Tag: camp activities

Music at Camp Weequahic

One of the great benefits of camp is learning new things. From building a rocket to getting up on water skis, the camp activities our campers explore open new worlds to enjoy. One of our more recent additions has been hugely popular – music!

At Camp Weequahic, children get to choose their activities and build the summer of their dreams. Often, when they arrive, their choices reflect their past experience and they start with activities they know a lot about. Most campers don’t know anything about playing a guitar or wailing on the drums, though both look like fun. With a little positive encouragement, we find more and more campers jumping in and learning to play.

A favorite story from last summer: Matthew, a rising 5th grader from Florida, is a great little athlete who had never picked up a guitar. During a rainy afternoon, he and his bunkmates got introductions to some of our indoor activities – rocketry, radio, robotics and music.

After learning three chords, he was hooked! Matthew changed his activities around so that he could get in more guitar and left after three weeks of camp knowing how to play 3 songs and with lots of love for a new, lifelong skill.  This is the type of experience we want all of our campers to enjoy!

It’s not just guitar that we teach at Camp Weequahic. Parents love the fact that we have and teach drums at camp. Not many families enjoy the ‘learning process’ with drums in their own house, so we make it easy and keep them at camp. Our campers get to pound away and parents need hear none of it!

Not to be outdone, the keyboards and pianos also come into play at Weequahic. Many children who play at home spend time on the ivories while spending a great summer at camp in order to keep their skills sharp. In fact, campers will sometimes even use the piano to help with an evening activity like the Talent Shows or play in our Tribal or Olympic Games.

Want to rock and roll at summer camp? Come to Weequahic. We have all the instruments covered and can’t wait to introduce you to them!

While You’re Waiting Until June…

While You’re Waiting until June…

So, the summer of 2014 is still a L-O-N-G 8 months away. But here are a few things to keep you warm during the colder months of the year…

1.)    Opening Day. Is there any better feeling than that moment the bus pulls up to camp, you step off and are immediately tackled by a herd of camp friends who have waited all year to see you?

2.)    Campfires. Every camp has its own version. In fact, your camp’s campfire is a big part of what makes it your camp. You’re sure of two things: A) Your camp’s campfire is the best B) S’mores taste best when eaten at your camp’s campfire.

3.)  Sing-alongs. It’s amazing how much singing silly songs arm-in-arm with your camp friends during the summer makes you feel. Admit it. You find yourself singing to yourself throughout the winter. Your school friends catch you. You want to explain. But they’ll never get it. “It’s a camp thing,” you say. You immediately send a Vine to all of your camp friends of you singing – and doing motions to –your favorite camp songs.

4.)    Arts & Crafts. Seriously, you can tie-dye at home too…really.

5.)    The official camp video, yearbook or seasonal newsletter. It should be showing up in your mailbox anytime now. Host a party. Reminisce about this past summer. Know that next summer will be here before you know it. Set goals now. Next summer will be epic.

6.)    Camp Shows. Thespians and camp go hand-in-hand. It’s no coincidence that a lot the biggest names in Hollywood are summer camp alumni. Summer camp is a breeding ground for creativity and the perfect environment for exploring your creative side.  Admit it. You’re still humming the songs from your camp shows this past summer.

7.)    Boats. Camp has lots of boats. Ski boats, sailboats, kayaks, canoes…Whichever is your choice, one fact: some of the best moments of the summer happen on the water.

8.)    Trips. Are the movies at home ever as good as it is when you’re enjoying it with your camp friends? What about roller coasters? Didn’t think so.

9.)    Camp food. Admit it. You live for S Day Breakfasts.

10.)  Bunkmates. When you come home with something exciting to share during the winter, who do you share it with?

Camp Creativity

It’s a great joy to see young people create something fun with their own hands from lumps of clay, blocks of wood, or bits of string. Each day, girls and boys build confidence by creating something new, bond with their new friends across the crafts table, and interact with teachers who have creative flair and patient, encouraging words.

However, no matter in which creative studio they play, Camp Weequahic campers get to explore, learn, and create in ways not often enjoyed at home or school.

The Arts Studio provides a number of options for campers to enjoy. In the hub of our creative commons, campers explore jewelry and candle making, drawing, painting and more. The attached ceramics studio allows for time on the pottery wheel as well as hand creations, molds, and more. Sometimes, campers enjoy projects they’ve done before. However, more often than not, they are challenged to create in ways and methods they’ve never tried. These creative fits and starts lead to understanding and, later, confidence.

Creativity at Camp Weequahic is not only confined to our well loved Arts and Crafts studio. The newly improved woodshop offers campers of all ages treats and challenges. A flotilla of boats were created by Junior Boys while the girls built enough birdhouses to fill the woods.

One of our Senior campers built his own lectern (which he used as the head announcer of the Weequahic Basketball League) while a rising 7th grade girl built an Adirondack chair that many thought could only have been built by the woodshop staff. The creations flowed out of the woodshop all summer – and we can’t wait to see what the kids create for Summer 2014.

Not to be outdone, campers in our newly developed Top Chef facility created scrumptious meals of omelets, pad thai, spring rolls, handmade pasta, s’more cookies and more. Not only did they enjoy making these dishes, but they enjoyed sharing them with their friends, especially those next door in CW Designs, our fashion design studio.

Whether making pajama pants in CW Designs, a mini-desk for their bunk bed in woodshop, or bracelets for friends in Arts and Crafts, Weequahic campers create and laugh and learn every day!