One Room School Camp

If a child signs up for a school camp during the summer, it's a given that they enjoy school and learning. That made our 1876 One Room School Camp an easy, enjoyable week.
As you can see, the children, mostly girls, showed up absolutely unprompted everyday in complete prairie attire. There are dozens of "Little House on the Prairie" camps around here, and these girls had all been to one somewhere before. It's refreshing to see something somewhat historical and intellectual motivating kids other than the pop culture tween icon of the moment. Maybe it's in the water--prairie events up here do attract the people--Little House on the Prairie: the Musical with none other than Melissa Gilbert as Ma Ingalls opens this weekend in town. They have already extended the run and sold out shows.

Every morning, we would walk down to the one room schoolhouse and go through a series of lessons ranging from math to reading to elocution. My coworker Alyssa and I tag-teamed the camp.

A few highlights were the spelling bees, writing with a quill and ink, and the big school pageant that came at the end of the week.