Mohawk!

What an amazing day we have had today! 

We discovered Camp Mohawk! It's a group of Home Educators who meet monthly at Camp Mohawk near Reading. I had expected it to be fun, in the woods, lots of nature based activities, lots of play. It was all that and more. 

I hadn't expected the kid's cafe - It was amazing. There was every kind of home baked cake, flapjack, bun, cheese straws... Even dehydrated fruit in bags and juiced green veggies. I was hugely impressed. The boys were so happy about the cafe!

Needless to say there was no point in limiting their enjoyment of the kids cafe. They loved getting their money and paying for their choice, getting change etc. What a fantastic idea! It really empowers the kids to be in charge of their own little business. The kids running it were so into it and it's great modelling for the little ones to see business in action. 

Next there was the outdoor playground, well two of them that we found. They kept going back all day, again and again. 

Then came the workshops. I had prepped the boys to expect the clay workshop and they were pretty excited about it. The workshop totally met their expectations. We made faces on the trees in the woods. They chose terracotta clay to begin with, they found a tree, I smoothed on the clay in a face shape (Caden didn't want to touch the clay because he doesn't like clay and paint on his hands, Miles had a little go but not too bothered) and the boys gleefully ran off finding all kinds of natural items to decorate our face with. They found leaves, acorns, moss, sticks and all sorts of things. We stuck on the bits we found and they enjoyed putting in the acorn eyes and leafy bits. 

Then we went back for some white clay, a little piece each and they got busy making clay children for the clay Mummy. 

The finished products.

They found an interactive table with pictures of all the animals in the woods and important plants too. 

Caden found this tree stump and said it was an animal. Here he is riding it. It does look spidery. 

He found a slug on a log that he wanted to show to Betsey, I said it might be better to take Betsey to the slug rather than take the slug from his home. So he left him behind but got distracted before he told her. Maybe next time.

Caden, Betsey and Miles playing in the ball pool. This was the other surprise, an indoor soft play area. The kids went ker-azy for it. Loved it! The fact that it is only open for two separate hours makes it all the more appealing. 

There was a most excellent afternoon craft workshop with leaf print painting and leaf monster making. The boy rarely sit down to a craft activity for any length of time but they did today! I have to admit that this does make me happy. I like to see them getting into whatever they are doing (and enjoying it of course). They did some beautiful art work. Miles especially loved making his leaf monster. 

The finished articles, Caden's tree on the left and Miles' leaves and monster on the right. 

This is the inside of an owl pellet we dissected. We found out that Owls, when they eat animals, cannot digest the bones or hair so they digest the rest and then hawk up the bones and rest in a large pellet. You can find these pellets at the bottom of telegraph poles etc in the country. If you dissect them, a little water helps to break it down, then the bones will allow you to identify what animal was eaten by the owl. The boys weren't too interested in this activity. Caden came over for a quick look at the tiny skull I found and identified it as a rodent from my bone chart. Here is a photo of part of the chart and you can see the tiny skull. It is the curved light bone, with long front teeth visible. 

Then I saw Caden sat on a large throne looking chair. A load of boys who had been playing went over to him and an argument was brewing. He had sat on the chair as no-one else was there but they had left the chair as part of their game so they objected to him sitting there. (Caden has no problem sticking up for himself at all, I am trying to show Caden more diplomatic ways of relating haha). I went over and we talked it over with the boys and established that a war was going on. One side of the boys were the King (Moss) and the King's men (and dog, Freddie). The other side were the rebellion who were trying to overthrow the throne. Caden's decision was whether to join the King or join the rebellion. We asked lots of questions, the boys did a good job of explaining the game and Caden made a decision to defend the King. I went to get his bow and arrow from the car and Caden was lost to the game for at least an hour. He loved it! 

It was so good to see him getting involved in a more complicated game like this. Of course there was plenty of wrestling among the boys and battles but they were fairly well behaved and had loads of fun! 

Caden takes the empty (But not unclaimed) throne!

Working out who will battle first for the throne!

Caden made a new friend Alex. They played a lot together. 

Snapped having a little rest in the sunshine together! 

Miles found the sensory room too. (They have two sensory rooms. It is so amazing. A dark one and a light one). Miles loved the light with bubbles that he could change to different colours by pressing the buttons. 

So we had a fantastic day. Thank you Jo for introducing us to Camp Mohawk. It is monthly so we are all really looking forward to the next time as we have taken the last monthly subscription available - hurrah! Before he went to bed Caden asked whether he could go again tomorrow. He is so excited to go again!