June 2022: Wildercamp

You would think, with the amount of time the kids have always spent in child-led, largely unsupervised and unstructured outdoor play, that something like Wildercamp would not hold that much appeal. It's in Tower Grove Park, which they have all explored extensively, and the "camp" is pretty much just groups of kids running around the park and messing around in nature, which my kids can do any day of the week all summer (and fall, and winter, and spring). Nonetheless, when talk of summer camps rolls around Wildercamp is always at the top of the list. The oldest three are full counselors at this point, Gussie and Edie can play for the full day camp, and this year Agnes was big enough to attend the morning half of the week.

Agnes had been looking forward to this camp for months, but that pesky injured growth plate in her ankle put a damper on a lot of her June. At least by the time Wildercamp came up, she was comfortable in her walking boot and was able to participate pretty well. I opted to stay with her the first couple days because I knew they do a lot of walking and even though Agnes could skip-hobble rather quickly in her walking boot, she would also get tired rather quickly and would probably need someone to carry her.

One of her favorite parts was playing around in the mud kitchen while waiting for everyone to arrive in the morning.

(Yes, the walking boot got a lot of washing this week.)

Wildercamp also guarantees a lot of tree climbing, running through fields, nature art, spotting of small animals, and fishing for crawdads.

I love this picture, because 1) I'm pretty sure that guitar does not really work at all, and 2) even if it did Michael would not know how to play it. And yet the picture looks pretty convincing.