at 845-371-9711 for more info and an application form.