Homegrown Summer Camp

By Wendy Underhill
Issue 100, May/June 2000

Overnight camp for a six year old? Are you kidding? What kind of a heartless, pushy, know-nothing mama would consider such a thing?

Well, me. My daughter, Vivian, went to Naviclas Mountain Camp, which is to traditional sleep-away camps what a neighborhood playgroup is to preschool. Ours is a small-scale, homegrown, child-centered creation of the families of the four campers themselves.

Let us take the tale from the top. My mother, Bobbie Counihan, loved the summers she spent at Girl Scout camp 60 years ago, and wanted to help her eldest granddaughter build similar memories. She also owns a mountain cabin, 45 minutes from home, that is most notable for the amenities it lacks--such as hot water, electricity, and phone service. When my mom asked me if I was interested in running a camp with her for Vivian and a few friends at her cabin, it was easy to say "yes" because I knew exactly whom to invite--the three other girls who had been part of a mother-run playgroup since toddlerhood. Any group of children can have their own camp; the only true requirement is a group of parents willing to work together.

That first year, 1995, written camp guidelines were sent to the children in advance, stressing that this was camp, not a play date. When everyone arrived, my mother and I began the program with an all-camp meeting. The first item on the agenda was to name the camp. We chose Naviclas, an amalgam of our daughters' names: NA from Nathalie, VI from Vivian, CL from Claire, and AS from Asumi.

Daily meetings have become a tradition: It turns out that children, just like adults, are happier if they know what's coming and what's expected. The schedule of activities is posted on newsprint, and the girls vie for the chance to cross events off the schedule as they're completed. In scheduling activities, we weren't looking for military precision, but we did include a 45-minute quiet time each day--a break that was as much for me, eight months pregnant at the time with my third child, as for the children. Whether fun or not--two girls found quiet time "boring"; the other two were glad to have it--it was enriching. Discovering how to entertain oneself on a bunk bed with nothing more than a stuffed turtle and a picture book is probably a more important life lesson than learning to identify trees or build origami boxes. All these years later, rest time is still part of the schedule--just as it would be at "real" camps.

Also just like at "real" camp, each day included crafts, outdoor adventures (see sidebar), evening programs of music, games or stories, and chores. Claire Waugh, one of the campers, reports that "since you do your jobs with a friend, and you're talking, the chores are funner than at home." The favorite job the first summer turned out to be scrubbing the bathroom sink!

During free time, of which there is plenty, the kids entertained themselves. Hand-grinding corn from a birdseed mix was the biggest hit the first year. They used an iron skillet and stones, rubbing it more or less in Navajo style. The cornmeal was then packaged up to sell to parents on the final day. My own daughter, Vivian, recalls lying on a chaise at dusk, wrapped in a blanket with a fellow camper, looking at the sky, listening to the night. She and her companion saw a hawk dart into a tree, and then fly off with a smaller bird in its mouth. That moment could not have been more magical even if a fairy had flitted by.