I am SOOOOO excited to tell you guys all about “Camp Creativity”, the sensory-rich, arts-and-crafts, child-led play day camp for 30 kids and their parents that I have been planning for a couple of months and finally got to run last week!
I’m not kidding when I say it’s probably going to take me a few weeks to actually dissect and talk about and explain every single thing in as much detail as it all is in my head. I’m so hyped to tell you about all the activities we did, how they went with actual real live kids, what I would have done differently, what went perfectly, how it could translate to play at home or on a smaller scale, what kinds of play I saw and what kinds of skills and learning was happening in an amazing child-led environment…
I have a lot to write, is what I’m saying. š
For now, for this very first post, I simply wanted to share one picture from each day…a visually stunning primer of what’s to come!
The first picture, taken on Monday, is of the pendulum painting station. Laid out on the ground are large rolls of black and blue butcher paper with teal, pink, orange, and dark blue splatters all over them. The splatters are coming from a cup suspended by a string and hanging from a tree branch above, that is not pictured. The effect is wild and whirling, geometric and random, and chaotically beautiful and striking.
The second picture, taken on Tuesday, is of a “stained glass” creation station made with tissue paper and contact paper on the inside of a large plastic cube that can be crawled into, similar to crawl tubes in children’s play areas or playgrounds. The contact paper is suspended facing inward so the children could crawl into it and stick tissue paper on the contact paper, creating a “stained glass” effect on the clear “window” covered by contact paper. There is sunlight streaming in through above, through yellow and orange tissue paper, and directly in front of the camera is a cute scene with a simple flower and sunshine made of tissue paper.
The third picture, taken on Wednesday, is of a child using a hula hoop in a kiddie pool filled with water and Dawn dish soap. They are pulling the hula hoop up and around to create a long, flowing, rippling bubble that is several feet long and looks like magic.
The fourth picture, taken on Thursday, is a close-up of a hand stirring a concoction — a homemade potion — in a plastic disposable cup. They are stirring it with a craft stick/popsicle stick and the concoction is very glittery and made out of what appears to be mostly glitter, tea leaves, and presumably something wet. In the background are various small bottles of potion ingredients with labels — conditioner, oil, shampoo, water, vinegar, etc. Also visible is a small scrap of an “aged” looking paper (made by browning paper with tea and coffee) with words on it that say “Wizard’s Diary: It only takes a little bit of…”, though no more of what is in the wizard’s diary is visible. 
The fifth picture, taken on Friday, is a close-up shot of a hand-decorated pot plant with a small seedling of a silver inchplant planted carefully in it. The pot is decorated with pink and gold paint pens coloring a wavy alternating striped line design around the pot, and the inchplant’s leaves are minty teal, bright silver, and deep purple for a very strikingly beautiful plant.
