Northwest Summer Bucket List

Well more specifically, Western Washington Bucket List.  Check your local area though for fun things to do for not too much money in your area this summer.  This is our wish list for summer fun activities in our area.

1. Shakespeare in the park  Information here and here
2. Camping (one is already scheduled with other homeschool friends!) and two more are roughly scheduled!
3. Archery with friends
4. Picking Blueberries at Charlotte's Blueberry Park. 
5. Fly kites
6. Visit Longbeach, WA
7. Fishing on Saturdays!
8. Mt. St Helens
9. Fort Warden near Port Townsend, WA
10. Look for Tide-pools
11. Have BBQ's with friends
12. Learn to ride a bike (Bear)
13. Bike ride as a family and with friends
14. Look at stars
15. See a Rainer's game
16. Go Geo-caching!
17. Pioneer Farm
18. Make icecream!
19. Eat an icecream from a truck!
20. Have a water fight!

Here's to summer!  Bring it on!!!!

What kinds of things do you want to do this summer in your area?

Camping Adventure II

This weekend we went camping.  We decided that we wanted to spend 4 nights this time.  I am destined to think that we will be learning something new each time we camp out.  We have been using our small four man tent and I think we are now ready to venture into our bigger tent.  Hopefully it isn't too big, we bought it years ago, before Bear was even thought of.  I guess we were preparing our field buying a family tent long before we had children.

We went camping this past weekend at Belfair State Park and we really enjoyed it.  It was busy Saturday but Sunday the park thinned out a lot.  I think going during the week would be really nice, but even so it was a great experience. 


We had changed some of our equipment a bit; a new mattress for us, an awning to use in case of rain and a great new little lantern.  We found a Kelty Lantern which we thought would be a good addition and boy was it.  it lit up the inside of the tent like it was daylight.  Very worthwhile purchase and I highly recommend it.  It's lightweight, sturdy, and the light is much brighter than our Coleman we bought a few years ago.  We still have and used our gas powered lantern as well, we even loaned it to some people that came in late Friday night as they set up their site.  Bear and I were using the Kelty to walk to the bathroom and get ready for the night, or we would have loaned it as well.

Kelty Lantern

Old lantern that is over 40 years old and
works like a dream!

Of course with water so close, we spent hours on the beach.  It really and truly was a relaxing vacation and coming home last night was a reality shock.  I think we would really be able to get use to spending more time outdoors and camping.  We rode our bikes every day and all over the park, plus we went on walks.  We rode our bikes so much my bottom is sore!  Bear's bike skills grew by leaps and bounds in a safe place to practice her skills.  It was much more of an experience than the parking lots and city park paths that we have used until now.  I think we will plan some more trips in August after Bear's 5th birthday. 

Bear was amazed at her Daddy's ability to start a fire with nothing more than slivers of wood.  She loved watching him cut wood with our camping hatchet.  One thing I found, we were all ready for sleep by 9 pm at night, before it was dark!  Bear got ten or more hours of sleep every day we were camping.  She was that relaxed. 

Our second adventure in the world of camping went very well and the rain held off for us.  Do you have any camping adventures to share?

Bear insisted on helping the hubs set up the tent. 
When it came to the big poles she stepped aside and
began exploring the "nature" around the camp site. 
We had littke trails all around us.

The tent all set up. 
Its a very roomy 4 man tent, but I still think
we are ready to venture bigger. 

Watching mommy get all the stuff set out.

All set up and ready for a relaxing weekend.

So what does camping have to do with homeschool?  A lot.  Some things Bear learned this past week as we prepared and went camping:

• Organizing and packing
• Setting up the tent as she helped her daddy
• How to rope a calf and the parts of a lariat
• How clams look when they are still in their shells
• The meaning of the word cadence
• Social skills with adults and children she never met before
• How you can use sticks to write in dirt and how to sharpen that stick against a hard surface like the cement sidewalk or blacktop road.
• The difference between clams and oysters
• Bird watching
• Searching for pretty rocks for our tumbler
• cooking over and in a camp fire
• and more....

So the question is more, what didn't involve learning....
Happy tending gentle friends and remember the whole world can be your laboratory!

The Camping Adventures Begin

Round 1.....

The weather report was ominous, but something like the weather was not going to keep our adventure from happening.  No way, no how!

Friday began with a nature hike at WildwoodPark in Puyallup. It was international mud day and we proudly celebrated it in grand style. On our wild trek adventure we spied a slug which we examined with our private eye loupe (more to come on this) and a few flowers that we enjoyed looking at and then we began collecting "walking sticks" which eventually turned into just plain collecting sticks, and as many as they could carry and con my friend Kimberly into letting them cart off to the stream area of the park.  Bear and Bethy were totally into this activity, the littles with us watched in awe and the two older girls forged ahead. I think these two girls would love to go someplace where they would be allowed to create and build whatever they wanted out of nature finds. I know for sure my wild adventure child would.  I wish we had a prime location for this in our own back yard, but alas we don't.  I am not convinced the local nature parks would be overly keen on this.  *grin*; Has anyone else ever done something like this? My thoughts would that I and other parents would just be facilitators, helping where we can and making sure utter chaos didn't develop, but otherwise see what the kids come up with and how they could work together to solve problems.

Bear and her friend Bethy decided after our trek through the wilds to return to the creek and design a beaver dam, they said they were beavers. They gathered sticks and mud and carried them down the creek a bit and attempted to build a dam. I do think the task soon became pure mud play soon and water play as well, but the girls were so cute talking about the beavers and the dam they were making. I was just going with the flow and making sure no one got hurt.

Mud Play at it's finest!

That evening our camping adventure began. I didn’t keep the camera beside me all the time, in fact before I could take pictures of our camp site the camera ended up in the tackle box and I just didn’t think to dig it out again. We stayed at Taidnapam Park near Morton. I loved this campground. Our tent site was secluded enough to feel like we were in the woods. Sarah’s comment several times during our two days there was that “nature was all around us” of course this included some crows which snatched a bag of very nice cigars the hubs brought along to enjoy. He rarely has a chance to enjoy them and fishing is one of those times.

We fished, we biked, and we camped. I wish I could say it was a fabulous time with no learning curve at all, but of course being new to camping, we had and have much to learn. Yes we had buckets of fun as well. When else can you sit and hold hands with your love in front of a fire while getting soaked from the rain. I mean this in the fondest of ways. I was not disheartened, nor am I shy of camping because we encountered a weekend of rain, well, only Saturday afternoon and night. *smile*

• We need a taller air mattress; these old bones don’t do well in the middle of the night crawling over a spouse trying to go use the facilities. Changes are in the works.

• It rained, a lot. So we are buying a canopy and are looking at one from REI.

• We need a bigger tarp under the tent.

• We need to take less stuff that we don’t need. This will mean more prep work on one end, but it will be doable.

• We don’t need all the cooking stuff we took, but we do need a better pancake turner.

•  Make a check list a week before hand and don’t rely on memory.

• Have everything in the living room ready to go at least the day before, and go through it making sure you remember what’s on your list.

• Quarters. Yes, needed for showers.

• Dish rags and dish towels.

• Extra rubber bands. Things get lost when you are camping.

• We need an LED lantern and a couple bungee cords.

• Make sure you double check that you have batteries before you leave Costco.

• A water jug; we discussed this before going and decided we didn’t need it but I think we do.

Looking at camp map

I know we are still going to need to change things, and we want our camping time to be extended until early October and begin in April. It was fun to see the joy on our daughter’s face, even when trying to roast a hot dog on a fire with pouring down rain.

All this did not negate the serious fun that was had. The TV was not missed, the computer was not missed. Not one iota. Bear also caught her first fish, threw her first fish back to do as the hubs says--make more fish, baited her own hook and tried to make friends with a chipmunk. She played baseball with another little girl and her brother, roasted a hotdog on an open fire and only fell off her bike once, while going downhill. Admitedly scary. We are all looking forward to our next adventure in camping.

Do you camp with children? Share your tales and advice.