Here's my Not Back to School Camp essay !!

I hope you enjoy this

Camp Rocks!

An essay

There is a camp for homeschoolers called Not Back to School Camp, and it’s really cool because a lot of unschoolers are together in the same place. It is situated up in Oregon, outside of Eugene. And there’s also one on the East Coast. I have been going to the Oregon sessions for three years and I love it every time because there are teens from all over the United States.

I’m going to tell you what other things I like about camp. There are fantastic activities, great group singing, cool friends you can make, fabulous food and entertaining talent shows.

The Activities of camp are a great way to meet people as well as being fun. There are so many to choose from like games, workshops, the camp prom, meetings, check in, Advisee groups and the projects. Check-in, meetings and the advisee groups are activities that you must attend through the whole camp week. It’s one of the few rules of camp.

The meetings are a great place to pick up information. They happen twice a day, one after breakfast and one after dinner time.Check-in happens before the meetings the campers line up and get their names checked off . What I like the most about the meetings is that we sing a song all together. We also plan the day together.

The Advisee groups are a way of getting to know the people in the groups in a closer and more personal way. There can be up to 20 people or less in one group depending on the group. The groups are lead by camp staffers, and the things that happen in the groups differ for each group. This last year I was at both camp weeks and so I had two different advisee groups. They were both great. Some groups play games together, and others might have a special handshake that everyone in their group has to do before they can come in. Some groups play with the camp parachutes, or they might have some funny way of doing the group check-in.

Games are one of the high points of camp. They’re great for releasing nervousness and for building friendships, also for making new friends. Some of the camp games include the cup game, big-booty, chain tag, parachute games and lots more. There are also team games those include frisbee, soccer and volleyball. You have to bring equipment for playing these games.

Workshops are great ways for learning new and wonderful skills like new dances (Lindy Hop or Swing are some of them), learning to sing, learning guitar, learning chess, and needle wool felting. Campers can lead workshops as well as Staffers.

The Projects are one of the best parts of the second session. They are led by some of the staffers. They are different from the workshops because they are on-going group projects that last for four days. The people who do the group projects have to stay in for the whole time. They are contact improv, creative writing, music project, cob building project and wardrobe funkafication.

Another big activity is the camp prom which happens near the end of the camp week. A lot of people dress up for the prom, but you don’t have to. You could go in sweats and a t-shirt if you wonted to. The music can be great to dance to; I tend to get tired out dancing just because my style of dancing is really energetic. Also, if you don’t feel like you’re a dancer there are nice couches to sit on, and you can always find another person who isn’t a dancer either.

Group singing is a fantastic way of sharing, and can really make you feel happy when you’re doing it. At camp, a lot of singing happens that’s not necessarily in a group at all. There are often people out in the field playing guitar and practicing songs, or just singing a song they really like. In the two meetings that happen every day of the week, we sing songs from the Rise up Singing Book. Some of the songs include “Lean on Me”, “This Little Light of Mine” and a lot more. Also, we sing circle chants that are really good for boosting your voice.
On one of the nights during the camp week, there’s a concert that happens. People play music and sing songs that they wrote themselves. My friends, the Lester brothers (Damian, Nathen and Gabriel), have a band called Abandon Ship and they perform along with different campers. I really like Abandon Ships music; I have all three of their albums, and love to sing along with the songs. Last year, I discovered my friend (Carsie Blanton’s ) new album called Ain’t So Green, and I have been listening to it ever since.

The Food at camp is wonderful. It’s really healthy and recently vegetarian. That’s really good because there are a lot of campers who are vegetarian or even vegan. So if you just absolutely can’t live without meat you are allowed to bring your own such as jerky or even tuna in cans, but otherwise you can enjoy the great vegetarian meals that are so fantastic! Breakfast usually consists of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, tofu, pancakes, hot and cold cereal, plain yogurt and fruit. Lunch wasn’t a big deal for me so I don’t really remember it as well as breakfast or dinner. Here are some of my personal favorite dinners, spaghetti and tomato sauce with veggie meat balls, pizza with veggies on top, baked potatoes topped with butter, sour cream and cheese, corn on the cob and minestrone soup. There was always a salad bar and you could always get tea or water to drink.

The talent show is a funny and entertaining event, which happens five nights of the camp week. The talents vary from simple poems to drawn out skits. Some of my favorites are the skits because they’re often well put together and always make me laugh. People also mouth different songs and that’s also funny on one of the last nights of camp the staffers always put on a skit and it’s usually very funny. They perform a skit every year during both the camp weeks.

One of the other great things at camp is that you make great new friends. The ages range from 13 to 18 in campers. The staffers are older but you are welcome to be friends with them too. This year there was a conversation chart started. The goal was to have conversations with as many people as was possible, but they couldn’t be brief. They had to last long enough so that you could get to know the person better. Conversations can start on the way to camp on the bus, or in the car. I had a great conversation on the bus on the way to camp. I met one of the new kids and we hit it off. Every year there are new kids at camp and that’s one way I have made friends in the past.

So there are, as you have read, many fantastic possibilities at camp. Here are some of the highlights I mentioned above: activities, group singing, making friends, the yummy food, entertaining talent shows, the fun prom and the workshops and projects. This essay includes just some of the most wonderful things that happen at camp. There are many more possibilities besides the ones I have mentioned here. The ones I have mentioned are the best. So if your homeschooled and are look to have the best time ever come to Not Back to School Camp.

NBTSC has a web site and here is the address http://nbtsc.org/. They have all the information for signing up to go to camp as well as photos and information about the session 2 projects. So check it out.

I finish my essay!!

finally it's finish now all we have to do is check to see if everything is in order, but other wise it's finish and I can share it with people I know and all so with people I don't know.