Camp El Tesoro "Trees in Autumn" Program

It took something really special to kick my butt out of my self-imposed blogging hiatus and today we had such a great time that I just had to share it!

M. and I spent most of the morning out at Camp El Tesoro at their "Trees in Autumn" homeschool program and I cannot say enough good things about it!  Jane, Heather, Wheldon, and their crew did an amazing job (including Linda - who certainly knows her way around hot biscuits & honey!)

We started the morning out by crossing the bridge and getting to know everyone - we have been out at Camp El Tesoro several times for other events and I think that is still M.'s favorite part of being there!  After getting settled in,  Wheldon, a Master Naturalist, then spent some time explaining to us all about burls, galls, fungi, and moss, among other things.

Afterwards Heather taught us how to use the GPS units and led us on a nature hike to different waypoints where we saw everything from galls and burls to harvester ants to funnel spiders.

Once we were back at the main lodge there were fresh biscuits and local honey waiting for us. After a wonderful snack we were free to choose what activity we'd like to do next and there were plenty to choose from.

Nature journaling, making a hiking staff, making leaf & bark rubbings, and much, much more were available depending upon our interests.  The hardest part was deciding what we wanted to do first.

The amount of preparation and set up that went into the program was obvious and much appreciated.    We've gone to a lot of different educational programs aimed at homeschoolers at a lot of different places and have, at times, found ourselves to be well... underwhelmed with the educational part.  That was certainly NOT the case here and at $8 prepaid ($10 at the door) for each child (with parents free) it was well worth every penny.  M. is already asking when we can go back.