We love our summer camps around here. And when I saw that my son had written about them (with great excitement!) in his journal at school, it really warmed my heart.
I’ve told you all six gazillion times already that I give full credit for this idea to Jessica and her Summer Survival Guide. She gave me the tools and nudge I needed to make this whole thing a success.
Now that I’m a bit more experienced 
, I’ve branched out. This year, I gave my kiddos carte blanche (nearly) when it came to choosing topics. And they came up with some real goodies! Since my middle child will be attending summer school a couple days a week in July, to get needed therapies, I wanted to do one of her chosen topics for our first week here in June. She chose…
Unicorns.
And here’s how Unicorn Camp looked around here!
Those are just a few of the many books we read and discussed together throughout the week… and our movie for “Pizza and a Movie Night.” (Our library didn’t have “The Last Unicorn”– the horrors!– so I let the kids watch some clips of it online here and there throughout the week… a fun treat!)
We baked “unicorn snacks” together! (There are people who refer to these cookies as “unicorn poop”, but, well, I’m not one of those people.) The kids did a fabulous job helping with them and, when it was time for them to bake…
We set about decorating the camp! My seven-year-old son balked at the idea of coloring unicorn pictures… until I presented him with one depicting a knight riding a unicorn while fighting a dragon. Guess who became my most excited color-er?
Time to decorate the horns! C. loved choosing where to place the stickers. A quick wrap, tape, and the addition of some yarn and I had…
Three little unicorns. Aren’t they sweet? Let’s not talk about how this morphed into a charging horn battle within minutes… hah!
Unicorn horn toss! This was a surprisingly challenging game. Only a few of the “rings” (those would be dress-up plastic bangles) made it onto the unicorn horn (ahem, little cone). Still, it was fun, and everyone was declared a winner! The prize?
Why, marshmallow horns, of course! These were met with much delight.
We spent a lot of time carefully designing and decorating a unicorn garden… and then turning a few horses into unicorns. (Turns out we didn’t have any toy unicorns around here. No worries. We’re flexible. Straws, foil, and a glue gun did the trick.)
And, finally, Friday has arrived. We’ll be watching our unicorn flick tonight and, I figured, wouldn’t it be fun to have special unicorn plates? So we will. 
And that, my friends, will wind up Unicorn Camp for us!
I can’t begin to tell you what joy these camps bring to our summer together. Do you have any questions about setting up summer camps? What would you like to know?
I think you need to join a brick and mortar video store because your kids can surely not continue to live without viewing The Last Unicorn! I loved it when I was little!
[...] week was our first week of summer break and it went by in a blur! Unicorn Camp was a great success and inspired our desserts and snacks for the week. One of the faves, by far, [...]
yesterday my daughter looked through a book and saw a unicorn. She called it a “horsey with a birthday hat”. LOL! I immediately thought of your kids and this camp.
That is one of the cutest things I’ve ever heard!! So sweet. Make sure you write that down! (And somewhere other than in my comment section
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[...] You all know by now that I credit Jessica with rescuing my summers. Okay, that may be overly dramatic. I wouldn’t say our summers were ever terrible, but her suggestions have definitely helped ease my stress and let me have structure AND fun, all while keeping my sanity. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that people in my real life always remark on how incredibly “together” and “amazing” I am as I happily navigate through these weeks of at-home camps. [...]