Day four of Camp de Vida was perfect!
Morning Devotional
We started with our final morning devotional on charity.
Breathing Stick
Then we moved on to making our “breathing sticks”. These were incredibly simple but I hope it helps. We have BIG emotions over here – just like everywhere I suppose – and we talked about ways we can help our body calm down, like deep breathing. Enter breathing stick. They were surprisingly really into this!
Fire Regulations
Mark talked about fire safety and how we can properly extinguish a fire.
Manners
We had another manners lesson. This time we talked about keeping unkind thoughts to yourself. This feels like a pretty easy one for my kiddos and one that I am so grateful for. They really do try and see the good in others (sometimes it is harder with one another, but they are normal siblings). We role played and shared how this is important because it’s easier to make and keep friends when people trust that you will be kind.
Ancestor Matching Game
Then we played a matching game with individuals on our pedigree chart. I took all of the pictures we used from the other day of camp and made them into cards. We had lots of fun with this!
Financial Peace
Again, this was probably one of the biggest flops for me. It is still good but just wasn’t what I was hoping for. On our last day we talked about where money comes from any the value of work.
Growing Up Totes
Our final piece was talking our grooming and personal hygiene. We talked about the value of washing your hands and keeping our bodies clean. Then I excused Ben and Lydie and showed Jacob and Sarah some totes I had put together for them. We are entering through that phase of life of changing bodies. I am so grateful we have talked on and off about this for several years so now that the time is here – it hasn’t been to jarring for them!
They were both really excited about these and we were able to have some great conversation!
The Finale
After our totes, we took the afternoon “off” (+ Mark needed to sleep for work). Then we grilled some dinner and had a great conversation about what our favorite parts of the week were.
Then enter my favorite part. After dinner we all went around and shared something that we learned or impacted us this week – especially in regards to charity. It was such a sweet little testimony meeting that involved some happy tears which made my momma heart so happy.
When Mark and I were talking about doing this “camp” we wanted some sort of achievement for all of their hard work. Believe me when I say, I thought of so many different things we could do for this. We landed on little badges (did I have to resist making little sashes boy scout style – yes, yes, I did). But we got them a “heart” badge to remember charity. We shared with the kids that while we learned some great things, what I hoped they remembered more than anything, was simply how we felt this week. Spending time together as a family, learning and growing together. This is truly what it is all about for me and it was a special moment for our family.
We had one more little surprise up our sleeves. We had heirloom boxes made for each of the kids with their names on them. These our for their badges, but more importantly, they are just for them. It is a place for them to put meaningful letters and cards or little special trinkets. The boxes turned out so beautiful and the kids loved them.
This really was a beautiful week. I am so tired but in the best way. The kids eagerly shared that they want to do this again. And I am just so grateful for our little family.
My favorite thing I learned this week about charity came from the Bible Dictionary. It states that charity is “the highest, noblest, strongest, kind of love.” That is what we are working on – personally and in our family. We have a long ways to go, but it is an exciting and beautiful thing to work for.
