LIGHTING THE FIRE

These are the dog days of summer–with 4th of July past and the cool, crisp days of autumn in the far distant future, July and August can seem like a hot, dry Sahara stretching before us. Most homeschool groups significantly decrease their activities during the summer in order to stay synchronized with the public school calendar as well as to give families an opportunity for a vacation.

But with gas prices and the economy being what they are (!) many families are opting to forgo the summer ramble this year. However, you don’t have forgo the educational and fun opportunities camping out in your own backyard can give you.

First, decide how long you and your kids would like to camp-out. An entire weekend would be great; some brave souls do it for a whole week; but even one night would be memorable.

If you have older children, let them deal with setting the tent up (it will certainly be a great lesson in patience and perseverance, though most modern tents are a good deal easier to deal with than the tents of yesteryear!). Each child should then be responsible for organizing their sleeping arrangements.

For a camp-out style dinner, why not let the children be responsible for preparing hot dogs or hamburgers? If you have a grill, let them prepare all of the fixings (or make this a beginning lesson in grilling for older children); alternatively, you could have them do the prepwork for a simple Hobo Dinner:

For each diner you will need:

1. a wet paper towel sandwiched between two squares of aluminum foil

2. 1 potato and 1 carrot washed, peeled, and diced

3. 1/4 lb of hamburger meat

To prepare the meals, put bits of hamburger meat onto each foil wrapper (onions can be added if you like).

Add the potatoes and carrots, season with salt, pepper, ketchup, and/or barbecue sauce as desired.

Fold the foil into a flat package. Place them on a heated grill (or directly in coals if you are lucky enough to have a backyard fireplace!). Cook for 10 minutes on each side, then check one package to see if they are done.

For other campout food ideas take a look at this site : http://www.campfiredude.com/campfire-cooking.shtml

After darkness falls is the perfect time to do a little amateur astronomy. You can use online resources or check books out from the library to teach your kids about the basics of space and star identification.

Here are some great online resources:

Earth and Sky: this site includes a nightly star chart on its front page http://www.earthsky.org/

Astronomy For Kids has lots of great general information about all aspects of space:http://www.frontiernet.net/~kidpower/astronomy.html    

For astronomy related items at your library, look in the children’s nonfiction section for books with Dewey Decimal numbers between 520 and 523.

Be sure to sleep outside with your kids! Enjoy the stillness of the evening, the night sky, and the knowledge that your family is having fun and learning at the same time without ever leaving your backyard.

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