This fall/winter season marks the beginning of  my fifth year at Piedmont Wildlife Center’s Homeschool in the Wild, and my third as a CIT.

Fall is absolutely my favorite season to be out at Umstead State Park, because the weather is pretty perfect once fall is really in full swing, and the foliage is absolutely beautiful. It’s not so hot that we can’t build fires and teach fire skills, but not so cold that games are harder because of the ice. 

I love leading whittling guilds, and taking hikes out to Heron Creek, my favorite Umstead spot. It’s a bit of a trek to get there, 7-8 miles there and back, but the view from the dam and the number of animals we can find out there makes the hike  absolutely worthwhile. There are  natural rock formations to clamber over, and the dam creates a long, winding creek for the campers to stomp around in.

My favorite games we play at Piedmont are tree tie, dragon nest, monarch, and tail tag. Dragon nest is probably the one I have the most fun playing, even though the kids despise it when I’m the dragon–I’m often accused of cheating due to  my good hearing. The dragon sits in the center of a circle, blindfolded, with various sticks decorated with bandanas laid around them. Everyone else spreads out in a circle, waiting for their chance to creep out into the clearing and snatch one of the sticks. Fall makes this game even more challenging, what with all the leaves crunching underfoot. If the dragon hears you, they point in your general direction from where they’re seated. If you’re pointed at, you walk back to the edge of the circle, and wait for another chance. When all the sticks are taken, the game is over. It’s so much fun, even if the campers complain about me drawing out the game for too long when I’m the dragon. 

Being a CIT 2 with CIT 1s this year is a perfect chance to step up my leadership skills and help the new CIT 1s acclimate to taking on more responsibility. On top of that, there are more things expected of me this season than any other, because the CIT 2s are receiving  a bit of a heavier workload than before. I’m excited for the responsibility, because I really do love to lead games and chat with the campers. 

One of the hardest parts about being a CIT is the slight divide between treating the campers–especially the ones around my age–as friends vs. kids. Because of course they’re still my friends whether or not I’m a CIT, but being told to stop doing something by someone your age who you know is definitely harder than being told the same thing by a counselor. Fortunately for me, this season, many of my older friends from last year have become CIT 1s, and I can help them learn the ropes! 

I genuinely love having a position of more leadership, especially when it comes to leading games or our opening/closing circles. It’s a pretty perfect system, having the counselors give us feedback on our work every week, and I’m really grateful that I can learn and grow from this experience! 

A lot of the campers are super outdoorsy, either having been to other nature camps before or, like me, gone on camping trips for most of their lives. But even the kids who don’t take to the outdoors as quickly have a lot of fun–there’s a lot to learn from being outside. Our more science-oriented kids can learn some fundamentals of animal research from our counselors, many of whom have studied or are studying nature-related sciences. A couple times every season, animals from the Piedmont Wildlife Reserve are  brought in for a visit and the campers have a chance to learn about peregrine falcons, turtles, snakes, and many more North Carolina native species. 

I’m really looking forward to the new activities we’ve planned for this fall–every season we have a semester-long project: one year we invented a game (tree tie, which has been a camper-favorite official game ever since), the next we had market booths (our currency was acorns, and we had stalls like food, hot drinks, animal research, crafts, art, and more.) This year, the kids voted on either a mock trial (not even sure they know what that is, but I’ll be excited to see how they interpret it! One girl defined it as “a trial where you mock people,” so it’s sure to be entertaining), or a carnival. Our group this semester is fantastic, and I’m so excited to see what they get up to this year!