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Camping and Outdoor Adventure

I'll start with yes we will be going camping, no we won't be getting to full backpacking this year. If your kids really want to move up to backpacking, I'll get in touch with the Palos Verdes club where they go on an annual trek down into the Grand Canyon. We'll be doing three trips this year with two planning meetings in the weeks prior to each. While no locations have been set, our first trip will be a single day excursion, leaving early in the morning, setting up the tents and fire, cooking lunch and dinner then packing up and heading home. The second trip will be an overnight and the third will be two-three nights out in the wilderness. While a parent/guardian must be with members at all project meetings, I can't stress enough how important the role of the adult will be in this project. If you don't already have the basic gear, tent, sleeping bags, etc., then cost may be an issue. We will attempt to find items to borrow whenever possible to help out, but give no guarantees of being able to find everything for every one. Also, plans for the trips will include the parent assisting with cooking, set-up duties, camp clean-up, etc. Every age is welcome to participate but, if you will be bringing kids under 5, you'll need to have two adults there - one to help with the project members and one to ensure your little ones don't find their own adventures with mountain lions and rattlers... okay, poison oak is most likely, but lions sound more dramatic :)

Creative Arts and Crafts

We'll be focusing on one area of creative arts at each monthly meeting, really getting our hands dirty with the work so most, if not all, will be held outside. All ages are very welcome except for one meeting which I'll explain about in a minute. Thus far, I've settled on making our own Roman vases/urns, plaster body parts, creative basket weaving (my dad swears this was my major in college), a kind parent will be helping with a lesson on knitting and crocheting, and homemade books. I'm open to suggestions on additional topics. Also, an optional meeting (due to cost and safety) will be a class taught by a lovely woman on candle making. It will run about $30 per person, everyone over 5 is welcome to participate, and you'll leave with half a dozen or more candles that are fantastic. I took her class through West LA extension and friends call me to ask me to make them more candles.

A final topic I'll be working in throughout is marketing and selling your handmade items. If there is enough interest, we'll arrange for a table at a local arts and crafts fair for the members to try their hand at sales.

Cultural Arts & Leisure Education

That'd be the scavenger hunt, located here. I'd also like to arrange at least one art/culture festival that the project members put on for the club.

Health & Physical Fitness

We'll be meeting four times during the year, about once every 12 weeks. The first meeting will focus on designing your own fitness plan and realistic goal setting. The subsequent meetings will discuss stretching techniques, nutrition and cross-training with special emphasis on weight training. Each member will design their own program and track their own progress and at no point will they be forced to share how things are going with anyone - I promise :) This is especially important for the older members who may already be dealing with weight-related issues.

Individual & Group Sports

Everyone enrolled in this project will also be enrolled in the above Health project. No separate meetings will be held, though for those doing both (some may just want to do the health aspect), there will be additional logs for tracking their workouts and results.

Photography

My dh is leading this project and actually hasn't worked out all the details yet, other than it will be meeting every other month. Also, they don't need expensive cameras, even disposable ones will do. Nick uses a digital camera and we've found that is actually the cheapest for the young photographer - no film or developing costs while prints cost the same from digital as from 35mm.