by Mr. Cook, guest blogger

Aloha again, what a fun trip!!!  

I hope I am not encroaching on any info you are learning from your kids and teacher about their experience, but I wanted to share about Outdoor School from my perspective, so I’m writing while everything is still fresh in my mind.

Your kids are WONDERFUL!!!  You should be proud of each and every one of them.  Who would have thought these kids would last four days away from home without electronics? They did it, and didn’t even think about electronics as they were so busy daily from 7am to 9:30pm.  They slept like logs because they were so tired!

Although electronics were not allowed, I tried to take some pictures so you could see things through my eyes.  I apologize if your child was not included in them, as I was separated from other groups and cabins.  I tried to take as many pictures of the limited group I was with, without disrupting the “nature” theme of the trip.  These kids literally learned how to respect nature through hands-on learning experiences, as well as how to respect themselves and others.  It was literally a week of adventure, fun, learning, team building, and great hiking!

The sixth graders were so independent! They were assigned to a cabin (don’t worry, the boys and girls were separated) with a cool Chumash Indian name (ask your kids about their cabin name).  Although I was onsite as a Cabin Leader, I was not in Randy’s cabin, which was great,  because he was able to experience independence even though I was there.  They shared their cabins with kids from other schools (Our Lady of Lourdes, St Euphrasia, and St Bernadine’s).  At first, some of the students stuck with the kids from their respective schools, but eventually they all came together and blended in with the other kids in their respective cabins.  Great fellowship and teamwork ensued, as they had to come up with a cabin slogan, songs, rhymes, and artwork.  Again, TEAMWORK was key as they all came together!!!

Your kids were also assigned to a hiking group with their own names which were made up of a separate group of students than were in their cabins. They went on curriculum hikes where they learned so much about Geology, Plants, Animals (nocturnal as well), and about the Chumash Indian culture. They even went on night hikes, where they learned about astronomy, navigation, and survival. I think the best part of the night hike was the “Courage Walk,” which I’m sure your kids will tell you about.  The group I was with was extremely brave and courageous.  They really learned how to hold their own, and were extremely independent!

Further separation occurred at meal times, when the kids were once again separated into table groups for meals. The food was AWESOME!  They were fed healthy, balanced meals 3x daily.  The Outdoor School staff creatively used techniques to mix the kids up, which constantly gave them the opportunity  to make new friends, and reach deep (in some cases) to utilize their interpersonal communication skills. True team-building!   They also had the great learning experience of learning about food conservation during meals.  Ask your child about “ORT” and “compost”.  It was really cool watching them on Day One loading up their plates with food and then having tons of leftovers. By Day Four, their leftovers decreased dramatically!  I watched students help each other select the amount of food to consume in order to mitigate the amount of “ORT” at the end of the meal.  Compost piles, trash piles, ORT piles, and then dinnerware, etc…  Blue Jay gave a detailed explanation to the entire room at breakfast the last morning about the long trip it took a banana to get to their very table.  The catalyst was the fact that a student took one bite of a banana and left the rest.  The story opened my eyes as well.  Ask your child about it.  It was very cool.

Kudos to the kids who took it a step further and volunteered to go on the “9 mile hike,” which I heard was mostly uphill for over 5 hours! There were so many special activities and the “Naturalists” (counselors/teachers) were all fantastic.  They were very good with kids and knowledgable about nature.  “Outdoor School” is the perfect name for this.  It’s very appropriate.  They camp offered so many cool activities to the kids so it was never boring for them.

The campfire songs were extremely catchy, and were also sung on the bus on the way home.  Our kids stuck together and took care of each other.  One personal experience I witnessed one of the OLG boys helping an autistic boy from another school.  This boy had a hard time with mostly everything- from being unorganized and not being able to overall “keep up,” and our OLG boy helped him and took him under his wing. It was great to witness this!  On a separate note, I also watched an OLG girl help another girl on a hike as she fell behind.  There were so many acts of kindness I saw. You should really be proud of your kids.

Our kids came together so well.  Rest assured, your kids were in good hands. I would recommend this school and experience to any and all upcoming sixth graders and their parents.  It was definitely worth it, especially in this “advanced” world of technology and our concrete jungle, it was great to see these kids understand “nature” from a historical perspective to also a daily use and survival perspective.

It was also fun watching the kids grow and mature over the four days.  When we started the week on the bus up to Outdoor School, they would look at other buses and say “our school is better.” By the time we were heading home,  and they saw the buses from other schools I heard,  “That’s XXXX’s bus!” “I’m gonna miss them!” “We will see each other again soon.”

It was fun so fun to spend four days at Outdoor School with these great students.

Much Mahalo.

Take care and God Bless,

Randy (“River” was my nature name)