Crickets and the occasional train horn set the scene for a drizzly Wednesday morning in northern Minnesota. Children’s laughter echoes past a tall meadow, grasses stirring from the Lake Superior breeze.
Welcome to Camp Milkweed.
“It’s fun. We do lots of art,” camper Iris says as she promenades along a wildflower-dotted path.
Alongside 10 other kids, Iris had just come from the creekside, crafting natural clay pots and flower wreaths. The Nature’s Pallette camp, one of three summer day camps, is hosted at Shoreview Natives in small-town Two Harbors, Minnesota. It just wrapped up its very first year. For three weeks, children ages 6 to 12 explore acres of wooded play space with a creative lens.
Why art and nature?
“It just made sense,” says camp teacher and artist Jen Dietrich, who has long taught art. “We’re really focusing on drawing from life—looking at something and not what you think it looks like. Like a tree: not a triangle on top of a stick, but drawing the shapes and contour line drawing.”
During the seven-hour days, the children follow a loose but thought-out outdoorsy schedule.
An illustrator and children’s book author came to read ‘Pollywog! Not a Frog’ to the group. At one point, the children started a band using sticks and rocks. They named the combo “The Woodpeckers” as they tapped branches onto trees, a makeshift drum set. Camp teacher and outdoor educator Mabel Smebakken says she promotes free play among campers because it encourages creative thinking.
“We’re trying to have them figure out what they want to do next rather than always looking to an adult.”
Kids found and decorated walking sticks, painted rocks, filled out sketchbooks, and got their wiggles out with active games. There are hammocks throughout the woods for a soft, reflective landing place in between bursts of youthful activity.
“I wish I had this as a kid,” says Smebakken. “But I like having this opportunity to show them the lifecycle of plants. We kind of go through what happens to a flower after it dies, what comes next?”
(Hint: The flower will leave seeds behind, ready to germinate in the next year or two.) Much of the camp is about slowing down, noticing nature, and embracing the quiet.
“For this activity we’re going to take four sticks,” says Smebakken, explaining the Crime Scene Investigation: Nature Version activity to the campers.
“And you’re going to make a little square. And that’s your crime scene. And it’s going to be a journaling session, but with your sketchbooks. The goal is to look really carefully at your spot . . . to see what the heck is growing and going on in your little square.”
Through this, camp Milkweed participants learn to temper a busy world. They explore nature through soft, artful discovery. To create, evidently, is also to absorb.