caitlinsmom Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Just curious to hear opinions on the program. I've wanted my kids to participate for years but we've never lived in an area that had a camp. I'm considering becoming a leader (although I can't find info on their site about being a leader). If you are a leader I'd love to hear about your training and how life is in the trenches. If your kids participate, I'd love to hear your experiences. I'm a former Girl Scout leader and I hated every single minute of it. We had a horrible council that was a nightmare to deal with and I'd really like not to repeat the experience. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I was in Camp Fire, I loved it. We used to attend camp every year. I don't know what is going on with the program, I have tried to find information and it was practically impossible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Just curious to hear opinions on the program. I've wanted my kids to participate for years but we've never lived in an area that had a camp. I'm considering becoming a leader (although I can't find info on their site about being a leader). If you are a leader I'd love to hear about your training and how life is in the trenches. If your kids participate, I'd love to hear your experiences. I'm a former Girl Scout leader and I hated every single minute of it. We had a horrible council that was a nightmare to deal with and I'd really like not to repeat the experience. :) We did it long ago. We enjoyed it at that time. In San Diego, we were allowed to be independent members: we earned all the badges and marched in parades and sold candy and day and residential camp, but as independents, not as part of a club (I did form a club with other homeschooled children, and a "regular" club for a couple of years for my younger dd, with children who were in school). We *loved* being able to work on our badges at our own speed while still feeling as if we were part of the larger organization (I took leader training and everything). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caitlinsmom Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 I was in Camp Fire, I loved it. We used to attend camp every year. I don't know what is going on with the program, I have tried to find information and it was practically impossible. I agree! They have a great website but it seriously lacks any helpful information. I've emailed them so hopefully I can get the info I need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I was a campfire girl in the dark ages. We earned wooden beads not badges and sewed them on our vests forming our own designs. :D I hope it works well for you! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I agree! They have a great website but it seriously lacks any helpful information. I've emailed them so hopefully I can get the info I need. Did you contact your local council? Apparently, each council has a significant amount of freedom in how things are run (not necessarily what's required to earn the badges and whatnot, but on things such as allowing independent members and whatnot). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 If there's a phone number for your local council, give them a call. Ds was in Camp Fire after he decided Boy Scouts was not for him due to his lack of religious belief. The nearest group was actually our council, an hour and a half away, so a friend and I decided to start a local club. We went to the council hq for training a few times, and put out a notice in our homeschool group. (We only advertised on hs groups because we wanted to meet during the day.). We ended up with a decent size club but eventually everyone fizzled out. They just didn't want to commit to regular meetings (the same happened with GS and BS groups in our hs community so it wasn't just Camp Fire). Ds really enjoyed it and didn't want to stop just because our club was no longer active, so we drove to Lakeland, FL twice a month for meetings at night. It's a three hour round trip but it was totally worth it. He reached the top level a few years ago and has fond memories of his time with Camp Fire. They also have some teen service learning projects they do every summer that he was involved in, until last year when he chose to get a summer job instead. I love that their motto is Give Service. Just as with scouts, every council is different, so your experience is going to depend on that. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend someone become a leader and start their own club. If you can't get others on board, there is an individual option you could check into. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I was a campfire leader for a couple years. I have both a boy and a girl and scouts weren't a great fit for a few reasons. We started a group with several other families at our UU church. I would say the curriculum they provide is written for urban, at risk youth in an after school program. We weren't super impressed with the regular curriculum, some of us did go through their training. However, campfire did give us a nice umbrella and month to month we mostly chose to do our own activities. We did volunteer work, urban gardening, green crafts, hiking and outdoor skills, camping, etc a little bit of everything. And it gave some sense of name and structure to the group when we were recruiting new kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I was a campfire girl in the dark ages. We earned wooden beads not badges and sewed them on our vests forming our own designs. :D I hope it works well for you!We did earn little felt badges and sewed them onto our vests with beading. The ones we had were not like heavy patches, the ones I am talking about were like felt, a kid could easily sew them on by hand. I remember sewing them and doing the beading at a very young age. There were also wooden beads, it was probably thirty years ago when we had those patches. I started when I was about 6 and stopped around 13 when I developed a rather serious horse allergy, I was riding through campfire. I am 40 now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I was a campfire leader for a couple years. I have both a boy and a girl and scouts weren't a great fit for a few reasons. We started a group with several other families at our UU church. I would say the curriculum they provide is written for urban, at risk youth in an after school program. We weren't super impressed with the regular curriculum, some of us did go through their training. However, campfire did give us a nice umbrella and month to month we mostly chose to do our own activities. We did volunteer work, urban gardening, green crafts, hiking and outdoor skills, camping, etc a little bit of everything. And it gave some sense of name and structure to the group when we were recruiting new kids. I remember a large book with things such as crafts, recipes, outdoor activities, and other things in it, I doubt my mom still has hers. I would like to look at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I was a campfire leader for a couple years. I have both a boy and a girl and scouts weren't a great fit for a few reasons. We started a group with several other families at our UU church. I would say the curriculum they provide is written for urban, at risk youth in an after school program. We weren't super impressed with the regular curriculum, some of us did go through their training. However, campfire did give us a nice umbrella and month to month we mostly chose to do our own activities. We did volunteer work, urban gardening, green crafts, hiking and outdoor skills, camping, etc a little bit of everything. And it gave some sense of name and structure to the group when we were recruiting new kids. I agree about the curriculum and am probably giving an impression of our experience as if that was what we used. Our council does a lot of outdoor stuff and actually replaces much of that curriculum with outdoor activities. They started it over 30 years ago and have some kind of special permission from National. Their teen program is pretty much all outdoor based, and ds had to go through primitive camping to get to the top level (known as Red Shirt). I have to admit if the curriculum was used as written, he probably wouldn't have liked it as much. What he wanted was an outdoor program to replace BSA. http://www.campfire-sunshine.org/site/teens/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I was a campfire girl in the dark ages. We earned wooden beads not badges and sewed them on our vests forming our own designs. :D I hope it works well for you! We did wooden beads with my kids group too! That's interesting! I was not in charge of that, so now I'm curious if one of my co-leaders had some background knowledge about that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I was a campfire girl. I looked it up here and someone got right back to me, but we don't have time anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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