This Camp Mommy was geared around my love for Fall. My husband and I got married in the fall, and I have fall pictures of my boys each year. I just love all the colours, the warm days, cooler nights, the smell of the air...it's all just bliss! This is also our last Camp Mommy of the year. We will be doing a weekly activity still; but the basis of Camp Mommy was to get us outside enjoying this summer and now that the weather is changing, we need to bring our activities indoors.
I always try to get the boys, Bug especially, to burn off some much excessive energy on my days off. He's more cooperative, he sleeps better, and he just plain loves it when our fun is staged around physical activity. So, I came up with an obstacle course. I printed out 10 leaf pictures and laminated them. The laminating step is not needed, but I'm all for being able to reuse the items we use or that I had to make for our fun filled days, and making them more durable makes sense for me. I used some two way tape and then attached popsicle sticks to each image. These were our check points. I also wrote on the back of each one with a dry erase marker to help me remember what task Bug would have to perform at each point.
There was minimal set up required. The tasks that I got Jacob to perform were:
1.Crab Walk
2. Hurdles (pool noodles cut in half and wooden skewers stuck into the ground at an angle to attach the pool noodle piece into a curve)
3. Hopping like a bunny
4. Kick a soccer ball around poles (a pool noodle cut into 6 pieces and wooden skewers placed into the ground upright to keep the noodle pieces in place)
5. Hopscotch
6. Maneuvering through a "hall" of streamers (party streamers taped in varying heights, encouraging Bug to think about how to get through the obstacle: either going under or stepping over)
7. Log roll
8. Cartwheels (probably my favourite to watch Bug do)
9. Walk the plank (we had a piece of wood we could use, but this would be easily adapted with some tape or a long piece of bristle board)
10. And finally, run through a pile of leaves (not even an adult would pass up an opportunity to do this ;p)
Bug loved this...like REALLY loved it!! We ended up doing it about 5 times. He probably would have done more but Bear was going to wake up from his nap soon, so we had to bring the fun inside. The 10 check points allowed us to utilize both our front yard and backyard. Before we headed inside though, Bug wanted to be a big helper and rake the leaves!! Hopefully this will transition into his adolescent years!
Once inside, we completed a craft we started a couple of days ago. I knew this craft was going to be a bit time consuming, as we were working with leaves, mod podge and a jar/matte for a picture; so I figured breaking it up into two days would be easier on Bug's attention span and Mommy VDV's patience. We collected a bunch of fall leaves and used mod podge to apply them to the glass jar and matte. This clearly was a big adult helping project. I ended up doing most of the initial leaf gluing onto the jar to get the foundation done. Then Bug went and covered up the holes. The matte was easier for Bug and once all the leaves were in place, I took some scissors to cut around the outside perimeter. I went over the final products with a layer of mod podge to seal in the leaves.
The purpose of this craft was to start a Thanksgiving tradition. When I was younger, I remember visiting my grandparents in the summer. On one particular drive to a family outing, we all sat in the car, individually telling everyone something we are thankful for. I'm sure as a kid, it was something I thought we were doing to pass the time; but obviously it has held more meaning, seeing as I am calling on that memory as an adult. I thought it would be fun for us to have a Thankful Jar, something that sat around all year where anytime we particularly felt thankful, we would write it down. These thankful thoughts would sit in the jar for the whole year, and then during Thanksgiving dinner, we would crack it open. I'm hoping that reading these notes will bring us closer and remind us of the bigger picture in life...that being surrounded by our loved ones is what is most important. I will probably have a journal this coming Thanksgiving, and each year will have it's own page with the collection of thoughts. Hopefully my husband will remember to do this :) I got Bug to write "we are thankful" for the picture in our frame with the fall leaves matte, giving him some letter practice. I am one proud mommy in regards to his writing. It's getting so good! Then I asked him what he was thankful for. The first thing he said was "Mommy"! Love, love, love!! Then he wrote down another one, which of course was "Daddy".
This was the final product. I love it...it's another way for this Fall lover to have a little bit of fall happiness all year long!
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