Mommy Camps, Week One

With all of the usual summer camps and classes canceled, I decided to help my girls have some adventures this summer of our own. For my first week of summer camp, we did three different ideas rolled into one. I figured there’s no way I can fill 8 hours with just one theme for 5 days. Instead, I created more of a collection of classes for the girls to explore some of the things they have interests in. For week 1, this included writing, movie creation, and cooking camps.

I actually tied the writing and movie camps together. The first day last week, I had the girls write a script for a puppet show. They had to keep in mind how many puppets they could easily switch between. They also needed to be sure to develop a plot. This was mainly aimed at my soon-to-be 1st grade daughter. My soon-to-be 5th grader didn’t need as much coaching on the elements of a story, which was good. I was able to help my youngest while my oldest went off on her own to work.

Then I had the girls pick out their puppets, and I had old socks available in case they wanted a character we did not have. That way, they could make anything they needed. They were sent off to practice their show 3 times to work out the kinks and character switches. After that, they performed the show for each other (and me & my camera!). Voila! Movie #1 was done!

For day #2, we read some fairy tales from Grimm’s Fairy tales and then read some twisted fairy tales (I have a thing for crazy twists on these classic stories ever since I had a teacher have us right our own twist. My favorite one to read is “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs” by Jon Scieszka. It’s told from the viewpoint of the misunderstood wolf!). I then tasked the girls with writing their own mixed-up fairy tale.

For the movie part of this adventure, they could either choose to act out their story, or perform it as another puppet show. Surprisingly, they mixed it up!

Day #3 featured the girls working out their very own newscast. Since they’ve been writing newspaper stories for their summer paper, I had them start their articles for that for the writing side of camp. However, I teach music lessons on Wednesday morning, so I typed out a nice guide to creating a newscast and how to split up the headlines, special feature, weather, and sports portions of the newscast. They then had to work out their parts and once my lessons were done for the morning, I recorded their newscast. I then put it all together in a quick iMovie, and added a nice news fanfare lead-in and closing. Boom. Done.

Day #4 involved the girls learning how to persuade their parents with a persuasive essay of their choice (Wormy chose to advocate for a game night, and Squid asked for a time turner from Harry Potter…oh boy). We then talked about how these same skills were used when companies make commercials – aiming for a certain audience, selling their points to change people’s minds about their product, etc. The girls then wrote, practiced, and recorded their own commercials for a product of their choice.

All of the movies I’ve made of the girls are housed on their very own unlisted playlists on YouTube that I have created. I will then be sending out a link to family to watch videos, if they are interested.

On Friday (day #5), we finally had a break in a heat wave we were having, so we took a break from the writing and movie work and played outside. The girls also had a dance recital tonight that they practiced for each day, as well, so they got extra time in practicing outside.

For the cooking part of our camp, the girls have been making food from the America’s Test Kitchen for kids subscription box that Squid’s awesome godmother bought the girls. I decided it was super awesome they can make these fun recipes, but I wanted them to also know the basic things – you know, survival food! Their cooking this week featured Mac & cheese (from a box), tacos, corn dogs, spaghetti, and grilled cheese. I am happy to report that I was able to stand in the kitchen and tell the girls exactly what to do without doing a single thing myself. They truly made dinner for us completely. And, added bonus – both girls can cook noodles, brown meat, and flip things in a frying pan. You know, those important skills….

So, stay tuned for next week….I think we’re going to do ukulele camp and photography camp for certain. We will see what else we need! There have been requests for the rest of our movie camp ideas to come along as well (stopped animation is on the list!)