Wednesday, September 4, 2013

MAGICAL MICHIGAN - LABOR DAZE HOSTING DAZE

LABOR DAY WEEKEND 2013

Made it through Labor Day weekend with a full campground made up of mostly kids ….. or so it seemed. 

Getting into full swing, we opened up Friday with a Nature Bingo game garnering the children who had checked in Thursday or early Friday. 

Saturday morning was coffee and donuts and hot chocolate for the kids.  Crafts around 10AM with two tables full of kids and then the second wave arrived around 10:30.   Word travels fast in a campground!

Sunday opened up with coffee and donuts and another around of craft hours.  Finished off Sunday evening with a scavenger hunt with about 50 kids involved!  Everyone had a great time and most of the craft supplies as well as the prizes were depleted. 

The favorite ritual in the campground is to head for the boardwalk and the beach to watch the sunset.  It's a mass exodus of campsites as campers head up the hill with chairs and camera watching their beautiful day end.



While I was watching half the campground on the beach and focusing on the sunset, Dave said, "Turn around" and there was half the campground above me!



THE CRAFT HAZE!


I was very concerned over this craft thing.  Since I didn’t fully understand what we would be doing as Hosts, I didn't plan anything ahead of time.   I didn’t know if I could be successful with this program, not being a "crafter".

During the first few days I met with Laurie and Dale, hosts at the Channel CG, to see what they were doing and we explored surrounding areas stopping in at Grand Haven SP where I bee lined it to the hosts there to get some suggestions.  Apparently I was the only one worried …. but they all took “the class” required of hosts who want to volunteer for more than two years in Michigan.  This class was held the beginning of April up here and obviously not convenient for Dave and I to attend.

So, several trips to the Dollar Tree, Dollar Store and Family Dollar Store I had a cache of supplies to chose from.  We are given a budget of $150 and I didn’t even come close to using it. 

Laurie & Dale chose to do a specific craft project with the kids whereas we were more free form – lay out the supplies and let them chose what to do.  The only craft project we did was the Lighthouse which was simple.

So, what did I learn these past few weeks?


 #1 favorite art tool is GLITTER GLUE!  Kids love it and get it everywhere!  The globs they use to decorate their butterflies or crowns or bookmarks do not dry in one’s lifetime!  It is easy to smudge causing great consternation among the artists trying to preserve their creations while other kids reach across their projects dragging their hands for more glitter glue.   Everyone gets a paper plate to carry their artwork home so the glitter glue doesn’t get smudged from passing air!

 STICKERS!  Can’t have enough stickers.  Even better if they glow in the dark stickers. 

Pom Poms do not glue down very well unless you use a half a bottle of glue.  Once they fall off, they collect sand, dirt and whatever else is on the table while being re-glued.  Little pom poms make their way into the dirt under the table.   Ditch the pom poms!

Pipe Cleaners are lots of fun and kids make everything from geodesic domes to bracelets and necklaces.

Rock painting with nail polish is the funnest craft but make sure there is plenty of nail polish remover because the kids get it EVERYWHERE!  Even the boys enjoyed painting rocks.

LIGHTHOUSE – using a red solo cup and cutting down a clear plastic cup for dome; using white surgical tape for the stripe and black masking tape cut into rectangles for the door and windows.  Once done, they can place a led light in the dome and it will light up.  Or a hole can be punctured in the top and a glow stick can be stuck through to glow.  Wondered what the kids would do once the lighthouse was constructed. ………….  The girls glitzed them up with stickers and glitter glue.  They glued the cups to small plates and made picket fences around the lighthouses.  The boys put glow in the dark stickers on the lighthouses.  It was a fun project that turned out well.

Limit the bottles of glue you put out on the table ….. some kids get frustrated with the stream from squeezing and open the entire bottle which then spills off the project and onto the table and then onto every other project.  One bottle per area limits access and gives you time to get to the glue bottle and help!

Do not allow drinks at the table.  One spilled chocolate milk destroys an entire table of crafts.  Liquid travels at a very high rate of speed!!

Amazing what kids can create with pasta – jewelry out of rigatoni and elbow macaroni, painted butterflies from bow tie pasta.

PINWHEELS using small paper plates.  Kids colored both sides of the plates and I cut it into a spiral.  The spiral twirled with their artwork and they could hang it on their awnings.  Amazing the color combinations these kids came up with.

The world is made up of very creative children all ages.  The girls love to glitz things up and the boys stick with primary colors!   

I think I’ve got it now!  Guess we’ll see if anymore kids camp over the next two weekends!

Monday rolled around and everyone left except for families with small children who don’t have to be home for the first day of school on Tuesday.  That left us with about 30 sites occupied and a very empty campground!



Temperatures took a dive starting off around 70 and ending up around 60.  We hiked the Lost Lake Trail passing the luge in the Muskegon Sports Complex.  It is quite an undertaking.  



The fiberglass luge is opened all summer for the public.  The one that is higher up and longer will fill with snow and be used all winter. 



Chairs -- great idea for those extra cross country skis!




The trails we took to Lost Lake are cross country skiing trails.  They crisscross the state park any number of times.

LOST LAKE

Monday night was a quiet, quiet, quiet night!

Tuesday 9/3 we took off for Saugatuck, a harbor town south of Holland.  Dave promised he would stop and I could get out and walk some of the stores rather than viewing them at 35 mph!

KALAMAZOO RIVER



Saugatuck is on the Kalamazoo River.   Apparently there was another town here, Singapore....but it now belongs to Lake Michigan.



Saugatuck is a pretty town made up of small arty type stores and restaurants.   



We shopped a bit, bought a few things that will look nice on our screen porch and then stopped for a bite of lunch.  We'd seen all there was so headed back to our now quiet campground.






No comments:

Post a Comment

JETTY PARK CRUISERS

January 13, 2014 Back on the road again, for a short while, heading down to Jetty Park with friends from home. Since Michigan ........