As a part of our Trail to Family and Community emblem which we are working towards this year, today we learned about maps (in the context of using one to find your way around the community). We took the opportunity to have Julie, one of the Camp Fire guides, take us on one of the trails on the northern, more wild, end of Camp Cahito. We had never been there before, and in addition to trying to be more aware of our surroundings in order to make a map, we also incorporated “community” by getting to know Julie better and by getting to know our camp better.
When I asked Julie this week if she could help us out, she told me that the trail is “sort of steep” for part of it. And I think it is more accurate to say, “the entire trail is straight up and down.” And I am only hyperbolizing a little bit. So now my legs are killing me. Ow. I think I should make that hike weekly.
Anyway when we got there, Elliott found a circa 1960’s beginning-reader version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which he attached himself to severely for the rest of the day. Once we could get it wrestled from him, my friend read it to the kids while we waited for the last family to arrive.

Once everyone was there, we opened our circle, and I showed them the maps I had made yesterday – one of my house, and one of my neighborhood. I pointed out the key, and the compass rose as well as streets and landmarks. Then I showed them another map I had made – of Camp Cahito – this one unfinished. They helped me figure out where different buildings were and other landmarks they knew.




While on the hike, we walked past the archery area, down some crudely-cut stairs (Elliott said, “They’re pretending to be stairs?”), into a canyon with a lovely view of the 163 (which IS the prettiest freeway in town), ultimately to a small haystack amphitheater. Margie found a tiny animal skull of some sort which her friend, K, commandeered for awhile (which explains why his hand is in the picture and not hers). She declared this her favorite part of the day.

The cool part about the cabin we meet in is that it’s FULL of nature teaching items like molds of animals tracks, taxidermied animals and skulls. So we brought Margie’s skull back to the cabin to compare it to the others. We did not find a match, but we did find some cool other skulls.
Together, we finished the map of Camp Cahito I’d started and we gave it to the people in the office as a gift (and as proof that they have at least one active club). The kids also worked on maps of their own as they felt like it, and they ran around with skulls and books and general happy chaos.

After the meeting, we went to meet up with knitting group. The kids never bother to knit anymore at all. LOL But they had fun on the playground, in the amphitheater at this park and on scooters. All in all, I think I can log a good 3+ hours for PE today.