Garden Kids Summer Camp

Live the garden life! Spend summer days picking berries, making art and playing in the garden with friends. We’ll connect with the season through planting seeds, harvesting herbs and preparing snacks and teas. Our days will be a balanced mix of hand crafts, nature walks and creative free play. Storytelling and games will help us learn about stewardship, our ecosystem and our tree, bird and animal neighbors. Listening, observation, curiosity and finding our joyful and respectful place in urban nature are the central themes of this camp. We'll also learn a bit about the natural and cultural history of this place we call home too.

Our home base will be our backyard garden studio and food forest – and we’ll make small forays to Beach School Garden and nearby parks.

Camp Dates for 2022:

Session 1: June 13-17
Session 2: July 11-15

Time: 9 am - 3 pm

Ages: 6 - 12 years old

Location: Our backyard garden and studio, Overlook Neighborhood

Cost: $275-375 sliding scale. The camp fee is due upon registration. Refunds will be given if the space can be filled, less a $75 administrative fee, until June 1. 

After care: Optional aftercare runs from 3 to 5 pm, $22 per day/$110 per week.
Session 1: June 14-18
Session 2: July 12-16

Instructors:
Mulysa Melco & co-teacher and special guests

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Daily Schedule

8:45-9 am Check in

9 am Morning circle with song and game

9:30-10:30 am Garden activity

10:30 am Snack (bring your own snack this year)

11-noon Nature walk

Noon Lunch (bring a bag lunch)

1-2 pm Afternoon activity

2-3 pm Story time and snack (bring your own snack this year)

3 pm Pick up

3-5 pm Optional after care

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Covid-19 precautions: This year we'll be following practices including wearing masks to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spread in addition to our usual health and sanitation practices, and in accordance with state and county guidelines. All of our teachers and staff are vaccinated and have received boosters. Camp participants must be vaccinated. 

We are asking campers to bring their own healthy snacks for morning and afternoon snack time this year. Usually we harvest food and prepare snacks for the group together and it's a really joyful part of the day. But this year due to Covid-19 precautions we reducing risk by not including food handling in our programming. 

Since the global pandemic is a dynamic situation, we'll be updating our precautions to follow best practices at the time of camp. 

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Our camp is a friendly space for queer youth and families. 🌈  

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If you're looking for other camps, check out Rewild Portland. They'll be offering excellent camps this summer as well as weekly Nature Immersion and their Young Women's Program.

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References and Influences, with deep gratitude to my teachers:
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the

Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Sharing Nature with Children by Joseph Cornell

Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Homescale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway

Social Forestry Course by Siskiyou Permaculture and talks by Tomi Hazel

Farm in the City, a garden-based multicultural learning community in St. Paul, Minnesota

Developing Artistic and Perceptual Awareness by Linderman and Herberholz

Adventures in Art by Susan Milord

Coyotes's Guide to Connecting with Nature by Young, Haas and McGown

Raising Elijah: Protecting our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis by Dr. Sandra Steingraber

Portland Underground Graduate School 'How to Teach' course with Douglas Tsoi

Rachael Rice WitchCrafts Seasonal Weekly Lessons and Live Craft Sessions via Patreon

rain crowe and the Village Mystery School

Rewild Portland

My parents who raised my sisters and I in the garden and made our home a studio of basketry, our ancestral weaving traditions, wood working, canning and baking, pottery, caring for animals and so much more.

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All photos and content copyright Mulysa Melco/Resilience Design 2022