Camp Retrospective

Happy Mother's Day- hope you are enjoying the lovely weather and a nice treat from your darling son's and daughter's!!

Well, we are back from a week at Camp Homewood and I do hope your children have good memories and great stories to share. Quadra Island is definitely worth a visit. Check out www.quadraisland.ca

I was very impressed with the facilities, the food, the counsellors and the program and I believe that most (perhaps even all) students had a great time. The students ate three times a day and many went back for seconds. I think they will tell you the food was good- they certainly didn't go hungry. We ate in a beautiful new dining hall area which had panoramic view of the surrounding water and camp grounds.

The Program
We lucked out with the weather throughout the week and the days were full from 8:30am breakfast until 10pm bedtime. Free time was incorporated too as was a reflection/journal time before the evening activity. Every students received a 'journal' from camp as a keepsake. [I have some that I collected and will return them this week.]
The reflection time allowed us to come together as a group and discuss and think about what experiences we had enjoyed during the day. The camp staff had a 45 minute break and prepared for the evening program.

After evening activity there was campfire where the students were entertained with skits and songs (some might still be singing them as they did on the way home!) by the counsellors. Then after 'mugup' - a snack and drink- it was time to head to cabins for some much needed sleep. For some, sleep came easily for others not so much!!!

All students completed the following activities throughout the day led by accredited instructors: archery x2, beach exploration, canoeing, horseback riding x2, mapping, obstacle course and riflery x2.

Each evening we all played large group games for evening activity like capture the flag, gold rush, zombie tag, hide and seek the counsellors who, if caught, had to give up their coveted chocolate bars. There was a live version of Clue (a whodunnit game), tug of war and a volleyball version of dodge ball which were all played as a group.

On Wednesday, we organized an off campus fieldtrip to Rebecca Spit where we built driftwood shelters and played a big beach park game of soccer after we ate hot dogs at the BBQ pits at the park. After lunch we hiked Shelligan's Pass and managed to get a group shot overlooking the Hoskyn and Sutil Channels. It was a bit breezy by the water but the sun shone down on our expeditions and there were some beautiful lookout views.

Free Time
When the students had free time there were a number of activities that they could chose- the only no-no was to be indoors as the weather was so nice. Students went to waterfront on the beach, the buoy swings near the ranch, the trampoline, the volleyball court or played with a selection of sports equipment- some read, some sunbathed and others just 'hung out'. The girl's learned quickly that they couldn't take 20 minute showers and so some chose to use free time to have a hot shower!!

Accommodation
The boy's had cabins 6,7 and 8 and were on the property which had a toilet, washroom/shower facility just for them. The girl's were accommodated in four rooms on the lower floor of the Rivendell Lodge which had a common area that the boy's were very jealous of as it housed a ping pong table and air hockey! The camp director asked that boys'/girls' accommodation areas be kept separate and that is what was enforced SO if they tell you the girl's had more 'to do'- it's relative because the boys were allowed to come in to use the Lodge's upstairs fuzball and ping pong tables every morning before breakfast. All rooms and cabins were heated and there was enough hot water for everyone once we learned the trick about how long (or when) to shower. Live and learn at camp!

The Counsellors
The students formed some fast bonds with the young men and women who were the counsellors. I was impressed with the counsellors energy, competence and friendliness. This next anecdote will illustrate my point- our students were asked not to run in the lodge. On Thursday morning, I went to check on what I thought was a couple of our kids running around the interior halls of the lodge but it turned out to be one of the counsellors with one of our students on his back!!! They were having a blast and I decided to let it go (after all we were leaving on Friday!! :)

The Chaperones
Mr. Parker and I would like to extend a great big thank-you to our brave and adventurous parent chaperones. Mr. Elson, Mrs. Gratton, Mr. McArthur, Mr. Peries and Mrs. Tehara. Without their participation, we would not have been able to have pulled of such a successful week. They were fabulous chaperones and actively participated every day both with the students and were hands on with the program too. They were very impressed with the students generally and I think they enjoyed their week too.

FYI The camp program director, Aaron Gole, was very complimentary. He thanked me for having adult leaders who were not on 'vacation'. He said some groups are difficult to deal with because the adults who accompany the children do not manage them as well as we did. He said he was impressed with our students too considering for some it was their first time at Camp. I was happy to share the compliments.

1st Aid
Fortunately, there was nothing too serious :) Most of the first aid was mopping up some scrapes and cuts from the beach and attending to sprained ankles (flip flops will be left off the list for packing in future!!). Other than that most of the students who sought some first aid needed TLC types of comfort rather than serious medical attention. If it takes a bandaid and a bit of lipsaver to help a kid feel better then that's what I do best.

The Trip Home
We made all our connections as planned and the trip back was uneventful which is a good thing. A larger ferry was put on the Departure Bay run (The Rennaisance) and it threw us for a loop as it was so much bigger than the ferry we left on!! But we had our travel groups in order and we all made it back safe and sound and perhaps a bit tired.
Thank-you for your timely pick up of your children- I know they were looking forward to getting home.
I can attest to the fact that there is nothing so nice as your own bed. a 20 minute shower in your own bathroom and nobody looking for Mrs. Johnston while she is in the bathroom!!!!lol

That's all for now, folks- just thought that if I got a chance to do this tonight it would make tomorrow's blog less lengthy. Hope you and yours had a good week. Thank-you for trusting me with your children and their well-being this past week. I had a great week at camp with them and have lots of great memories that we can call on to see us through to the end of the school year. Now if I can just catch up with my sleep.....

See eveyone tomorrow.
Mrs. J.