We know that we are definitely in winter. We have had about 3 feet of snow from two storms in the last two weeks. It's been a lot of time helping to clear the roads and paths here so we can still have access across the camp, but we also get to have a lot of fun on the fields and the sled hill. 

Our Adventure Day Camp is still going, and we are happy that we can apply some of what we do for the Outdoor Science School program with students. We helped one student study for a math test including averages (anyone remember putting drops of water on a penny?) and another student performed an experiment, pictured below, that described the flow of river water into the ocean and how the two types of water mixed. 

If your school is interested in a zoom "trip" to Thousand Pines, a teacher can contact us about one of our video lessons and to set up a time for us to join the school/grade virtually to answer questions and talk about science, camp, education, and life. We are definitely looking forward to being open for OSS again, and we want to connect with and support our schools until then too. 

It's been sad to see so few guests here - we miss having students and teachers here having fun and learning. We also really miss having our Instructors and Cabin Leaders around at meals and on hikes, making so many great experiences happen for our guests, as well as for each other. 
We have been thankful to help host an Adventure Day Camp program at Thousand Pines, facilitating students' zoom classes or homeschool assignments, as well as providing our own afternoon programs like archery, the climbing wall, sledding, and a camp-wide scavenger hunt. Having students come week-after-week is very different than Outdoor Science School but we have found it rewarding in its own ways. 
We're still planning ahead for future weeks of our OSS programs, here in Crestline and with our sister program that takes camp on the road throughout California.  Until those start up again we've got some resources to keep you active and learning from home. Three are short documents that have experiments and activities you can do, and the last one is a video we made so that we can keep teaching you! 

• Backyard Nature Survey
• Family Teambuilding
• Water Transportation in a Plant​
• Video with some botany and survival information from our lessons

We are still hiring for the school year, making plans to be available to schools not only for our usual week-long activities but also for new opportunities. We are talking with homeschool co-ops, private schools, and even looking at the needs of our local community. No matter what we do, we plan to do it with excellence. If you're interested in working with us, come apply at our "jobs" tab at the top of the page. If you're a school, parent, or anyone else who wants our help providing programs for students, please contact us at the "contacts" tab at the top of the page. 

A not so cuddly friend we see here is the Wolf spider! Don’t worry he doesn’t howl at the moon or eat you; he does however have some fur and will hunt its prey. The wolf spider finds a warm dry spot in houses and will rest in cracks or baseboards during the day. At night he’ll come out and search for food such as beetles, ants, or other small insects. Unlike most spiders, this guy doesn’t spin a web, instead he uses his 8 eyes to see prey, and his 8 legs to run at a rapid pace to catch or corner dinner. We don’t worry about being bitten, they aren’t aggressive towards humans, and they are beneficial to have in your home if you don’t like other bugs around!

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