The Nature Place Day Camp

Ed’s Book

Daniel — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:31:10 +0000

What Color is The Wind? is a feel-guide to the out-of-doors for parents with young children. Go to Edsbook.org to learn more or get yourself a copy!

Drops

Daniel — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:20:37 +0000

Take a walk outdoors when the sun is shining, but after a rain or when the snow is melting, i.e. at a time when drops of water are hanging from branches, bushes, playground equipment, railings and the like.

water droplet

Stop and look at these drops. Walk in a complete circle around whatever the drops are on, keeping your eye on them as you move. The drops sparkle and gleam and turn a rainbow of color as they refract the shining sunlight. Walking through the forest a few days ago (the sun must have been at just the right angle) I saw what almost seemed to be a string of blinking, multicolored holiday lights, really just drops of water hanging from branches.

Gently touch a drop so it transfers to your finger. Look through it to your skin below and notice how it acts as a magnifying glass! Can you add another drop to the one you already have?

Since we are on the subject of drops – and even though it’s not an outdoor activity – you can ‘play’ with drops and learn more about them by getting a piece of wax paper, put some water drops on it, move them around, combine them, break a big drop into smaller ones, slide the drops by tilting the wax paper, shake pepper onto a larger-sized drop, then touch the drop with the end of a bar of soap – watch what happens.

Maple Syrup

Daniel — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:14:11 +0000

In preparation for our March 3rd maple sugaring program we thought we’d offer some sweet facts and figures to get your sap flowing:

tapped

The sugar maple is the New York State tree.
Other maples will yield sap – Norway, silver, red – but their sap is not as sweet as the sugar maple’s. Maples will yield their sap when nights are cold and the days begin to get warmer – this time of year. The warmer days create pressure within the tree which allows the sap to flow out of a hole or wound in the tree. The colder nights create suction within the tree which allows the tree to draw in water and replenish the flow of sap. Maple sugar was once seen as a solution towards ending slavery by providing an alternative to sugar cane. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Some maple trees have been tapped for their sap every February/March for over 150 years. Maple syrup is made in no other place on earth except here, in northeastern North America.

Ed’s Corner

Daniel — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:05:11 +0000

winter crocus

Crocuses at the end of January? Snowdrops on February 1? No ice skating yet on our pond!? Do we call this ‘winter’ an extended fall? Is something going on with global warming trends, is the jet stream stuck, do El Nino or La Nina have a role in this, is it just a small blip or anomaly in the larger weather picture, is it making up for last winter? Do you feel a little guilty because you are enjoying it?

snowdrops

I do love each of our seasons and I have always felt very strongly that if you live in a 4-season place, well, darn it, bring on each season! But I also believe in seeing what ‘silver linings’ can be be found. If nature serves up a mild winter, like this one, parents may be more likely to go adventuring outdoors than they would be during a freezing, snowy one.

But if, like me, you’re holding on to one last melting icicle of hope for a cold and white winter, don’t despair! The Farmer’s Almanac wisely warns us of late February and early March’s mercurial weather. You’ve probably heard the phrase “In like a lion, out like a lamb” used to describe March’s typically cold and snowy beginnings and warmer endings. If the saying proves true this year (fingers crossed), we’re still in for a bite or two from the white teeth of winter before spring is upon us.

Nurturing Resilience

Daniel — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:19:45 +0000

A parent just forwarded this great article to us, and we had to pass it along:

Nurturing Resilience
Raising children to be competent and caring.
by Michael Ungar, Ph.D.

Summer Camps Make Kids Resilient
Sending children to a residential, or day camp, builds resilience
Published on February 5, 2012 by Michael Ungar, Ph.D. in Nurturing Resilience

I recently spoke to 300 camp directors about how to make children more resilient to life stress. Summer camps, we discovered, are perfect places to help children optimize their psychosocial development.

After all, summer camps are places where children get the experiences they need to bolster their range of coping strategies. There are the simple challenges of learning how to build a fire, going on a hike, or conquering a high ropes course. There are the much more complex challenges of getting along with a new group of peers, learning how to ask for help from others, or taking manageable amount of risks without a parent following after you.

The best camping experiences offer these opportunities for manageable amounts of risk and responsibility, what I term “the risk takers advantage” (see my book Too Safe for Their Own Good for more examples). The worst camps pander to children as if they are entitled little creatures whose parents are paying big sums of money. Children at camp can’t be treated like customers if they are going to get anything out of the experience. They need to be treated like students whose caregivers, the counselors, know what the kids need to grow.

Camps that pull this off and make kids, especially teens, put away the makeup, stash the iPods, get a little dirty and even a little frustrated while having fun and making new friends, are the kinds of camps that offer children the best of what they need. Looking at those experiences from the vantage point of my research on resilience, I know that camps help our children develop great coping strategies when they provide seven things all children need:

1) New relationships, not just with peers, but with trusted adults other than their parents. Just think about how useful a skill like that is: being able to negotiate on your own with an adult for what you need.

2) A powerful identity that makes the child feel confident in front of others. Your child may not be the best on the ropes course, the fastest swimmer, or the next teen idol when he sings, but chances are that a good camp counselor is going to help your child find something to be proud of that he can do well.

3) Camps help children feel in control of their lives, and those experiences of self-efficacy can travel home as easily as a special art project or the pine cone they carry in their backpack. Children who experience themselves as competent will be better problem-solvers in new situations long after their laundry is cleaned and the smell of the campfire forgotten.

4) Camps make sure that all children are treated fairly. The wonderful thing about camps is that every child starts without the baggage they carry from school. They may be a geek or the child with dyslexia. At camp they will both find opportunities to just be kids who are valued for who they are. No camps tolerate bullying (and if they do, you should withdraw your child immediately).

5) At camp kids get what they need to develop physically. Ideally, fresh air, exercise, a balance between routine and unstructured time, and all the good food their bodies need. Not that smores (marshmallows, chocolate and graham cracker treats) don’t have a place at the campfire, but a good camp is also about helping children find healthy lifestyles.

6) Perhaps best of all, camps offer kids a chance to feel like they belong. All those goofy chants and team songs, the sense of common purpose and attachment to the identity that camps promote go a long way to offering children a sense of being rooted.

7) And finally, camps can offer children a better sense of their culture. It might be skit night, or a special camp program that reflects the values of the community that sponsors the camp, or maybe it’s just a chance for children to understand themselves a bit more as they learn about others. Camps give kids both cultural roots and the chance to understand others who have cultures very different than their own.

That’s an impressive list of factors that good camping experiences provide our children. Whether it is a subsidized day camp in a city or a luxurious residential facility up in the mountains, camps can give our kids a spicy combination of experiences that prepare them well for life. Add to that experience the chance for a child’s parents to reinforce at home what the child nurtures at camp, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll find in our communities and schools amazing kids who show the resilience to make good decisions throughout their lives.

Outragehisss Pets

Daniel — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:06:22 +0000

Sunday, February 12th. 11:30am

Join us this coming Sunday for our Outragehisss Pets public program! Stick around afterward for our open house from 1-4pm.

Directions

Bank Street Camp Fair

Daniel — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:29:53 +0000

Saturday, February 4th from noon-3pm we’ll be at the Bank … more ›

Public Programs

Daniel — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:28:43 +0000

It’s that time of year again!

Immediately preceding an open house, our public programs are a fantastic opportunity for families new to The Nature Place to get a feel for what we do, and for returning campers and their families to start getting excited about the upcoming summer.

Winter Tales with Chuck Stead
Sunday, January 29th. 11:30am

chuck!

A seasonal favorite, our beloved storyteller will spin tales full of winter, wonder and surprise. Growing up in nearby Hillburn, NY, Chuck is a local treasure whose rich stories paint a picture of an earlier time in Rockland County that is always funny, poignant, and entertaining for all ages.

Outragehisss Pets
Sunday, February 12th. 11:30am

outragehisss!

Our neighbors here in Chestnut Ridge and a weekly activity at camp, Outragehisss Pets will bring us all sorts of animals to look at, learn about, and even touch or hold! Some highlights from the past have included snakes, lizards, spiders, chinchillas, hedgehogs, armadillos and other unusual fauna.

Maple Sugaring
Saturday, March 3rd. 10:30am

boiling sap

That amber aristocrat of all sweets, maple syrup! Join us as we learn how to identify a maple tree, tap it, gather its sap, and boil it down to make maple syrup. Attendees will take home sap spouts and directions on how to tap their own trees. We will be tasting hot maple syrup on snow, to be eaten along with a dill pickle!

Directions

Ed’s Corner

Daniel — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:27:34 +0000

Have you noticed…

Around the middle of the second week of January there is a distinct change in the daylight. There is a difference in it’s quality and there is more of it towards the end of the day. We are definitely heading toward spring! These changes are felt or internalized by everyone many times at an unconscious level. We only seem to ‘remember’ them consciously when someone makes a remark about the sun now setting after five o’clock, or comments on the different texture of the afternoon light.

January Sky

Because we are a part of nature (in it and from it), it’s not surprising that we pick up on these sort of subtle changes in our environment. Although we live indoors and buy our food from a grocery store, our bodies have not forgotten the rhythms of the earth and seasons. We’ve been biologically hard-wired to respond to winter by eating more, sleeping more, and doing less. Even if we’re consciously anticipating two more months of winter (and maybe even some snow), at this time of year we can also sense that something has shifted.

See for yourself and go for a walk on a sunny day. Does the light feel different than it did in December? Do you feel different in the waxing sunlight of a new year?

Ice Art

Daniel — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:25:52 +0000

ice art

If the temperature in the evening goes down into the 20′s – and with this kind of warmer, snowless winter – who knows? – try making some ice art. Get a round pie tin and fill it about halfway or less with water. Take it outdoors and add (yes, put into the water) some different leaves, seeds, colorful pieces of litter, anything else you may find that is not too big. Cut a piece of string about 10 inches long and place the two ends of the string into the water so that the looped part is hanging out of the pie tin. Leave outdoors overnight, collect it the next morning and run some warm water over the bottom of the tin. The circular piece of ice should easily slip out of the tin. Using the looped string, hang your ice art outdoors, somewhere where the sun can shine through it. ‘Oohs’ and ‘Ahhs’ are now permissible. Watch how your ice art melts and takes on other shapes and forms. Experiment with small pieces of colored tissue paper in the water for a stained glass-like look.