We had 4 weeks of summer camp this summer at Cheyne Ranch. They were so fun. And it was so hot! I want to remember so much of the fun-ness: It was COVID-19 summer, so we washed hands a lot, and tried to stay a little distant from one another (that didn’t really work). We didn’t wear face masks and we didn’t think much about COVID-19 at all. I got tested a couple times to make sure I was ok, and each test came back negative.

UPDATE: It is 8 weeks since week 4 of summer camp ended, and I never did hear of any campers or their families experiencing COVID. 

We went on daily nature walks, kids took turns sitting on the horses, a couple of the weeks, we made folders with a summary of all we learned.

We had field trips and guest speakers. We went to Green Acres Farm, we visited the pond at my friend Gary & Lidia’s house, my neighbor Ariel came and educated us about her rescue animals, Chaz gave us a reptile seminar about gopher tortoises, Dennis the bee guy came to us, Daryl and Bill, each amazing farriers each came and gave presentations.

We at lunch at the picnic table on the playground and the kids played on the playground. We had water days in our pool, slip-n-slides, and a HUGE slide was rented by our friends at the Florida Inclusion School. We painted ponies and braided their mane and tails. We did some crafts, tie-dyed shirts and hung out in the bunny zen room. We walked the horses and spent extra time grooming them and getting horse rides.

We had as many middle and high school volunteers as we did campers. Our helpers were Anna, Sophia, Evan, Jessica, Preston, Jenine, Brynn, Hunter, Jackson, Elysia, Katelyn & CJ. We had between 7 and 10 campers. We met from 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Monday - Friday for the week.

Pearl busted a water pipe in the barn while getting painted, and 1 camper broke her collarbone. We were never rained out for an entire camp day, just a few minutes, maybe an hour total of rain. Our tack room was (mostly) clean and air conditioned, so the kids spent time in there cooling off for a few minutes, especially during the August weeks. All in all it was an amazing experience.

There are literally almost 1000 photos of the 4 weeks, so I attempted to choose some highlights:

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