School Camp and Free Olympic Games

Monday through Wednesday this week Anne Sophie went to her first school camp! And I went with her! We were both quite excited. She was excited about the camp, because she had no idea what it was. Anne Sophie at her age of 4 is the youngest child at her school, so I was excited about how she would cope for 3 days away from home and from mama. I was also looking forward to getting to better know other children, parents and facilitators from our school De Vrije Ruimte (a democratic school for natural learning).

The camp took place at a wonderful location in the woods outside Eindhoven. We were lucky to get a room for the two of us with a bunk bed, and Anne Sophie immediately claimed the upper bed, which she would climb up and down multiple times.

The camp theme was the Olympic Games, and the kids called it De Vrije Spelen (The Free Games) and designed a logo for the camp that combined the school logo with the Olympic Games logo. So you can imagine that we had 3 days of games and sports, interspersed with creative activities, a disco, a film, meals, camp fires, guitar playing and plenty of leisure time. The location had everything one needs for a sports weekend: footbal fields, basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, a big children's playground, and a huge open air climbing facility!

The sports instructors team (Karin, Willem, Bram & Tamara, all physical training students) did a great job facilitating the sports activities. They brought the whole inventory of ball, rackets, bats, sticks, ropes, and even a slack line! We played football, basketball, tennis, badminton, table tennis, cricket, hockey. There was also athletics (long and high jumping and running), and newspaper-running and sack-racing, and much more. Kids higher than 1.30m did the open air climbing parkours in the trees in the rain. There was so much to choose from, and there was so much freedom to do what you wanted or not do anything special! Anne Sophie was enjoying the camp so much during these 3 days that she hardly ever remembered her mama :)

Anne Sophie kept practicing her jumping and even got a gold medal in the age group of 4-5 years old :) Watch here the video:

It was fun watching how the kids played and interacted with each other. I really felt that education through freedom works. Everybody seemed so at ease and relaxed and accepted and accepting of other people. Everybody could be completely themselves!

I was also impressed by Anne Sophie, by how she interacted with other, often much older children, how she trusted her friends and would do things I wouldn't even imagine she could because of that trust, how brave she is talking to different people and even talking publicly in a large group setting. I am very happy we sent her to this very special, small and unconventional school!