The past three weeks have been a real blast for the kids at camp. Many of the children have commented that they do not want to leave at the end of each day because they are having so much fun. All the activities have engaged and challenged the students by helping them embrace all their academic skills and expand on them with fun and enjoyable lessons. We continued working on Math, Reading, Language, Geography, Science, Writing and many more areas that the children stopped at the end of the year. They worked with number skills using the hundred board, addition and subtraction equations using the Golden beads, stamp game and finger charts. The oldest children reviewed both multiplication and division using many of the extended games. The afternoon students built a reading tent for some quiet time and sharing of stories with each other. They also played lots of games such a lawn Scrabble, water exploring and relay activities. One activity in the math area the children enjoyed was discovering all the issues they need to consider when developing their own personal villages which they made. For Geography, some of the children explored a variety of countries and their cultures as well as made special food from those countries. Science is always a busy area as well for the children learned about water concepts, air behaviors, animal and bug life around the world and exploring colors to name just a few topics we worked on. We spent many days learning about the life of leaves and how they live in different areas as well as make individual Botany collection books. Of course our love for the outdoors invited us to open the doors daily for all kinds of lessons out on our decks and in the yards. We once again spent several days building our flower garden, tending our vegetable garden, playing outdoor games and water play with the slip slide. It’s been a very busy three week but we just love this time of year at our Montessori camp.