2010 GRANDMA CAMP-UNDER THE SEA

The theme this year was "Under the Sea". I'm sure you can guess which movie we watched! There are alot of food options for this one, fish sticks, Goldfish crackers, gummy fish, Swedish fish and fish shaped pancakes to name a few. We mostly used the candy options as prizes for the activities.

We attended the fish feeding at Cabella's store. We had a 'fish pond' with not prizes, but numbered fish cut outs. The number corresponded to a "Fin it to Win It" activity. If the activity was done in a minute, the child was given a baggie of Swedish Fish". If the task was not completed in a minute, the prize was a gummy shark!

Of course we went swimming at the local reservoir and built sand castles. Did you know that if you mix sand with cornstarch and water, the results is a sand castle that will stay together?

I had decorated the basement family room as if it were "under the sea". We hung crepe paper streamers in a wave pattern and then hung fish cut-outs from fishing line. You don't see the fishing line so it looks like the fish are swimming.

We had a coin dive in a wading pool using some cheap snorkel sets that I bought at WalMart.

We made water globes in baby food jars using florists clay as the base for the plastic plants. This is done on the inside of the lid since you will be turning it upside down. We attached a colorful fish brad to the plant and then filled the jar with water, glycerin, and a few pinches of course glitter. but the lid on and add a bead of silicon caulk around the edge of the lid to keep it water tight and it's done!

The invitations were layers of paper that included sandpaper for the beach and blue paper for the water and lighter blue for the sky. A sticker of a sand pail and an umbrella were added and the info was written inside.

Candyland and Cooking School

2009 Theme was Candyland and cooking school. I was afraid there would not be enough activity associated with the theme that my assistants chose, so I added the cooking school.

The whole Camp was a sticky mess, but it was fun. The tour of a local candy company proved frustrating and time consuming. There was no production going on and the tour ended up being a 30 minute movie and a sample piece of candy! We drove 50 miles and needed an extra car for seat belts and it was not as fun as I had hoped.

At the end of camp the parents were taken on a tour of the board game activities that we had and got to load a bag with a sample of the candy and cake balls that we made.

The cake pictured was an adaptation of a sand castle one featured in Family Fun Magazine.

The children made their own pasta and sauces, sandwiches, etc. Making taffy would have been more fun if we had not been on a tight schedule. If I ever say "taffy" again, I'm sure the kids will run! We even made our own "gum drop" pinatas!

GREAT LINKs!

For a ton of fun ideas check out Grandma Nina at grandmaideas.com
Grandma Shelly has great ideas on her web site! grandmaslittlepearls.com

Grandma Camp Book

I have been typing and editing like mad to get a GRANDMA CAMP BOOK ready for the publisher. What publisher? I wish I knew. there are a lot of options out there and I am really in a quandary as to which to use. I also cannot decide if I want to self publish or let a publisher go with it. What do you think?

Studio 5

On June 16, 2009 I was invited to share my ideas for Grandma Camp on our local daytime program! It was a fun experience and was very interesting. The staff and hosts were very fun and nice and were very interested in what I shared. If you are interested in viewing this, you can log onto thier website studio5.ksl.com You will need to scroll down the days programs and then go page by page until you can see the heading Grandma Camp. There is the live view of the segment and then a listing of some ideas below that.
Hopefully this can be a springboard for launching a book. It would be nice to see if there is enough interest to make it worth publishing a book.
Happy camping! Love, Grandmahttp://studio5.ksl.com/index.php?nid=54&sid=6825780

GRANDMA LAND

The invitations were sent a week ahead. Each invitation contained a 2 day pass for each child and a guest pass for the parents to be used when the parents arrived to pick up the children the next day.
As the children arrived, they traded their ticket for a two day pass that was in a plastic card holder that was worn around their neck.
The parents knew in advance when the camp was. This year there was no need for the parents to stay and help with any of the crafts but an extra auto was needed to transport kids to the swimming activity and to the hiking destination. The driver (one of the mothers) stayed to go through the 'rides' until time to go swimming.
The character cut out for the souvenir photo was the fist thing that we did so that the pictures could be printed and ready for a frame the children would make. The kids seemed to really have fun with this.
The next thing was to go through the process of waiting in a long line. By this I mean that we had set up a zig zag pathway like you see at movie theaters and amusement parks. String was fastened to chairs and posts to make the guests weave their way to the start of the line.
The 'ride' was the wagon that Grandpa pushed and the kids steered. They followed a sidewalk chalk line down the driveway to the sidewalk and then around the corner down the lower driveway. The sprinkler was on and they had to drive right through it! What they didn't know was that there was also a hose on top of the shed that would sprayed onto them as they got closer! Grandma took pictures as they came close and got the second spray of water. This picture was also printed so that it could be a souvenir photo.
We had alot of fun and the children were really wrapped up in the idea of entertaining their parents.
For the educational part of camp we learned that theme parks usually have a mission statement. That is a written paragraph or two that sets the desired goals of the park. Perhaps the goal is to be funny and silly all the time. Maybe the goal is to assume character personalities and act out those characters while entertaining the guests. Maybe the goal is to be spooky such as in a spook alley at Halloween. Our theme park was to make everyone welcome and have fun!
The campers learned that they were to keep the park clean all the time and their "boothe" was to be neat and tidy. They were to help the guests feel that they were important and winners.

WHAT IS GRANDMA CAMP?

About a decade and a half ago, I became a GRANDMA! And that time we had a wonderful neighbor who had grandchildren from all over the world. Once a year she would have them all come at the same time for a full week to stay with her. She called it Grandma Camp. This was done on a large scale. She hired a nanny and a lifeguard for the week. She also had a 10-passenger van and unlimited resources! Although I envied the whole idea, I knew that I could not afford such an endeavor nor could I take the time from work to do such an event. I did like the fact that she could have such a grand time with all the children at once. I had been thinking a lot about what I wanted to create. I was very careful to set a low starting point and let it stay manageable. Remember, you have to finish what you start, and what you do for one, you do for all. Since I still have (hopefully) more grandchildren to come, I am careful not to get too elaborate. What is Grandma Camp? It is an event that your grandchildren look forward to each year. It is a memory that you create from scratch! It is low cost, educational, and fun!