BARN DAY CAMP
MIXED GENDER CAMPERS
AGES 4-10
EXPLORING THE MAGIC AND WONDER
Venture Into The Wilderness
Wonder and imagination take shape each day as our youngest campers take time and enjoy the simple delights the wilderness offers on 600 acres located at the foothills of Killington and Okemo Ski areas/resorts in Vermont.
From chasing crickets, milking goats, swimming and waterfront activities to creating splatter-paint art, the great outdoors provides a playground for learning and growing individually and as a community. Climbing and costumes, greased watermelon races and pirate gold hunts will have your child delighting in the creative activities and experiences in an age-appropriate way. The secret to them trying new vegetables isn't the salad dressing, it's that they helped tend to and harvest some of those veggies themselves!
Click the "register" button above to see how many spots are currently available!
My first summer at Farm & Wilderness I spent as a cabin counselor in Mandalay cabin at Tamarack Farm in 2001. During those weeks, I experienced and guided the teen campers through “work is love made visible”, an important mantra at F&W. Not only did we nail siding to the barn, stack hay in the loft, and clear trails for ease of walking, but we enjoyed singing on the steps of the front porch, swimming in the lake, and reading stories before falling asleep. I was captivated by the joy and community built through simple activities.
Once my children were old enough to attend Farm & Wilderness, we traveled from Texas to offer them the magical experiences available at the Barn Day Camp. As a parent, I stood at the fence watching the counselors creatively perform a skit about that afternoon’s activity offering, wondering what my children would choose. In 2019 and 2021, I joined the Support Staff at the Barn Day Camp, lifeguarding, leading activities, and assisting children and staff.
I am so looking forward to bringing my years of experience in education, program coordination, and coaching to the Barn Day Camp as Director! In the off-season when I am not preparing for camp, I support families as a Parent Coach in private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia. You can also find me being active outdoors, reading books, and engaging in community-building activities. You can watch my introductory video here.
Session 1 |
June 23 - June 27 |
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Session 2 | June 30 - July 11 | |
Session 3 | July 14 - July 25 | |
Session 4 | July 28 - August 8 |
Barn Day is about taking time for the simple pleasures. We provide a safety-first environment where kids can be kids, learning, discovering and thriving.
Campers are provided with a cubby to store their backpack, lunchbox, a change of clothes, and projects they want to bring home from camp.
Campers bring their own lunch and are provided snacks. Many of these delicious snacks have ingredients from our own farms!
Overnight trip: Barn Day kids hike to local wilderness locations, set up their sleeping bags in shelters or tents, take turns helping to cook the meal while exploring and playing in the woods.
Barn Day Campers are a part of age-based groups of 10-12 campers, with 2-3 counselors for each group.
Check out our BDC FAQ page here!!
WHAT OUR CAMPERS SAY
Explore Life At Camp
Every day there are new things for our campers to discover, learn, grow, cultivate, build and explore.
Mornings we gather together with songs followed by enjoying the wonders of the outdoors. Campers delight in the sights and sounds as they explore the variety of insects and plants growing alongside them. Campers learn responsibility and a greater appreciation for the food we eat by caring for the farm animals and tending to the garden. Small camp projects offer the opportunity to build something substantial to contribute. There is also time for morning swim lessons and splashing around at the waterfront, as our youngest campers work hard, play hard and forge deep friendships.
Afternoons are filled with wholesome lunches and garden. Silent reflection around our beautiful tree-ringed circle offers campers time for listening and connection before embarking on new adventures. Will they take goats on a walk? Make ice cream or enjoy a game of camouflage in the woods? Or enjoy a favorite pastime at camp; building our own pinball machines from scratch! Campers hammer a pattern of nails into a board of wood, put rubber bands around the nails and fling a marble around inside. It’s a person powered electricity free pinball machine! So many choices, they just may choose to participate in all of them! After singing and our final circle, the Barn Day campers head home happy and eager for the next day.
Overnight camping trips are always the highlight of each two-week session. Children carry their sleeping bags, stuffed animals and other belongings to the campsite. Our campers are thrilled to sleep out under the stars and cook their meals (and s’mores!) over a fire. The evenings sing the music that only nature can provide as they drift off to sleep listening to the crickets and gentle evening wind.
9 & 10 year olds have the option to join our Hawks/Ravens groups, where campers set out on a two night overnight, rather than the standard one night. Our Butterfly group, for 4 and 5-year-olds who have yet to attend kindergarten attend for a half-day, from 9am - 1pm. Learn more here.
EXPERIENCE LIFE IN THE OUTDOORS
Activities
Slide down a sudsy hillside, splash in streams, hike to a lookout – let’s play!
Barns and Gardens
Campers plant flowers, feed farm animals, garden and harvest vegetables. Sometimes the children have the opportunity to help with the chick hatching, watching eagerly for cracks in the egg shells in the incubator. Goats, bunnies, chickens, ducks and pigs live on the Barn Day Camp farm.
Creative Arts
Creativity is unleashed in the arts barn with a variety of activities taking center stage. Campers learn how to make beeswax candles, build collages, paint and draw with watercolor pencils, letting the rain splash their artwork in a collaboration with nature.
Outdoor Living Skills
Older campers learn how to read a compass, erect a tarp for shelter and build a fire in all types of weather. Younger campers learn tree identification, fire building and tent skills. We teach “leave no trace”, environmentally sound camping to all our campers. Campers ages eight and over can learn proper knife safety and whittling.
Waterfront
Both a classroom for daily swim lessons and a playground for supervised free time, the waterfront is a great place to cool off and play. Our campers also use the waterfront for learning paddle strokes for canoe trips or building beach forts and structures with buckets, shovels and other favorite toys.
Work Projects
Using tools is essential for fun with a variety of projects teaching new skills. Campers also learn how to design a project, learn the steps needed for assembly and use hand tools to create their vision.
Adventure
Rope courses and outdoor rock climbing provide exciting physical activities for our youngest campers. The indoor climbing wall is used for team-building exercises, non-competitive games and other activities to challenge each camper.
Youth Environmental Sustainability
With the wonderment of a child’s perspective, campers explore their natural surroundings from bugs and bird nests, to animal tracks and forest sounds. The wilderness inspires most of our imaginative games and activities. The land, lakes and forests are our outdoor classrooms. Campers perform experiments along with their exploring where they are looking at things under a microscope, dissecting scat and shooting bottle rockets to learn about pressure systems.
Trips
Our two week campers experience one overnight camping trip in a wilderness setting. Our oldest campers, ages 9-10, have the option to explore more adventures in a two night trip. During these trips, campers experience the wonders of the wilderness in an age appropriate way. Tasty s’mores by the campfire are a delight for all!
HAVE QUESTIONS?
Latest Posts from Barn Day Camp
Hello IB and BDC communities:
It’s been 23 years since I was last on staff at IB as the Director. In that time I have raised two children, one of whom spent seven years at IB. I’ve worked at The Home and Boston GLASS, ran a high school teen parenting program, ran three daycares for the YMCA Boston, been a PE teacher, DEI director, worked for PFLAG greater Boston, taught gender education for MA Department of ED, and ran the Barn Day Camp at Farm & Wilderness. A year ago, I started a consulting business with Dusty Clitheroe from IB and we have been swamped with work. Dusty has taken it on full-time. I help with training while she coordinates the Organizational Change part of the business. Dusty and I met at IB back in the late ’80s.
This summer I was blessed with spending two mornings at IB lifeguarding and teaching canoeing skills. It was wonderful. I taught canoe-over-canoe rescue and basic care of canoe equipment, which was so fun. In fact, on the second day when a canoe tipped, the campers immediately went into canoe-over-canoe rescue in the middle of the lake. So fun to see them execute the skill flawlessly and on their own. I even got to join in the fun on a relay. where Tori Clitheroe and I swam about 30 yards and switched paddleboards.
I am so psyched to be back helping IB nurture and support female-identified and non-binary youth to recognize their strengths by challenging them to learn new skills and experience the wonderful outdoors. I want every camper to be able to come back and point out to several generations how they helped build IB. Someone asked me the other day if I could name the first work project I did. Not only could I name it, but I am also still in touch with the staff member I spent hours with working on it.
Folks may be wondering, “What about you being the Director of BDC?” The BDC is and has been in a really solid place. I am very proud of the capable leadership and program staff at BDC. Frances and I will work together on a leadership plan for BDC in the coming months, and I’ll continue to stay closely involved.
The BDC has been home to me for 17 years and has helped raise both of my kids. The staff and campers are folks I care deeply about and I want to continue to nurture their growth. Every summer, my staff work really hard to provide a wonderful experience for campers. They are what makes the BDC the amazing place that it is. Looking ahead to camp next summer, I expect many staff to return and that we’ll be able to bring back swim lessons, and more opportunities for campers to experience different program areas in the afternoons.
I look forward to supporting IB and the BDC through the F&W journey. Please feel free to reach out with questions at polly@farmandwilderness.org.
Peace,
Polly Williams
We have had an amazing summer at the BDC for this Special Edition summer. Campers and staff have adjusted well to the changes. The essence of the BDC is still going strong. A majority of our staff are not only former F&W campers, but also former BDC campers. We have had a lot of excitement with the pigs and baby goats getting out. The weather has either been really hot or rainy. The campers don’t seem to mind either way.
Wednesday morning when I was walking into our Opening Circle, children started yelling out, “Are you really going to slaughter the goats.” This was something we had not planned to actually discuss with the kids because the goats were so young. However, once it came up in circle, I had to discuss it. I let the kids know that we are a farming camp not a petting zoo. Every year the pigs are killed for meat that feeds us and the surrounding community throughout the year. We don’t keep that a secret and believe strongly that this is part of animal farming. The pigs are processed after camp. However, the baby goats are processed while camp is happening. I talked to them about farming and about making judgmental statements and how that can be hurtful. I also explained how F&W was able to feed folks in Plymouth and Killington during Hurricane Irene when no vehicles could get in. Some of the staff discussed with their group the differences between factories that processes animals and how there is a broad range of ways to raise animals. Some talked about how some people have the privilege to choose to eat what they want, while others don’t have that choice. Finally, we talked about what it means to make a judgement about a culture that is not one they grew up with and how it’s important to open our minds to difference.
At the BDC, we seek to educate folks about different views so that campers can make their own choices. If we have an incident about social justice issues like race or gender, we “call in” instead of “calling out.” Often times at this age, kids do not even know what they are saying.
This blog is full of practical information for BDC families. We send this out in an email as well.
This summer, we are using a car line for drop off and pick up. Adults will not be able to get out of the car. We will meet you and get your child out. Please be prepared. This process takes a while, especially on the first day. Here is how you can help with the process:
- Make sure your kids are ready to get out of the vehicle. (shoes on, back packs ready)
- Fill out the Camp Doc prescreening temperature and symptom check each morning. If you don’t have access, please take their temperature and make sure they don’t have a fever or any symptoms of COVID-19.
- Come up with a good-bye ritual that you can do in the car. ( The book “Kissing Hand” was our families’ favorite.)
- Place your child’s first and last name in your windshield. Make sure it is large so we can read it from a distance. I will not necessarily remember your kids name or be able to tell who you are with masks. I’ve been here since 1981. That’s a lot of folks.
- At pick-up, chat with your child after they are in the car, not while they are getting in.
Please be patient with us and understand that the first day is the longest.
Sunday from 2-4 is an Open House. Our assistant director and some staff will be on hand to show you around. Please park in the first parking lot after you enter that will be on your right. Follow the path up the short hill to the Red Barn. This Open House is for new families or families of kids who need to see the place because of anxiety. You may or may not meet your kids’ counselors. We may switch groups all the way up to when folks arrive.
Polly Williams, BDC Director, polly@farmandwilderness.org
BDC office 802-422-3565
Polly’s pager- 1-888-622-3276
Let the service know you want to page Polly at the Barn Day Camp(BDC)
Please Bring every day or leave in cubby:
- Lunch (no refrigeration or heating up)
- Extra set of clothes
- Rainwear (It rains even when the weather says no rain)
- Towel
- Swimsuit
- Boots or covered shoes with no holes. (rubber rain boots are great)
- Water bottle
- Warm layer
While we wish we could have you at the fence, here’s a video tour of the Day Camp for your camper (and you!) to get a sneak peek at all the fun in store!