Join Clapping Hands Farm for their Winter 2026 Homeschool Camp, hosted every Thursday, January 8-February 12, 9am-3:30pm. Clapping Hands is an arts and nature camp and retreat with a special love for community. Our homeschool camp workshops include visual arts, crafts, music, theater, and dance, as well as engineering, building, nature exploration, game creation, and more!

GENERAL SCHEDULE

• Camp opens with games, Morning Circle, and morning workshops in focus groups. Each session will have at least two Morning Workshop Focus Groups; campers choose one Focus Group to join for the entire 6-week session.
• Lunch.
• Anything Goes and all-camp activities in the afternoon. Activities are different each day, are based on campers’ requests, and include opportunities to explore both focus groups. In other words, if you are interested in both Focus Groups, you can sign up for one of them for the morning and still be able to “taste” the others during Anything Goes.
• Buddy Group check-in and a Closing Circle before departure.

FOCUS GROUPS

This session’s focus groups will include:

• Earth Romp is a playful exploration of all things outdoors. There will be exploring and discovering, finding bugs and encountering animals and plants, and running, hiding, climbing, and playing. You might create new trails, plant or find letterboxes, go on a long hike, and then play games upon arrival at your destination. You might craft using found and natural objects, create Andy Goldsworthy-style outdoor art installations with leaves, rocks, and thorns, and explore ancient technologies like atlatls. You might track animals, study scat, look for the earliest signs of spring, and figure out what bugs are doing when it’s really cold.
• Carpentry is limited to a maximum of six campers and to campers ages 12 and older. Many structures around camp, including the games shed, lost-and-found shed,  and many picnic tables and benches, were built by campers themselves! In the Carpentry Focus Group, campers will build benches and signs for current and future campers. Campers will learn practical, creative skills such as recognizing quality wood, implementing essential safety measures, measuring and marking lumber for their structure designs, attaching wood pieces with bolts and hex screws, and addressing design considerations to build a structure sturdy enough to withstand weather and the energy of enthusiastic adults and kids!
• Table Games is for those who want to try a new game! You will learn many new games and play old favorites. Games will include strategy games, drawing games, writing games, storytelling games, dice games, card games, indoor party games, games from a variety of cultures and countries, puzzle games, mazes, math games, geography games, “getting to know you” games, and a LARGE variety of board games (Louise has quite a collection!) The opportunity to craft traditional games to take home will be included.

DETAILS AND LOGISTICS

Camp is $400 per child, with full and partial scholarships available. Homeschool Camp serves children and teens ages 8-16. They accept older campers who are interested in their Focus Group topics. They also accept younger campers on a case-by-case basis. Parents, adults, and older teens are also needed as Counselors or Volunteers. Parent volunteers at Homeschool camp do so much to make this program fantastic!

Camp at Clapping Hands Farm takes place outdoors for the most part. They generally run camp in all weather conditions unless there are hazardous driving conditions or it is cold AND wet. In other words, if it’s raining and 70 degrees, they will have camp. If it’s 30 degrees and not raining, we will have camp. But if it’s 40 degrees and raining, they will skip camp and use their weather make-up day (either Tue, Feb 19 or Tue, Feb 26). During the winter session, they will have a heated studio available that can accommodate one group.

See more events at Clapping Hands Farm.