The following post is part 2 of a 5 part series by guest blogger Aimee Mae Riley. Aimee held a princess camp for her church. Aimee used the Princess Parable Series in her camp curriculum and shares the details of the camp below for our benefit. Enjoy!
Last week, I had the special privilege- and challenge- of coordinating and leading Once Upon A Time Camp at our church. For two hours each afternoon, I welcomed fourteen adorable girls, grades PreK-2, to celebrate being God’s princesses. You can read about the theme and outline for our camp, as well as our first day’s activities here.
Tuesday- Princess Faith’s Mysterious Garden
Today, when the girls arrived, they received a small clay pot, a disposable plate dotted with paints like an artist’s palette, a cup of water, and a paper towel. They then set about painting the pots with great enthusiasm. Caitlin and Kira (my helpers for the week) helped to paint small flowers on some of the girls’ pots, while I oversaw the project, cleaning up inevitable spills and replacing paper towels.
Pre-painting set up as the girls began to arrive.
We left our pots to dry and headed over to our story time area. First, we reviewed Princess Grace’s story from yesterday, which the girls remembered with alacrity, before beginning Princess Faith’s story. The mysterious garden is a parallel to the parable of the seed and the sower found in Matthew 13:1-23. We chatted throughout the story about our favorite animals (each Parable Princess has her own pet), flowers (roses were a clear winner), and other topics related to the story. We finished by reading the corresponding parable, which several of the girls were familiar with, before heading outside for our activity.
Here’s a few of our princesses ready for story time.
Today, we played Pass the Magical Wand (aka: Hot Potato). We used bubble wands (one for each girl), and when the music stopped, the girl holding the “magical wand” got to take it and make bubbles in the yard. The music we used for the week was a beautiful CD that set the tone perfectly. It is called … such stuff as Dreams: A Lullaby Album for Children and Adults – 2 CD Set; I was fortunate to find it at our library. We played it everyday, and both the mothers and the girls commented on how lovely it was.
Once all of the girls had a wand and were joyfully running around the yard making bubbles, Caitlin entertained them further with her giant bubble maker. The girls took turns making humongous bubbles, even dumping out their own wands for more bubble solution.
As they tired of the bubbles, I gathered them in groups of four or five and helped them plant flowers in their painted pots, in honor of our mysterious garden story. They dug out soil with small, plastic shovels and selected a flower from the packs I picked up at Stein’s.
We then headed back inside, where we colored our story pictures for the day and ate snack. After yesterday’s disappointing effort, I kept it simple with Pepperidge Farm Princess Cheddar Goldfish(they are pink), pretzels, water, and carrots (I coaxed the girls into eating carrots by reminding them of Faith’s pet rabbit who loves to eat carrots- they were sold!)
Soon after the parents arrived, and the girls went home with their potted flowers and pictures. It was a wonderful day and went without a hitch, making it one of my favorites.
Tomorrow, we will look at Day 3: Princess Hope and the Hidden Treasure
For more ideas, check out my Pinterest Princess Camp board.
Aimee Mae Riley is a mother of 5 children from Wisconsin. You can read her blog at Whispers of Worth.
