Well for the last day of patriot camp I wanted to share some things I’ve learned about teaching kids which I learned from others who hosted events at the patriot camp.

There are a number of things I thought the organization did to help make the event fun. One thing was that each class or activity was only about 20 min. long so the students didn’t have time to get bored and they were often on the move from one area of the grounds to another. They would cycle the 1st-6th grade students through various events such as candle making, a treat, a class about john Adams, Checks and balances of government, and a big game of dodge ball with one side being the English and the other being American revolutionaries.

Many of the teachers would use an object lesson to make the theme of the lesson more relevant. For example the teacher taught about the abuse of Distribution of wealth. She had half the class do jumping jacks for 2 min. to ‘earn’ 6 Tootsie Roll candies. When they sat down nice and tired she andI (as her assistant) represented the government and took half the Tootsie Roll and gave them to the other half of the class who did no work. We talked about the importance of charity as taught by Christ that it needs to be a desire within each of us and is not a function of the government to force someone to be charitable.

Another good thing for me to remember is to simplify the language and examples for the first graders than what is said for the 6th and to let the kids answer some of the questions before the teacher give them the information.

Last year I remember several teachers having some wonderful charts and pictures that made great visual displays to help promote the idea of the class. When the kids were playing English and American in battle I encouraged the kids that when they were hit for them to die well. I suggested a lot of exaggerated groaning and twitching and crying out as they sell to the ground0. Only a few did it… spoil sports. 

The very last day of the class the students worked on creating skits to each different things they learned while at the camp of American history. Those who organized the patriot camp did a good job. And loved having an actual ship for the kids to toss tea out of. Sometime I lean toward wanting to still be a kid and wished I could have made a candle like they did. Ahhh well.