Matt N Karen: Great Basin Outdoor School

This past week Chase had the opportunity to attend a 4 day science camp up at Lake Tahoe with his entire 6th grade class. I was chosen as one of the parents to chaperone and be a cabin leader.

We arrived at school on Tuesday morning along with all the other 6th graders and all their camping gear. These kids were pretty excited!

DAY 1: GETTING CONNECTED
We left right as school started and arrived on the shore of Lake Tahoe at Camp Galilee.

The camp directors (naturalists as they called themselves) immediately welcomed them all and got right to playing a game "knock your rock off". It was a great game to run off some energy.

While the students got a tour of camp, the adult leaders attended a mtg. and we were given our cabin assignments and went over rules, etc. Our schedule only allowed us 3 short breaks throughout the duration of the 4 days. My cabin assignment was Belmont (all boys).

Our cabin had 2 rooms, with a bathroom with no locks :/ It wasn't long before it smelled of stinky feet, and really the smell just got more intense over the next few days.

I took my boys to eat lunch at the beach the first day and get acquainted. I quickly learned with the exception of a few, I had a very challenging group.

After lunch was group team building activities. Our group had real problems working together.

At least some of the games were silent games (or at least suppose to be).

One of the first things they asked us to do was to come up with a nature name for ourselves. It could be anything you wanted, as long as it had to do with nature. Then they gave us a "tree cookie" to decorate with our nature name. No one was called by their real name while at camp. I was known as Quaking Aspen, and Chase chose Larry the Lobster.

We played more team building games for most of the afternoon, between cabin breaks.

My group especially loved this game of Lava. They used a limited amount of stepping boxes that had to be shared....can't fall off!

Our first meal they served us was honey mustard chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, and green beans, followed by brownies for dessert. Chase loved the food!

Sadly I had to give my first warning to two of the boys in my group that first night. By the end of the first day I was getting a bit worried my group was so challenging. One of the things I did for my cabin each day was sneak a little pillow treat on their bed each day. The boys loved this, and were excited each day to get a little surprise. First day snakes:

DAY 2: LIFE SCIENCE DAY
Our second day started very early with waking those that wanted to go birding. I was unable to join the "good kids" since I had to stay in the cabin with our naughty boys. I heard it was really fun. I could only enjoy the view from the cabin.

After breakfast our cabin had a mandatory meeting called by the teacher's and camp director where 2 of my boys were given their 2nd warning and phone call home. I thought for sure this would get them to behave....sadly NO. Immediately following the call home we boarded the bus to head to Spooner Lake for the day. One of the boys whose parents just got called escalated his behavior on the bus and was pulled off and sent home. Surely this would change the attitude of the other boys?! Not my luck.

It was a beautiful day at the lake, although very cold as most of the time at camp was. I missed many of the activities the behaved kids enjoyed, due to babysitting those that could not participate. They played a bird game, and this very funny game using their senses to find a certain type of tree using a blindfold. They were directed by a partner to different trees to smell to find the tree they were looking for.

They also got to spend some time digging in the water to look for Mayflies, Stoneflies, and Caddisflies. They were able to catch all 3 and look at them under a magnifying glass. They were also excited to catch some leeches. It was a full 6 hours at the lake before we headed back to camp.

After we returned to camp for the night my cabin had dinner duty. We had to set up, and clean up dinner. It was spaghetti night...not a fun clean up. After dinner was our night hike....they surprised us and told us parents WE would be teaching the 2 hour class to our group of boys.

Our second day pillow treat was chap stick which came mighty handy on the trails.

By day 2 my cabin was noticing that all the kids at camp had been earning beads for their lanyards from the camp directors. The first bead you HAD to earn before any others was the respect bead...yeah day 2 we still didn't earn ours. We had a rough time going to bed night 2 AGAIN an also earned no cabin points (another reward the camp directors did every day).
DAY 3: EARTH SCIENCE
After breakfast we headed out to Zephyr cove to learn about water sheds, and Lake Tahoe. We went in groups aboard the "Prophet" ship to go out on the lake.

It was sea of orange vests...

I didn't realize but this was Chase's first time on a boat. He was pretty excited.

They were able to test the water temperature and clarity as well as learning about the native and invasive species. They also got to eat some zoo plankton brought up from the depths of Lake Tahoe. Chase said it tasted like chicken.

After returning to camp each parent had to teach and elective class (another surprise to parents). Although the kids could sign up for any class almost all the boys in my cabin signed up for my class. It actually turned out pretty good. Later that day my group finally earned some beads. Pretty sure they gave them to them to shut them up...didn't work. After dinner it was time for songs and skits. Each cabin had to perform a skit for the whole group. My group actually did a good job, and I was wishing I would have recorded it...it may have been the only time everyone behaved for a few minutes. I'm glad I saved these glow stick for our last night pillow treat as some proved they could not handle them.

DAY 4: LIVING GREEN
Our last day was pack up and clean day in the morning. While the adults finished cleaning and getting ready to leave the kids planted new plants around camp. These are the few of us parents who braved the 4 day trip, including our 2 teachers:

There was also a short test given to each student before they left to see how much they learned.

I gave each of my boys their final pillow treat before heading home. For a few of them this was true...

Of my cabin these 3 buddies were amazing. I am so happy Chase has chosen such good friends. I am only sorry I didn't get to spend much time enjoying camp with them.