Athée Canadien
Freethinker Family Camp
By rebekah
This weekend, the Saskatoon Secular Family Network is hosting its 1st annual Freethinker Family Camp, in the bustling metropolis of the R.M. of Hoodoo, SK.
It’s shaping up to be quite the event! Here’s a list of activities we’ve got planned, so far:
- nature scavenger hunt
- earth weaving craft
- face painting
- slough exploring
- star gazing with telescopes & planispheres
- meteor watching (this weekend is the tail end of the Perseids)
- cooperative musical chairs
- digging for fossils in potash
- outside fun with horseshoes, boccie balls, aerobie, soccer, etc
- listening to a talk from an entomologist
- campfire time and s’mores (I bought a bag of GIANT marshmallows)
- “ghost photography”
I’m excited our group can provide an alternative to all the Bible summer camps that surround our area.
If anyone has any fun games or suggestions for camp activities that you’d like to pass along, feel free to leave ‘em in the comments. Next week I’ll be sure to post a recap of how much fun we had.
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Comments are closed.
about 1 year ago
It looks like the Society of Ontario Freethinkers (SOFREE) runs Camp Inquiry in Ontario, although it’s not clear if it’s still running from their website. It’s still great to see programming like this starting up across the country, I can’t wait to copy your success out here in BC.
As for activities, it’s really hard to find programming that applies uniformly across the age groups, but see if you can get some liquid nitrogen from a nearby university (or elsewhere) to make ice cream.
about 1 year ago
Liquid nitrogen, check! I may have some connections in the College of Engineering I can work.
One thing we will be doing this weekend is making ooblecks for the kids: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-newtonian_fluid#Oobleck.
I just saw a Big Bang Theory episode where the guys were playing with it, and I’m excited to see the kids’ reactions when we give them some to play with.
about 1 year ago
Oh, that stuff is great!
about 1 year ago
Heh heh, etymologist (word-history person) or entomologist (insect-studying person)?
about 1 year ago
Doh! Can you tell I’m operating on little sleep? Thanks for pointing that out! Though, now that I think of it, a wordsmith would be PERFECT for a camping trip, at least I’d get a kick outta it.
about 1 year ago
I’m an etymologist myself, and I can tell you that the etymologist/entomologist confusion is much more common that you’d think.
But, yes, I agree, a wordsmith would be perfect!
about 1 year ago
It sounds like a general science camp, rather than a freethinker camp. Nothing wrong with it, but calling it a freethinker camp mismarkets it – it will appeal to religious people who are interested in science, but not to nontheists who aren’t.
about 1 year ago
Art activities can easily be incorporated and there’s nothing wrong with promoting critical thinking via the scientific method (something even many artists understand). The point of the camp (as I see it) is not to fill spots, but to provide a positive alternative to bible camps and to raise future critical thinkers who will keep this world from falling into oblivion. I think the term freethinker is among the best to choose in this instance.
about 1 year ago
My issue is not with using the scientific method. It’s with the science content. While the camp is heavy on entomology, star gazing, and paleontology, it has nothing about how the scientific method works. An artist may be interested in learning about how science works, but there’s a difference between that and digging for fossils in potash, which is a chore for people who aren’t into it.
about 1 year ago
Thankfully, nothing about our weekend was a chore, and both science and artsy types enjoyed the camp.
about 1 year ago
I think ‘freethinker’ is an open enough term that it still fits the intention of our camp (and group sponsoring the event), despite there not being much of a philosophy bent to the weekend’s activities.
I suppose we could have called it a “naturalist” or science camp, but if we can get some religious folk to come enjoy nature without having to worship some deity, I’m okay with that.
about 1 year ago
Yes, I agree. That is one of the reasons that my group decided to use “freethinker(s)” in its name!