Theme ideas for Camp at Home

[niccig]

Calling all super creative parents, which is NOT me. DS will be spending several weeks at home with me. I'm the kind of parent that NEEDs to have activity ideas worked out in advance, I can't come up with things on the spur of the moment.

I was thinking of having several themes that I could then have activities around for that week. DS's old preschool did this for their Summer Camp.

So, any suggestions for themes and activities that fit those themes? We could have a running list of ideas for everyone to pick and choose from.


Thanks.

[ourbabygirl]

Thanks for starting this thread! I'd like to do something similar for my toddler; like you, I need structure, too!

Here are some ideas:

*Beach, water sports
*Environment (recycling, etc.)
*Garden
*Camping
*Sports
*Summer Olympics
*Art- different styles, recreate some of them w/different materials (impressionism, cubism, etc.)
*Bugs, Insects
*Zoo animals
*Household pets
*The solar system (star-gazing at night; sing "Twinkle, Twinkle," etc.)
*Simple machines (pulleys, ramps, wheels, etc.)
*Dinosaurs (have an excavation w/ 'fossils' in the sand box, etc.)
*Father's Day- do a craft and write a little poem or something for daddy
*4th of July, American independence, the flag, patriotic songs, etc.
*Christmas in July
*Cooking/ baking/ meal prep (also practice measuring, etc.)
*Colors: make secondary from primary with food coloring, etc. Lots of art projects you can do w/this
*Exploring different professions; you could take a field trip to a local factory, etc.
*International week (try different recipes, mini geography lesson, look at their flag, etc.)

That's all I can think of right now.

[JustMe]

I'm not great at this either, but kids seem to really love scavenger hunts as an activity, which could be fit into lots of different themes.

[sste]

Wow, what great suggestions.

Is your DS too young for a volunteer camp day or two - - maybe spending some time volunteering at somewhere he is interested or donating some of his old toys together.

This sounds great but like a ton of work - - would any of your moms group friends be willing to trade off days so that one of you had space camp for a couple of days with multiple kiddos, one of you had dinosaur camp, whatever. Then you have other "campers" there too.

[Twoboos]

Wow, great list OurBabyGirl!!

The camp themes for DDs school camp are:
Fun in the Garden
Fairy Tales & Nursery Rhymes
Be a Scientist
Let's Be Green
Bubbles, Balloons & the Beach

A friend did "camp theme" weeks w/her DC, and started each week w/a trip to the library to find books on the topic, then took a lot of ideas from online (Family Fun, etc.) for projects/crafts.

Along with scavenger hunts, obstacle courses are always fun, too! We have one set up in here today to kill the rainy day boredom and DDs are having a ball with it.

[hillview]

They had plans to do a nature theme camp at DS1's school -- some of what I remember:
under the sea
in the air (kites!)
in the ground (mud pies!)

every week they had some sort of cooking thing planned, some sort of craft and some sort of hike or adventure. It was cute.

Last year they did a country or region theme every week (France, Italy, China, India, etc) they did music, a craft and a cooking thing.
HTH!
/hillary

[KrisM]

I love this idea! Thank you.

I think I'll join up with a couple of their friends and see if we can rotate houses for some things as well.