Patriot Camp

June 24-28

My frugal to a T neighbor Natalie recommended the Patriot Camp for a cheap entertainment source for kids.  When I got online and realized not only is it inexpensive but if I sign Emily up to be a teen leader volunteer I get a 45% discount.     The only downfall to sending my 3 kids off to be entertained every morning for a week for less than $50 was Spencer wasn't old enough to go with them.   

The Draper site for this camp is at a house on the west side of Draper with a huge yard.   Each day they had a different theme such as the revolutionary war,  the civil war,  World War II etc.   They had characters come from history, a great big parade like boat to explore, played some games, sang patriotic songs and learned a bunch of history.  

   

Each year they do a Patriot challenge.  Here is the requirements of everything to memorize. 

Both of my girls were motivated to complete the challenge.   They were constantly fighting for my time to help them memorize.   At first it wasn't coming that easy and once the frustration surfaced, I threw my hands up in the air and said "It's summer,  I refuse to make it harder than it has to be and this isn't a requirement so I say lets forget it and just enjoy the camp!"   If you know anything about my kids they don't just throw in the towel and me backing off just fueled their desire more.   So each night they helped each other memorize and soon enough Jane had hers passed off.   Emily underestimated the difficulty of memorizing so many documents and by Thursday was in panic mode which drove her to the internet to learn the Gettysburg address through a song.     Late into the night I shut off the lights once again telling her it's not the end of the word to complete it but Emily didn't give up and was up at 6 finishing off what was needed.   Aaron got in on the action a little too once he realized he got a simple prize for reciting the Pledge of Allegiance (something he did everyday in school). 


I was so proud of my kids for putting forth their best efforts.  Emily was one of only 3 teen leaders who completed the challenge and was nicely surprised with a pink Globe.  She also enjoyed being in charge and often came home talking about her "tiny childrens" and through the experience was able to complete her last value  project for her personal progress award.  

Jane recently came home with a list of requirements for 5th graders in her school to earn a Falcon Award and bye golly a few of them were the exact same requirements as the Patriot Challenge.   This will be easy peasy I guess a little effort in the summer goes a long way!!