‘Natural fun’ at Nature Camp
2017 marks 32 years that children learned and laughed with nature
Summer camps are rich sources of childhood memories, adventures of discovery in new and fascinating settings, and opportunities for kids to reinvent themselves, to connect with a new “tribe” and forge friendships outside the classroom circle.
Rappahannock Nature Camp, which runs June 5-16, is all that . . . and more.
The camp began in 1986 under the auspices of the Piedmont Environmental Council, part of a regional educational program that brought a half dozen summer day camps to the Northern Piedmont counties. Lyt Wood was director, working with local environmental activist Hunt Harris on that first Rappahannock session, based at the Shaw House at Rock Mills.
In 2014, PEC discontinued its summer camp program, and Rappahannock’s nature camp was rescued by the Headwaters Foundation, which oversaw operations for a summer, again with Lyt as director. Last year, the camp became an independent non-profit under his leadership and management. The 2017 session will mark the 32nd consecutive summer that children have learned and laughed with nature as they discovered the wonders of the forests, meadows and rivers.
An arborist and forester, camper, hiker, gardener and mushroom hunter, Lyt is perfectly at home in the great outdoors, and his knowledge of the county’s flora and fauna is impressive – maybe unequaled. That’s important but it isn’t everything. What makes Lyt the perfect camp director is the combination of a welcoming and easygoing manner, a ready smile, eyes that twinkle and dance, and a penchant for silliness that wraps everything in an aura of fun.
He connects with kids, he knows their language, and it’s “bodo-skadeet-n-dott-n wa-dat-n-choo.”
“Freedom with guidance” is how Lyt describes Rappahannock Nature Camp. “Experiential, observational playing without a great deal of being told what to do.”
On day one, children choose the learning activities and experiences that are personally meaningful to them. One lesson naturally leads to and builds on the next . . . and the next . . . and the next.
“Nature lessons are life lessons,” Lyt explained. In a classroom, learning is primarily theoretical, through pictures and representations of the world. At camp, learning comes through the world itself, and at the end of two weeks, kids go home with a wider, expansive view of how the world works.
Familiarity with nature, greater appreciation for nature, the beginnings of a stewardship habit – those are expected returns on time spent in the natural world. More surprising are the cognitive, psychological and physical benefits found in studies from Great Britain and Scandinavia where outdoor classrooms have been increasingly incorporated into educational systems for the past two decades. The benefits range from stronger problem solving,
relationship building and communication skills to lower risk of childhood obesity to greater happiness and higher self-esteem. And the kids think it’s all for fun!
The days are so packed, it’s hard to pick out one favorite thing, agreed four campers with 14 years of camp sessions between them.
They hike upstream in the Hazel River, discovering as they wade. They build a dam to make a swimming hole, race turtles, take a night hike to see who shares the woods after dark, and camp out at Azalea Rocks. There’s Mystery Time, a mid-day gathering under the big maple tree, when campers share their discoveries.
And the kids do the coyote walk, silently sneaking as they hunt for mysterious critters —White Horse, Red Dog and Purple Cow — hiding in the cliffs along the river. They snack on plump blueberries that they pick, saving a few to top the hand-churned ice cream that’s another camp tradition. “Bug Man” and “Wool Lady” stop by to lead catch-identify-and-release bug walks and craft projects, like fashioning God’s eyes. Moths collected from the night light are named, and then released in the butterfly tent, the temporary housing for winged beauties netted by the kids.
Every camper chooses a retreat, a private spot in the woods, which they naturally decorate and arrange to make their own, and they retire to that secret place daily for Quiet Time to quietly observe nature and think for 20 minutes . . . and the kids are lobbying for longer! “If we’re lucky, we might see an animal,” reported eight-year-old Isaac Plaksin. “Sometimes a deer, sometimes a nest of ants,” added his older brother Nicholas.
Camp sing-alongs here are special.
The tunes are original, written by Lyt, and the combination of nonsense choruses and stanzas of vivid imagery is a winner, inspiring the kids to organize themselves into a camp choir of Bubbleheads that performs at the camp’s annual open house. Creativity also flourishes in the nature poems, art and short essays collected for News from Singing Creek, the camp’s newsletter.
Jackson Heverly was a camper for four years before returning as a counselor. “Now I’m in charge of everyone else having fun instead of just me,” joked the sophomore who’s studying jazz performance. “It’s still fun, but it’s a different kind of fun.
“This camp is approachable,” he continued, noting that he was a suburban kid when he started and now he’s an ardent hiker who has run — not walked — up Old Rag Mountain. “You don’t have to be a nature freak to have a great time. We’ve had plenty of kids who’ve never done anything outside before nature
camp, and they keep coming back every year.”
Other camps can get boring after a while, the kids from Singing Creek agreed. “It’s never boring here. We do different things every day, and we don’t all do the same thing,” Isaac reported. ”And wherever you are, when you look around, it’s never the same as the spot you just left.”
“You can always find new things, and it’s a great way to meet new people,” added four-year veteran Liza Dareing, who counts making best friends in California among the best things about camp.
And there are the little things that count. “Swimming pools don’t have waterfalls,” noted Nicholas. “And we get three marshmallows to roast instead of two. At other camps, they tell you ghost stories, then it’s lights out at nine o’clock. Here, they wear us out with a night hike and put us to bed at 11!”
“We get to throw bamboo into the bonfire and listen for the pops,” offered Liza. “And listen to Lyt play the dulcimer while we eat.”
And because these are kids, and kids just want to have fun, there’s always free time for favorite things, like playing on the rope swing. Plus it never gets too serious, exemplified by another favorite tradition of tricking first year campers into believing that the specks in the homemade vanilla ice cream are bits of bugs. “I believed it!” confided 10-year-old Nicholas. “But I ate it anyway because bugs are edible.”
Asked how they feel when the two weeks at Rappahannock Nature Camp end, the young people answered in chorus: “SAD!”