Mission & Activities
The Barn Day Camp provides younger children an opportunity to explore the many facets of the farm and the natural world within a nurturing, creative and cooperative community. The BDC fosters self-confidence, creativity, care of others, and care of the environment.
Barn Day Camp Program Areas
Barns and Gardens
Campers plant flowers, take care of the pigs, chickens, ducks, bunnies and goats. They check the incubator and watch chicks hatch from their eggs! Caring for the chicks gives campers an in-depth understanding of the purpose of a farm as well as all the work involved.
Creative Arts
Art is openly defined and children have an opportunity to enter into it in many ways. They can sew, make candles, work with clay, build collages out of nature, paint, draw, use paper mâche, bead, and make bracelets.
Outdoor Living Skills (OLS)
Campers learn a variety of skills at OLS. The older ones focus on using a compass, putting up a tarp and building a fire in all kinds of weather. The younger ones learn fire building and safety. They all learn “leave no trace” camping skills. Campers cook pop corn over a fire and learn how to build a shelter.
Waterfront
The BDC waterfront serves as both classroom and playground. Children have daily lessons with our instructors and have time to come to the waterfront for free time to swim, play and cool off. Campers can also learn paddle strokes for an anticipated canoe trip or play in the sand with the sand toys.
Work Projects
We do not shy away from work projects with our BDC campers. Children of all ages are learning how to build stuff. They help build planter boxes and animal pens. They can make cutting boards or bat houses to take home. They use hammers and saws and hand drills. They learn all the steps of a project from design and planning, to measuring and cutting, to putting it all together.
Adventure
The BDC has a wonderful indoor climbing wall. Children get lots of opportunities to climb and make it to the top of the wall. To increase the challenge and fun of the climbing wall, staff will sometimes use blind-folds or tie the legs of two kids together! We use the climbing wall to do team-building doing group initiatives and non-competitive games.
Nature
The BDC is a nature wonderland. Most children find hours of entertainment studying the creatures that share the BDC space with us. We look for bugs, birds nests, animal tracks, and listen for the sounds of the forest. Objects from nature are included in our art, tales of nature find their way into stories and songs, and the natural world imbues all of our imaginative games and activities. Environmental Education is the basis for much of our curriculum.
