Have you had a chance to try out any of our Outdoor Family Adventure challenges? Each month in the newsletter, we suggest a new way to get outdoors with your family. My family has been trying it out, and having a lot of fun.
June's challenge was an easy win for us with the bonfire. My husband has asked to go camping as his father's day gift for the last couple of years, and we've happily complied. There's something wonderful about celebrating this man by spending time together in the woods.
And with camping comes campfires. I try to have one morning and night, but sometimes my morning campfire goals get dampened by other outdoor activities like hiking, swimming and tree climbing. But if I can get in one cup of coffee in front of a campfire, I call that morning a win.
Evening campfires start as early as I can convince my family to start them. During daylight hours, our game of choice has been "go-fish" at the picnic table, next to the campfire. The glowing embers and dancing flames are easy to stare at while waiting for my children to rediscover the "2s" in their jumbled hand that I'm fishing for.
Along with this challenge was the unexpected surprise of a sing-a-long. It was unexpected because I was planning on teaching my children some of my old summer camp song favorites from the sleep-away camp I went to as a child. Little did I know, at the week long summer camp they had attended the week prior, they learned them and never told me! It brought tears to my eyes as they surprised me by singing along to "Black Socks" and "Chickens get into the Po-Ta-Toes".
That's the interesting and important thing about these kinds of family experiences. While we homeschool and there is little my children do without me being a part of, as they get older, there is more and more of it. There has to be. It's growth. But finding the time, the opportunity, to reconnect and share can be hard. Even though I had picked them up each day and talked to them about what they did, these songs hadn't come out. Until around the campfire. And we could dig a little deeper in to their experiences and thoughts.
Have you joined in on any of the 2018 Outdoor Family Adventure Challenges? There's still time. Check out our July newsletter for the next one!
