This is the third story, in a three part series from our Camping Workshop, promoting life skills and learning fun.  

The other stories are:

            Build A Tent
            and 
            Build A Camp Stove


Our guest speaker, Gary Eblen from Diamond Brand Outdoors, brought a portable campfire pit with him.  This was basically a large wash tub, with fine sand in the bottom.   



To the fire pit, he added a few pine cones.

Next, he added some dryer lint that he had saved.



Then he added some small twigs.  As he added each layer, they took on a pyramid shape.  This is the best shape for starting a fire.  I plan to do some fire science with my kids soon,  and we will study why this is the best way to build a fire.  Stay tuned for some more stories about fire science.



Next, he lit the dryer lint with a match.  At first it smoldered slowly and was hard to see the fire happening. 



But as he gently blew on the lint, and added more twigs, the fire quickly grew.   Now the fire was hot and was very easy to see.  



Knowing how to safely build a fire is a very important life skill to have.  It will be very useful for cooking food, staying warm, sterilizing things, during camping, power outages, natural disasters, and more.  It could very well save a life one day.

While the fire was maturing, we headed over to the tent building area.  You can read about building our tents at the workshop here.



Meridith, Gary’s assistant, stayed with the fire to continue to feed it firewood and get it ready for cooking smores later.  It was also important to convey to the children that you never leave a fire unattended. 

Finally, after we had tons of fun learning during our Camping Workshop about how to build a campstove, boil water on a campstove, build a homemade tent, build a backpackers tent, and learn what was in the backpack, and had some free time to play in the park, we were ready to enjoy making smores on the campfire.


More Smores Please!



The fire had died down and matured into hot, black, charred wood that barely danced with a flame. 



The kids took turns roasting their marshmallows, then adding it to a graham cracker square topped with a milk chocolate bar, and then another graham cracker square.   Some marshmallows got a little more toasted or charred than others.



Basically, a smore is a warm, toasty, marshmallow & chocolate sandwich.  Pure YUM!



The families continued to make smores until the fire had almost died out, and their tummies could hold no more.  I heard some of the kids excited to say they ate 4 smores.  Oh my!



Even parents enjoyed some smores.  I get so busy organizing the program and taking pictures that I often don’t indulge in the refreshments.   But one of the teen girls was very observant and considerate, and she offered to make me a smore.  How could I refuse?  She lightly toasted the marshmallow to a golden color.  Then instead of adding a milk chocolate bar, she added a dark chocolate bar before topping it with a graham cracker. 

PURE BLISS! 

Wow, I really enjoyed my dark chocolate smore.  I was a good girl and only ate one!  But next time, that is the way I want my smore.  There is something really special about the taste of dark chocolate on the smore! 

But don’t tell the kids, they are just as happy with milk chocolate, so save the dark chocolate for me!



If you would like to read more about Take Action Tuesday and our fun learning adventures outdoors, please read here.


This post will be linked with
No Time For Flash Cards
Play Academy
Raising Homemakers
ABC and 123


&nb
sp;