Camp Timber-Lee!

Last week the sixth grade students in McFarland had the opportunity to experience "school in the woods" (a.k.a. camp life) as a group for a few days.  The scheduled trip began on Wednesday at the start of the school day and ended when the kids arrived back at school around lunch time on Friday.  The events of this particular trip have decades of tradition here in McFarland and is one of the highlights of the sixth grade experience at Indian Mound Middle School, although we have heard that the year as a whole includes many memorable opportunities.

We began conversations back in April about what might work well for Anna to participate to the best of her ability at Camp Timber-Lee.  More accurately, I think others at school may have begun those conversations with us.  After much thought and discussions with school staff, clinic therapists, parents of older kids, and even a few high schoolers themselves, we came up with our best "plan", knowing that we would need to be flexible when the time came.  With Anna's input, we decided that the main priorities would be for Anna's social and learning opportunities first, then her independence, and finally her mobility.  (translation: We were willing to use whatever help we could get for Anna to move from place to place, instead of expecting her to walk everywhere.)

The plan was for Matt to follow the buses to camp with Anna in our van on the first day and stay as long as she could handle before coming back home for the night to sleep.  Then Anna and I would return to camp on Thursday morning with the hopes of staying overnight (probably in a separate room from others) and pushing through for the final morning.

In short, the Camp Timber-Lee experience was probably the best it could have possibly been for Anna at this point in her life.  Not only did she exceed our expectations regarding what she could handle with her stamina and energy, but she had a chance to grow in other unexpected areas as well.

I cannot possibly record all of the events of the time at Timber-Lee, but below are a few key words and phrases that will help me remember some of the specifics.  I failed to take pictures because I was having too much fun myself ... helping to teach a bunch of sixth graders about the natural world around them is right up my alley.  I must still be a middle school teacher at heart :)

+ the l-o-n-g walk to crush rocks for the geology class

+ arriving on Thursday just in time to go canoeing with Anna and her case manager (that was my first opportunity to continue to develop a positive relationship with Anna's case manager)

+ helping some girls dig through the muck in their nets during the pond encounter class, after seeing a blue heron sail across the quiet waters

+ catching four fish while at the fishing class, and then sitting in the shade with another girl because it was HOT and we weren't too enthused with the whole process of fishing

+ all of the awesome moments during the animal encounter class, with Anna, other students with special needs, and the ones hesitant to hold turtles


+ teaching a couple of boys how to identify trees by their leaves and bark

+ attending the arts and crafts class twice; it was a good one

+ eating meals in the dining hall with all of the sixth graders; not only was it l-o-u-d, but I got to know a few more of the kids

+ skipping the archery class, orienteering class, and square dancing class (these were the least accessible/appropriate for Anna and her abilities and provided her with some much needed breaks)

+ riding from class to class in the camp's golf cart ... what a blessing! which also gave me the opportunity to continue to build on the positive relationship I already had with Anna's aide


+ owl pellet dissection ... again, an activity that was already in my repertoire that I thoroughly enjoyed sharing with Anna and her classmates

+ campfire night complete with skits from all of the sixth grade groups AND the teachers; it was a late night, but very memorable

+ Anna choosing to sleep in the cabin room with a bunch of other sixth grade girls and considering the experience a positive one!

+ all of the heart moments of the team building session ... during the final session of the last morning ... when it was 85 degrees and humid ... and we were in the sun

(It wasn't all happy, clappy time for Anna, to be sure, but the rougher times were relatively mild for her.  In spite of all the help we could provide her, she did fall a couple of times, but managed to get back up and rejoin her group both times.)

Everyone ... EVERYONE ... was exhausted at the end.  For our kid and our family, things went wonderfully well.  I believe that all of the communication and preparation made a big difference in how the trip went for Anna, but certain things also just fell into place to make it go well.

And, holy cow, these sixth grade teachers are awesome.  I'm excited to see how the rest of the year goes for this class and I can't wait to for Kate to go to Camp Timber-Lee.  She's going to just love it :)