How About A Family Vacation To Start Off Your School Year?

I just made my reservation! My husband is staying home to tend the fort and go to work while our four kids and I are going next Sunday, August 28 to

F.I.R.E. 2005 Hands-On Family Camp!



Come to Michigan for our family vacation summer camp and enjoy a fun-filled week of hands-on projects, outdoor adventure, evening concerts, and great fellowship. Each day a multitude of hands-on activities, crafts, and classes are offered for all ages!

NEWS FLASH: Now families can come to camp FREE!

"We invite you to join us in Otisville, Michigan, August 29th through September 2nd, 2005, for the 2nd Annual F.I.R.E. Hands-On Family Camp... the "unconventional" homeschool convention! Camp is held the same week each year -- the Monday through Friday just before Labor Day weekend. It is a camp for the entire family, and families come from all over the country to enjoy the events and activities which always include a big hands-on project and enjoyment of the campground's facilities -- a 15 acre lake with swimming, fishing, boating, blobbing, a high-ropes challenge course, basketball, volleyball, archery, hiking trails, and more. Covenant Hills is a beautiful, 200 acre camp, and for 5 whole days we have the camp all to ourselves!

Our "main event" project for the week will be catapult building! We will build small-scale models capable of launching marshmallows, ping-pong balls, and cottonballs... and then some quite large models capable of launching everything from baseballs to water balloons! We will have contests at the end of the week for distance and accuracy (and rumor has it there will be a big battle after dinner!) Thursday and Friday a real knight will be joining us... and we'll even serve a medieval-syle feast!

Hands-On Science and Skills: Natural Science CLEP Class with David and Laurie Callihan! Turtlebee and Honeytree Farms will offer beekeeping classes and a beehive building project! Jan and Gary Bloom of Books Bloom - travelling bookstore plus will build bookshelves with us!

Hands-On History and Arts: The Victorian Historian teaching about fashion history and Victorian times... we might even have an afternoon tea! Ed and Michele Hopkins - Art Jubilee! And silversmithing - make a purity ring! Felting, basketmaking, and papermaking, mailled armor (chain maille), and then make boffer swords and learn how to sword fight! With our knight we will learn the fine art of creating illuminated manuscripts, create our own coat-of-arms with heraldic colors, try on mailled armor, enjoy sword-fighting demonstrations, learn about chivalry, and much more! Balloon twisting, knitting & crocheting, ventriloquism and sign language... even a contest for the best catapult built with LEGOs! For children ages 2 to 10 we have wonderful morning music classes from The Music Class.

Evening Speakers:David and Laurie Callihan, Ken Pierpont.

Evening Children's Programs: Joyful Kids Ministries! It's a secret right now... ssshhhh... but children ages 5 to 11 will enjoy the "show" while the moms and dads are enjoying the Callihans. After the children's program and speakers each evening, we all come back together in the auditorium for our music concert! The Bonjour family will also offer ventriloquism and sign-language classes.

Every Evening Concerts: Hiltner Brothers, The Coble Family, Wednesday - "open mic" night for the teens to entertain us, The Pierpont Family. Friday night is a dancing night! Join us at 7 pm for square dancing, reels, and contra dancing with a professional caller.

Info: http://familyclassroom.net/FIRE2005/