girls activities

cue camp kids
• Children • rbc

Kids Gotta Love S’mores!

Closeup Smores bite

Let’s talk s’mores… Don’t you just love ’em?  You know how to make them.  Take two graham crackers and a piece of plain milk chocolate, roast a marshmallow on a stick over a fire, and make a chocolate marshmallow sandwich with the graham crackers. Some people like their marshmallow golden brown and gooey, while others are fine burning the marshmallow a little bit to make a charred skin. Either way, they are an excellent sweet treat out around the campfire and one of every kid’s favorite outdoor activities.

Did you know that nobody knows for sure who invented s’mores? The first recorded recipe appears in a Girl Scout book called Tramping and Trailing published in 1927, but s’mores were certainly around before that. For example, Moon Pies, which are also made of a cracker, marshmallow and chocolate, were first produced in 1917.  It’s a bit of a mystery, but it’s fun to think that making s’mores has been an outdoor activity kids have enjoyed at Rockbrook since the very beginning.

Leave a Comment
Girls gymnastics group
• Gymnastics • rbc

Back Bends in Gymnastics

Gymnastic Camp Back Bend Exercise

There’s always something fun to learn at the gymnastics activity at Rockbrook Camp!

One important exercise we practice at Rockbrook is the “back bend.” Strength and flexibility are naturally the foundations of gymnastics, and here flexibility is the idea.

Work up to this exercise by first spending time warming up your muscles with stretching.  You’ll want to feel limber.  The next thing to try is to make a “bridge” where you lie down and press your hips up while extending your arms, arching your back into a bridge-like curve.  Practice this a lot to build up your strength.

What is a Back Bend?

A back bend is when you form a bridge from a standing position.  With someone spotting you (holding you up under your lower back), lean backwards with your hands extended ready to touch the floor over your head.  After developing the strength and flexibility to do this, you can move on to a “walkover” or, something even more advanced, a “back handspring.”  There is a definite gymnastics progression you can build upon.

Leave a Comment
camp needlecrafts summer porch
• Arts • rbc

Learn to Knit at Camp

crafts with girls knitting

Can I learn how to knit at camp?

You sure can!  In fact, knitting has become one of the many needlecrafts at camp girls are really enjoying.  You might think it’s old fashioned or something that only your grandmother would do, but knitting is really cool!  And it’s not that hard to learn.  With some basic pointers and a little practice you’ll be able to make a simple scarf, or even something more difficult like a hat.

The younger girls particularly like using the “Nifty Knitters.”  These are special round, handheld looms that make knitting tubes really easy (there’s one on the shelf in the background in the photo).  They are a fun way to see how knitting works and to make quick progress on a project before moving on to using knitting needles.

Knitting is one of those great crafts girls can easily do at home.  It can easily become a life-long activity to enjoy for years to come.

Leave a Comment
archery camp instruction
• Archery • rbc

The Fun of Archery

Shooting Archery at Camp

Archery for teens and kids is still an amazingly popular thing to do at camp. Even if you’ve never held a bow before, let alone shot an arrow, it doesn’t take long to figure out the basics. And before you know it, you’ll feel really good about hitting the target, even getting a bullseye. Archery is a really old activity. Some of the oldest arrowheads found are more than 50,000 years old, for example! When you think about it, archery has been a part of probably every society to some extent. Wow! And now here it is at a summer camp for girls called Rockbrook!

Leave a Comment
Summer camp Girls Dressed as Grannies
• Summer Camp • Jessi Nixon

A Crazy Camp of Grannies

Summer camp Girls Dressed as Grannies

A bathrobe
A wig
A couple of hair curlers
Lots of powder for all over
Glasses, preferably small ones on the end of your nose
Pillows or other stuffing for certain areas 😉
A walking cane
Loose, baggy nylon stockings
Big puffy slippers
Really red, and a little messy, lipstick
A scratchy or frail sounding voice

“Put them altogether, and you’ve got a Rockbrook…” Well, a granny of course! And not just one, but a couple of hundred! It’s one of our favorite special evening programs at camp— to get dressed up like old ladies and play bingo. “Granny Bingo.” The thrill of the game, the awesome prizes, the costumes, and all the laughing. Sure it’s silly, it’s crazy, it’s goofy, but it’s also excellent fun.

Leave a Comment
Summer Sports Camp
• Games • rbc

Childrens Camp Games

Summer Sports Camp

Basketball! Dodgeball! Kickball! Four Square! Volleyball! And more versions of tag than you can count! There always seems to be some kind of gym sports camp game going on— counselors and campers running around and having fun in the Rockbrook gym. One of the best things to do is to make up a game. Take something you already know, like dodgeball for example, and then change it up somehow, like by having 3 or 4 teams instead of 2, or playing with a really huge ball, or having a “come back to life” ball. Gosh, the options are almost endless!

Leave a Comment
Adventure Rock Climbing
• Rock Climbing • rbc

Girls Summer Adventure Activities

Girls Outdoor Adventure Rock Climbing

Here’s a middler (who’s finished either the 5th or 6th grade of school) climbing up the route called “Whim” on Castle Rock. It’s just one of the rock climbing routes we have on the camp property. There are definitely some challenging spots, with a cool “foot-switch” move about half way up, so we’ve given it a rating of 5.6. Look at the fancy “mantle” move she is doing by pushing down with her palm. Overall, this climb is about 70 feet high, but it feels much higher because it’s got an amazing view of the French Broad River valley from the top.

Just a glimpse into the great outdoor adventure we have at camp.

Leave a Comment
Summer Girls Camp
• Summer Camp • rbc

Camp Builds Independence for Kids

Summer Girls Camp

We’ve often said that attending a kids summer camp like Rockbrook helps children become more self-sufficient and independent. But how does it work? What is it about being at camp that makes this kind of growth possible?

One secret is that camp provides a structured environment where we give children the chance to make their own choices and decisions. At Rockbrook, the girls choose their own activity schedule, rotating to new choices twice a week. There are these structured activity times and plenty of open times throughout the day, thus providing both adult supervision and limits within which the girls feel free to decide what to do. Altogether, camp is a place where kids find success (not to mention tons of fun!), through their own efforts, making choices.

It’s no wonder so many people think of their camp experiences as the most important thing they did as a child.

Leave a Comment

Explore Topics