Ladybug Day

A few months ago,  I started looking into different summer camp options for the kids. I soon realized that either A) Carolina wouldn't be old enough for most of them B) They were really expensive or C) I wasn't sure the kids would love enough to do it the whole week.

I really wanted them to do some different things away from home and I knew that I would need some school planning time, as well. That's when I came up with the idea of a friend camp. I proposed the idea to a group of moms I love and trust and whose children are close friends with mine. Thankfully, they were on board for my crazy idea!

There are four of us and we decided to do one day at each house Monday-Thurday from 10-2. Our theme is "Bugs". Each mom does one day and then has three days to herself. Friday is our end-of-camp swim party celebration.

Today was Day One and we did Ladybug Land! Here are a few fun things from our day:

We started working on our first project at 10:30. We had eight kids so we divided them into two groups (youngest and oldest). They each painted a 4" clay pot with their favorite color.

 

We got the groups working and took lunch orders while they painted. They played for a little while and then came back for lunch at 11:30. I read "Ladybug Girl" while the kids ate. It worked out nicely since they ate well and listened intently.

We finished lunch and had more playtime as we called the kids in one-by-one to do ladybug spots on their pots and make Ladybug Crowns. I measured heads while Mike monitored "spotting" at the table.

While they were eating their ladybug cupcake snack, I crowned each of them "Ladybug King" or "Ladybug Princess". It was totally on a whim but they loved it and couldn't wait for their turn.

We also read "Ten Little Ladybugs" during snack and they loved doing the counting. We wrapped up with a talk about the life cycles of ladybugs and I passed around a kid-sized laminated chart while I held up the larger poster. The kids also got to pass around the plastic figurines of the life cycles. 

The kids played for the last few minutes while I did a page for their scrapbooks for the week (another mom volunteered to make these :)).

When it was time to bring Ladybug Day to a close, we sent our friends home with some special memories of our day. They took home ladybug bubbles and a bug microscope necklace. The ladybug table decoration that I found was made up of treat boxes. I loved the double-duty decoration and so did the kids!

They also took home their handmade wind chimes and their ladybug crowns.

And the day wouldn't be complete without a snack for the road so everyone got a ladybug strawberry too!

We had the BEST day and my kids loved it. We are blessed that our friends were willing to share their little ones with us for the day and are willing to take ours for the next three!

Clay asked me at dinner tonight how we could learn more about ladybugs. I was thrilled to have piqued his interest! When I asked Carolina about her favorite part of the day, she told me she didn't have one because it wasn't long enough (her daddy disagrees ;)). Tomorrow is SPIDERS!!