Camp Barefoot {blogmas day seven}

One of the joys of homeschooling is being able to set our own schedule. As long as we are hitting our outcomes and getting through the syllabus on time, NESA is happy for us to work out our own terms and holidays. For us, that generally looks like six week blocks with a one week break, rather than the traditional ten week terms and two week holidays. Normally, by the end of November, we are done with our schoolwork and shift into a Christmas crafty program and call the year done. This year, however, the back half of the year has been a hot mess. We’ve had multiple trips away, and multiple bouts of illness and I’ve been to Sydney three times in two months and had my wisdom teeth out. There’s been plenty of life that has been unavoidable and our school time has been truncated in a way that has me pushing out our end date as close to Christmas as I can. But it’s the festive season and we can’t just make it all about bookwork and ticking off requirements. Instead, I’ve decided to try and make it a little fun as well.

Enter – Camp Barefoot

Here in Australia, we don’t have summer camp. It looks like heaps of fun though, if movies and social media are to be believed. What if, thought I, I created a camp experience at home? We could have a learning block, and then also add in extra blocks for fun stuff. Here’s what our two most recent schedules looks like:

I print these and pop on the fridge each morning. The kiddos get woken with christmas carols, and then I serve up a cooked brekkie – we’ve had banana pancakes, and overnight oats with berries, and baked ham and egg rolls, or Mummy McMuffins. Special holiday type breakfast to lean into the camp vibe.

Each day we have a craft activity, a school block, and a movement block. I schedule in free time (for me as much as them, and a board game of the educational variety. In the evenings, I try and create that camp-fire-community time. Maybe we play a game or work on an escape room, maybe I encourage them to get their guitars out, or work on personal projects all together. Their days also have mess duty and camp care scheduled in, because this house isn’t going to clean itself!

It’s been super fun, and as life settles down a bit, it’s a good, flexible structure to keep us on track and filling our days productively. I’m pretty sure they’re skiving off to their grandparents next week so I might even prep up a few for my folks for the days that are sweltering and they need to come up with ideas.

I’ll definitely be doing something similar again next year!