Tag: American summer Camp

How to make a friendship bracelet! (Trust us, you’ll be needing a few!)

December 1st, 2015

Friendship bracelets and summer camp go together like… well, summer camp and friendship bracelets!

Saying goodbye is always bittersweet. Colorful handmade bracelets and anklets keep the campfire vibes alive through the winter months — the more sun-faded, the better.

So far as supplies go you only need three things to get started:

  1. colorful embroidery floss
  2. beads (optional: for flair)
  3. imagination

There are dozens of different styles when it comes to friendship bracelets. Here are a few of the tried-and-true classics that every summer camper should learn!

The Classic Braid

The classic braid is the go-to standard of friendship bracelets. If you can braid hair, you already basically know how to make one. If you don’t… well, read on!

Start by cutting three pieces of embroidery floss. How long? Well, measure around your wrist, and add an inch or two for beginning and closing knots. Consider using more than one color to give the bracelet some personality!

Tie the three pieces together at one end and begin braiding the floss. You can pin the end down with a clothespin if that helps keep you steady. As for how to braid, just follow the steps in the image below and repeat until you reach the end of the floss:

 

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Once you reach the bottom, just tie the loose ends with any knot that strikes your fancy.

Now the only task left is finding a friend and helping each other tie them around your wrists! See you next year — pinkie promise.

The Fishtail

The Fishtail is similar to the Classic Braid, but with a few twists that make it a little trickier to pull off. The final result is a little chunkier than the Classic Braid, adding some variety to your styles if you happen to be wearing more than a few. (If you’re a lifelong camper, we’re sure you are.)

But don’t worry; if you can tie a fishtail braid in your hair, tying a Fishtail bracelet should be no problem!

To begin, select about a dozen different colors of embroidery floss and cut them to length, just as with the Braid above. Tie them all together at one end, and braid following his pattern until you get to the end:

 

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Tie the end and slip in a few beads if you’re feeling inspired — case closed!

Knotted Bracelet

If you can master the Classic Braid and Fishtail, get ready for your final challenge: the Knotted Bracelet! It’s a little trickier than the others, so be sure to pay close attention; especially for the beginning and end, when you’re measuring out the “clasp” part of the bracelet.

Detailed instructions are available over at The Red Kitchen.

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Friendship never ends

The only trouble with friendship bracelets is finding enough wrist and ankle space to wear them all! Just be sure to save a little room for next summer… and the one after that.

Adding a little personalized spark to all three bracelet styles is easy: just mix in beads, or maybe even pieces of camp life like acorn caps and seeds.

We’re excited to see what you can dream up.

EASY CAMP FOOD AT HOME– KIDS PERSPECTIVE

November 30th, 2015

smores-dip-4Ughhhh….Camp is over and of course, NOW summer is over too! This stinks! I mean being back home is kind of a buzz kill. School’s no fun, homework’s lame and dealing with my little bro is like, BRUTAL! All I can think about is how much fun I had away from here, with all my friends and so many awesome things to do!

But the reality is, I’m stuck here for 9 more months, until I can go back to camp. So I asked my Mom, if we could make some real camp food – you know, to bring me back! I figured she’d be game, since she says she needs new ideas and gets tired of making the same stuff over and over again. So we’re bringing camp home YO! How cool is that? Check out the recipes below, for some yummy goodness you can make at home. You gettin’ me? Oh, and no campfire needed!

HOBO DINNERS – makes 4 servings

1 pk. – Ground beef

2 TBS. – Olive oil

Dash – Salt and pepper

3 – Potatoes

2 med. – Red eppers

2 med. – Tomatoes

1 – Yellow Onion

½ c. – Salsa

4-6 – tortillas

Tear off four squares of tin foil, lay each one out and portion out ¼ cup of ground beef, dash of salt and pepper and 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil for each. Then personalize it! Chop up the vegetables and add the ones you like to your Hobo dinner and add a little salsa. Fold up each tin foild square and bake at 350 degrees, on the middle oven rack for 45 minutes. Whala!! Eat it right out of the foil pouch or scoop all the ingredients into a tortilla. Now this is chow! Yum!

TACOS IN A BAG – makes 4 servings

4 – individual bags of tortilla chips

1 lb. pk – grass fed hamburger

¼ c. – taco seasoning mix

1/8 c. – water

½ c. – salsa

½ c. – tofu sour cream

Lettuce

Brown the hamburger until well cooked. Drain. Add in the taco seasoning and water. Simmer for 10 minutes. Crunch each bag of tortilla chips. Add hamburger, salsa lettuce and sour cream to each tortilla chip packet. Crunch with a fork and munch! It’s so easy it’s cray, cray!

SMORES DIP – makes 4 servings

1 pkg. – chocolate chips

1 pkg. – large marshmallows

2 pkgs. – graham crackers for dipping

Pour the chocolate chips in an 8 X 8 pan. Set large marshmallows on end, covering the chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees for five minutes or until melted. Serve with graham crackers. Dig in and dip away!

CAMPFIRE CONES – makes 4 servings

4 – waffle or sugar ice cream cones

1 c. – marshmallows

1 – banana

1 c. – chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Fill each cone with as much bananas, chocolate chips and marshmallows as you want. Wrap each cone in aluminum foil and bake for 8-10 minutes. Unwrap and grub down!

 

Gratitude: A Weequahic Core Value

November 6th, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 3.14.34 PMWe talk a great deal about gratitude at CW. Even though it comes up often, not everyone knows exactly how to define it.

There are a number of definitions but our favorite comes from researcher Robert Emmons. He tells us that gratitude “is an affirmation of the good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received… and we recognize that the sources of this ‘goodness’ are outside of ourselves.”

So, how do we work gratitude into our daily lives at camp? Lots of ways!

It comes up every night before going to bed in the form of a question: “What are your two ‘happies’ for the day?” This forces (in a good way) our campers to think about all the great things they’ve enjoyed that day before going to bed.

It’s explored with our staff during their interviews and repeated often during their nine-day orientation before camp starts. We find that college aged women and men who already hold gratitude as an important part of their life to be more interested and interesting staff members. It comes up often in our winter office when we look back over the previous summer and plan for the next. (We have a fantastic job!) And, thankfully, it mentioned a lot when speaking to parents and campers about their experience with us.

At Camp Weequahic, we find it vitally important to demonstrate gratitude on a daily basis by saying thank you, writing a quick note, or sharing a kind word with one another. This is so much more effective than simply speaking about it or learning from a book.

We believe community that practices gratitude on all levels throughout the day is a happier, more patient, and more engaged community. And, it’s one worth building every day.

For more information on gratitude, we suggest looking through this link: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/gratitude/definition We hope you enjoy it!