Camp-outs and Camp-ins

There are many ways to learn through every day life. You can learn from cooking, cleaning, camping, traveling, eating, playing, and just plain living.You also learn from making mistakes. My family likes traveling and camping so you can guess that it's one of our main sources of learning.

It's quite easy to learn from traveling and camp-outs because it exposes you to different things. While you're there, ask your parents if you can visit a local museum or visitor center or search the web before leaving. I remember when my family and I went camping in Oregon, and we visited the whale watching center in Depoe Bay and learned about whales and whale migration. Camping is also a great way to learn about nature. When I was four years old, I went to Lyman Lake with my family, collected leaves in a journal, and later tried to figure out what type of tree it came from. Now, I write in my journal or draw what I see while we're camping. It's great to write about my travels so I can remember them without a camera. The writing is also part of my schooling so I can learn correct punctuation, spelling, and grammar. I love camp-outs because of the learning.

One of the other things I learn on camp-outs is outdoor skills. Back in October of 2009, I went on a beach camp-out with my friends and family. I learned fire safety, how to escape from a riptide, how the tides follow the moon which determines high tide and low tide, and how shark attacks are very rare. Since we were camping in California, we also learned about the animals in that area. I also go on camp-outs with my girl scout troop. One of the first camp-outs I've been on with my girl scout troop was when we went to Lost Dutchman State Park were we learned that if you're camping during a lighting storm you should go inside a car because it has rubber tires, to always hike with a buddy, and how to put up a tent. On another camp-out with girl scouts we went horse camping. There we learned all about a horse's body, how to take care of a horse, and how to ride a horse. I also find myself very lucky when it's time to ride the horses. It started back when my girl scout troop went to ride horses for a badge workshop. I got to ride the best out of three horses, Callie. It happened again at horse camp when I was supposed to ride Sassy Gassy (who, by the way, I'm deathly afraid of) but she turned out to have a hurt hoof so I got switched over to Daisy, who I found to be the best horse on the ranch. None of this would have happened if I hadn't camped in the great outdoors.

You can learn a lot from camp-ins, too. Now you're probably wondering what a camp-in is. Sometimes it means to stay in a hotel, but in our case, it's sleepovers, slumber parties, etc. Most camp-ins teach you about what no to do. Sometimes they include eating too much sugar before bed and feeling sick the next morning, running around the house and hurting yourself, and staying up late then being crabby the next morning. The most important thing I've learned is that you should not eat more than five pieces of chocolate before bed and zero before breakfast, but don't get me wrong, I love camp-ins. All your friends coming over to play games and eat candy, it's so much fun, and you learn stuff, too!

As you can see, I have learned a lot from my camp-outs and camp-ins. It is very sad that the Arizona State Parks are closing due to budget problems. Many of these campgrounds that I have visited will be closing or have closed already. To learn more, go to http://www.azstateparks.com/.