We’ve had a couple kids working through some homesickness, but have been talking with staff and doing amazing working through it and still engaging with other kids and still trying  new things, with The Flames spending this morning rock climbing, while the Napoleon Bunnies learned some wild edibles and tree identification on an environmental education hike.

As part of Renaissance’s progression for each grade, the 4^th graders spend the first night in the bunks of our platform tents and on their second day, venture out a bit, learn to set up tarps and sleep out and on the ground.  This afternoon, each patrol moved camp to their new primitive and rugged home learning the knots and essentials of setting up a camp from scratch.  The quote of the day came from the boys of the “Flames” patrol who at first were not as enthusiastic about the open walls of tarp shelters, until one of them had the realization that without walls, there was nothing to trap in their farts.  Much to the jealousy of the other boys, the tarp boys suddenly had the groups preferred accommodations!

This evening we brought both patrols back together for an epic “Challenge Night!”  They break up into smaller groups and then are given a series of challenges that they group must talk about, g=figure out how to meet it and then present it to the judges and other kids.  Points are awarded for creativity, sportsmanship, character &teamwork, and all around awesomeness.  Challenges tonight ranged from presenting some item in an infomercial, to scariest face, to staff impersonations and of course we let Ms. Lindsey judge the smelliest shoe.

The night sky cleared up and the stars and milky way are some of the most vivid we’ve seen up here and while the temperature drops when that happens, the view of it is incredible!  We double bagged most every kid to add a second layer of warmth tonight and many of the kids have chosen to sleep outside of the tarps and directly under the stars!

Tomorrow the Bunnies will jump on the rocks while the Flames will head out on an EE hike, and by lunch time we’ll be heading back to Castle Rock!  We’ll try to upload tomorrow’s pics before we head down, but those may not get up until later in the evening.  Lot’s of pics over at our FB page!

See you all back at the school!

“The Flames” Patrol made up of Christian, August, Hailey, Ellie, Emilie, Daniel, Dillon, Ella, Taylor, Aryonna, Calvin and Alicia had no problems working through a goobily gob of entangled arms and quickly untangled themselves during the Human Knot Activity and then were amazing at the Group Stand activity.

The “Napoleon Bunnies” whose patrol name may be one of our all time favorites, came together as a team to game plan, and execute a strategy to navigate the tricky Spider Web and soon after applied those skills more as the explored their communication skills in a telephone style challenge game.

By late afternoon, each patrol took a break for snack and then sat down for some signature Renaissance School solo time to reflect on their learning.  Their respect, and positivity is contagious out here and everyone is staying warm and having fun!

At the moment cook crew is serving up some spaghetti with green beans and fire crew has already gathered the 1’s 2’s 3’s and 4’s (ask them about this easy fire building technique!) and are fast becoming experts at building a camp fire and will be eager to show you there skills the next time you get a craving for some S’mores.

And yes, just in case you were wondering, we will be letting them stuff their faces with S’mores here in a little bit as they sit around the fire, talk about the stars, the real reason pirates wore eye patches (another cool story to ask them about!) and gain some more night awareness.

Oh, and don’t worry…we’ll make sure they pull out their tooth brush and get the marshmallow and chocolate coating off the teeth before bed.

If you haven’t already seen the pics over on our FB page, head over there for some of the days smiles so far.  Sleep tight!

By the time we made it up to camp and broke up into patrols, the laughing was already echoing and the kids excitement for learning and trying new games, activities and seeing new things was abundant.

The two patrols have taken on the names “Unforgiven”, and “Fox Warriors”, and as I type this update each has a few kids on cook crew, working to prepare tonight’s spaghetti meal while the rest of the kids are in their patrol groups running around playing camouflage, tag and I believe ninja.

The afternoon had a bit of a rain storm roll in for just a few minutes, but everyone managed to stay dry and warm and it didn’t get in the war of the teambuilding initiatives like the Human knot, the Spider web, helium stick, and nitro crossing.  They’ve started learning about the wild edibles and many have even tried some wax current berries as a before dinner snack!

As the sun goes down soon, we’ll start teaching fire school, and get some night awareness going before some S’mores and the option to sleep under the stars since tonight looks like it will stay clear for us.

With Rock climbing, outdoor skills, more environmental education and without a doubt, more laughs and fun ahead, the next couple days should continue to be fun.

The 4^th graders set up in our platform tents and started learning the ins and outs of cooking on a basecamp stove, while still having the comfort of a table and a yurt overhead to ensure that they are keeping warm and dry.

The 5^th grade patrol are roughing it a bit more this week as they continue their outdoor progression and set up camp with tarps a little further out from the conveniences of the main camp area .  They are cooking and preparing their meals on backcountry stoves outdoors at a campsite we call Big Tree.

Both patrols spent some time today with group teambuilding challenges, gaining some new outdoor skills and knots and playing a lot of games and having fun, with tomorrow kicking off some more high adventure and a chance to explore and expand comfort zones for both patrols.  The 4^th graders will jump on the rocks as we harness up and give them a chance at a couple of our big climbs on site while the 5^th graders will spend the morning on our team based high ropes course before exiting with a 450 foot zipline!

So far the weather has been warm but not hot, and the afternoon rolled in some clouds, but the rain stayed away, so with a little luck, the amazing weather trend will continue through tomorrow.  We’ll have pics uploading (though slowly) from our satellite uplink throughout the next couple of days, so keep checking back to see more of the fun, in the meantime, it’s time for S’mores!

The Fall Voyage for Rebecca’s 5^th grade class ended its first full day and after a morning of either rock climbing or doing the ropes course, an afternoon of hiking, exploring, learning about wild edible plants and building more forts, and an evening of campfires, S’mores, and stories, it’s certain that the kids will sleep well tonight!

Half of the kids kicked off the day with the team challenge of our high ropes course that has groups of 4 or 5 traverse across cables, over gaps and on skis in the sky as they work on their communication, teamwork, planning and bonding before they get to the zip line exit.  The other half headed up to our rock site and challenged themselves to choose a goal on our 60 foot rock faces of just how high and how challenging of a route they want to go for.  Both activities are phenomenal at giving kids an opportunity to step outside their comfort zone and explore the limits of their individual capabilities in these different areas.

The afternoon thunderstorms that are often so common this time of year stayed clear giving sunny skies a chance to do its thing to our mountain paradise.  With sunscreen spread, each patrol venture off to learn about the plants, nature and some techniques for building some natural shelters and what is edible growing in the wild.  Many berries were eaten, wild onions picked and a few brave souls tasted the savory goodness of some ants!

It’s neat to see those new to the class integrate in with the others and all of them forge stronger bonds fueled by a lot of laughter!  To check out some more pics, head over to our Facebook page!

The kids all did an amazing job on the trip and you should all be very proud as they worked through homesickness, physical challenges, being leaders and of course had ridiculous amounts of fun!  They are an amazing group of young people and we all had a blast all week with them!

I also know that as much fun as they had, they are looking forward to seeing parents and telling the stories when you pick them up tomorrow (Sunday) at 10am.

• The kids are all stoked from the fun day on the boats!
• Only Kyra and Etti were brave (nutty?) enough to take a dip and test the water at Ptarmigan Lake which is above tree line and is still getting fresh snow melt.
• The Double Duckie!
• (told to me in a whisper) The ladies are planning a prank!  (it was scheduled for last night, but they didn’t wake up to the alarms on their watches, but it has been rescheduled for tonight!)
• Pirate Wars and Water Guns!
• The boys now exist in a “Mythical Realm” of swords and knights and “elaborate customs” ?
• Lots of swimming and splashing and falling out of boats today, which is always nice on everybody’s noses!

I’m sure there are some more stories from the last couple of days, but that was all I got so far as the Leaders of the Day were anxious to get back to camp and get dinner going at their campsite surrounded by tall peaks, crystal clear creeks and large pines!

They’ll be heading back to our camp tomorrow for some climbing, rappelling, mountain boarding and reflecting back on their week with their new friends, and we should start getting the last few days of pictures uploading by the evening, but the satellite internet connection at the camp is a little slow and has some data caps, so we may not get all of those up until Sunday afternoon, so keep checking pics over the next few days!

Poor kids!  Just thought I’d share their “pain”

The group continues to be doing well as they are challenging their comfort zones and starting to take on roles of leadership.  In addition to taking on group responsibilities like learning to cook in the backcountry, the kids are also moving into a portion of their trip where they are rotating into roles as “Leaders of the Day” (LOD’s) and making group decisions with the Educo Instructors assistance and helpful guidance.  By trip’s end the LOD’s will be in charge and challenged to run the day using as few “Leadership questions” as possible of the instructors.  It’s a great way to give the kids a chance to practice being in that role and gain confidence in their decision making.

They are on their way to the Buena Vista area now, and with some gumption and perseverance will be snow sledding tomorrow afternoon before returning to their camp and prepping for a day of rafting on Friday.

More pics from the first few days are up, and if you want to send any letters (email to: letters@educoadventures.org) to your kids, we’ll be able to deliver those on Saturday afternoon.