Dive into the creative process and experiment with a variety of art media including painting, oil pastels, clay, and mixed media. Connect to nature during the art process, creating outside as weather permits. The projects are open-ended and allow for creative freedom and personal exploration. Students will have the opportunity to play nature games and enjoy fun group activities together. It will be a JOYFUL week, full of creativity and nature play.

Please note: an additional $25 materials fee will be due to the Waterford Foundation by the first day of Camp. We will be in touch with additional details and the materials fee invoice about a month before the camp begins. 

Instructor Bio: Alika Middleton is an artist and art educator who empowers her students to trust their own creative process. She has taught visual art for the last nine years in international and private schools ranging from early childhood to high school. She is the founder of Wild Wonder Creators, a program that brings creative arts and nature together in a playful and explorative way. As an educator, she values the importance of social-emotional learning by making sure all of her students feel safe, seen, and fully supported.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to live in the woods? Come try it out! Learn the basics of wilderness survival, including shelter building, finding water, fire making, camp cooking, and wilderness safety. Packed with hands-on practice and outdoor games, this fun camp will prepare budding adventurers for all sorts of excursions.

Please note: An additional $35 materials fee will be due to the Waterford Foundation by the first day of Camp. The fee includes a fixed blade knife, a compass, and a fire-safe metal cup, which the student gets to keep. We will be in touch with additional details and the materials fee invoice about a month before the camp begins.  

Instructor Bio: Laura Handley is a teacher and writer with a deep interest in the natural world and how to survive and thrive within it. She picked up survival skills through years of hiking, camping, and foraging and honed them as a teaching assistant and co-instructor at Advanced Survival Training in Fauquier County, VA. She currently works as a high-school math teacher and volunteers extensively in habitat restoration and wildlife monitoring. She also blogs about her foraging and wildcrafting projects on Instagram as @fairfaxforager..

Could you survive alone in the woods? Want to learn how? This camp will introduce students to the wilderness survival mindset and the skills they'll need to make it happen: shelter building, finding water and food, fire making, navigation, and how to handle common outdoor emergencies. Students will learn to read the land, make wise decisions, and respond with confidence to challenging scenarios, all in a fun and encouraging environment.

Please note: An additional $45 materials fee will be due to the Waterford Foundation by the first day of Camp. The fee includes a fixed blade knife, a compass, and a fire-safe metal cup, which the student gets to keep. We will be in touch with additional details and the materials fee invoice about a month before the camp begins. 

Instructor Bio: Laura Handley is a teacher and writer with a deep interest in the natural world and how to survive and thrive within it. She picked up survival skills through years of hiking, camping, and foraging and honed them as a teaching assistant and co-instructor at Advanced Survival Training in Fauquier County, VA. She currently works as a high-school math teacher and volunteers extensively in habitat restoration and wildlife monitoring. She also blogs about her foraging and wildcrafting projects on Instagram as @fairfaxforager.

Do you like baking? How about making fires? Put on your apron, dust your hands with flour, and grab the matches! In this 3-day bread camp, students will learn how to make and bake breads in an outdoor wood oven and an indoor electric oven. Discover flat breads, chemically leavened breads, and yeasted bread that will range from savory to sweet. Learn how to prepare bread dough, then head outside to stoke the wood-fired oven, baking different flat breads, like tortillas, pita, and pizza, each day for lunch. There will be opportunities to eat your homework, because there will be enough bread to take home at the end of each day!

Explore the world of fiber arts. Learn a different fiber art each day, enjoy outdoor game breaks, folk songs, and more. There will be an opportunity to meet some fiber-producing animals and a working sheepdog! Come learn why Mrs. Withnell's students give her camp a "10 out of 5 stars!"

Please note: an additional $40 materials fee will be due to the instructor on the first day of Camp.

Instructor Bio: Susan Withnell is a hand spinner and weaver, operating her fiber arts business, ‘Ewes-Ful Fiber Arts’ for over 20 years. She raises high percentage Wensleydale sheep (known for their excellent spinning fleeces) on her Maryland Farm. She uses these fibers in the hand spun and hand dyed yarns she sells at fiber art and craft shows. Susan has been a juried, demonstrating artisan at the Waterford Fair for over 10 years, earning the distinction of ‘2020 Waterford Artisan of the Year’ for her commitment to the Waterford Foundation and her excellence as a Fair demonstrating artisan.

Susan is also a retired elementary school teacher, who created and led a fiber arts club for her students. She enthusiastically continues to share her knowledge with the public, teaching hand spinning on drop spindles and spinning wheels to adults, and summer Fiber Arts Craft Camps here in Waterford for young people ages 8 – 13. She also has demonstrated hand spinning at the Great Yorkshire Agricultural Show in Harrogate, England. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn from this engaging artisan!

Explore the world of fiber arts with stories, songs, games, and daily projects. There will be an opportunity to meet some fiber-producing animals and a working sheepdog! Projects will include spinning wool on a drop spindle, wet- felting, learning a simple plain weave structure, cross stitching, and knitting.

Please note: an additonal $40 materials fee will be due to the instructor on the first day of Camp.

Instructor Bio: Susan Withnell is a hand spinner and weaver, operating her fiber arts business, ‘Ewes-Ful Fiber Arts’ for over 20 years. She raises high percentage Wensleydale sheep (known for their excellent spinning fleeces) on her Maryland Farm. She uses these fibers in the hand spun and hand dyed yarns she sells at fiber art and craft shows. Susan has been a juried, demonstrating artisan at the Waterford Fair for over 10 years, earning the distinction of ‘2020 Waterford Artisan of the Year’ for her commitment to the Waterford Foundation and her excellence as a Fair demonstrating artisan.

Susan is also a retired elementary school teacher, who created and led a fiber arts club for her students. She enthusiastically continues to share her knowledge with the public, teaching hand spinning on drop spindles and spinning wheels to adults, and summer Fiber Arts Craft Camps here in Waterford for young people ages 8 – 13. She also has demonstrated hand spinning at the Great Yorkshire Agricultural Show in Harrogate, England. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn from this engaging artisan!