Venturing Ducks

Being in Education and Scouting for many years equals many school and scout camps ranging from overnight to 1 month. 

Are they hard work- yes

Are you exhausted at the end- yes

Are they worth it- totally!  

Heading off to a Statewide Deaf camp today I’ve been reflecting over the past camps I’ve attended. 

This month 10 years ago I was an Activity Base leader at a Scout Camp for 500+ 9-11 year olds. It took a year to plan. And the week of the camp was the most incredible experience, only to come second to the opportunity I had to go over to Japan for the World Scout Jamboree, which was 4 weeks away with 300 14-18 year olds. This camp had us in a range of accommodation from tents, temples, motels and home stay. It was 4 full on weeks but an experience I’ll never forget and lifelong friendships made. 

These would be my top 2 in the list. Coming in at the bottom of the list was a year 6 camp to Sydney/ Canberra. Whilst the program of the camp was amazing and the students so resilient. Sickness overcome two thirds of the campers and most of the time was spent triaging students. This one resulted in 2 weeks off work once we got home. 

Still I keep going back. Why? Because camping and travelling is amazing, but more than that these kids get opportunities and experiences that they would never normally get. School days are so curriculum heavy that they miss out of social skills out in the wild. Some of these children will never get the opportunity to visit other states, or other parts of the state that they live in. 

Some of them have never experienced sleeping in a tent, others thrive from the chance to use their leadership skills and others learn responsibilities that they had been missing. 

I remember my own year 9 school camp, we went to the Grampians Vic. This camp was awesome for the relationships I made with the other year 9 students. 

Our school gave the choice of 3 different camp. So there were only enough of us in this camp to fill a coaster bus, which was lucky as I remember having to all push the bus out of somewhere we got stuck one day. 

Teamwork building 101 when you are in that situation! 

If you have the opportunity to send your child on a school/ scout/ sports camp. I 100% recommend it. They will come back older, wiser, maybe smellier, with a load of washing and many stories that will stay with them for years to come! 

Here’s my Hot Tip for these type of camps! 

Large clip lock bags! Get a box. Lay out the kids clothes in what needs to be worn each day. If they are having a wet play day on Wednesday, then those clothes go in the cliplock bag with Wednesday (wet) written on it.  If they have to wear a group shirt on the Tuesday put that in the Tuesday bag. 

Add their underwear to the bag. Then all they have to do that morning is pull out that bag and what they need for the day is in it. 

Their dirty clothes at the end of the day can go back in that bag and this keeps their big bag easy to manage. It also makes sorting the dirty and clean clothes easier when they get home. Any clean clothes still in a sealed cliplock bag can go back in the drawer. 

Happy camping!