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From the FREEP

Camping at The School in Rose Valley

Children have been camping at The School in Rose Valley as far as anyone I know can remember. Whether sleeping in the preschool yard or in a State Park, students look forward to overnight trips with their peers and teachers. Why?

Last year's Main Circle students practice their canoeing at French Creek State Park

Well, you get to do a lot of really fun things. Cooking over the fire, singing songs, chatting in your tent after the teachers tell you to go to sleep, playing a night game in a dark field, going fishing, learning to canoe, having a sea-weed fight, scrambling over a boulder field, finding amazing treasures, reading by flashlight in a tent...the list goes on and on.

Of course, a good trip always results in great bragging rights: "It was bad enough when the bears arrived, then the skunks came." If your flying pancake hits the ground, you still have to eat it. Tipping your canoe, screaming about the toilets, having to carry your own water, sleeping under the stars, burning your food...everyone has fun, we learn interesting things and there is always some sort of practical joke. Then we go home, tell tall tales and promptly fall asleep.

This year, the Main Circle will be traveling to Cape May, NJ. Our camping trip's date happens to land during the period when the Horseshoe Crabs come onto the beach to lay eggs – which makes for fantastic bird watching. We will be staying overnight at Belleplain State Park, where we can practice canoeing on a small, private lake. We will also visit the Cape May Bird Observatory, witness the egg-laying and subsequent feast and picnic on the beach. Our classes are sorting through gear, making packing lists and preparing menus for the expedition. On camping trips, groups of children and teachers bond over shared difficulties. We learn to work with a partner to maneuver the canoes. Staying overnight away from home is a demonstration of independence and growth.

One of my most dear memories at a camp-over happened after a full day of canoeing, cooking, hiking and running away from bears and skunks. It was pretty late at night; one student had a hard time sleeping. He was sitting across the campfire, thinking quietly. He piped up and said, "You know, staying up a little too late...far away from home but not too far...having fun with my friends...it feels really good." I think that sums it up nicely.

In Partnership,

Scott Timm, Main Circle Teacher