09 May Keiki Camp For Our Little Weavers
Aloha from Keiki Camp!
Greetings to all you Spirit Weaving women, and a most special hello to the mamas who will be sharing their wee ones with us during the gathering. We look forward to seeing your children’s sweet faces, old and new.
The women at Keiki Camp are looking forward to spending the weekend bringing fun, magic, and learning to our little guests. Audrey, Keiki Camp Lead, is a mother of two, graduate student, and professional summer-camper, spending each summer coordinating and staffing Waldorf and Homestead summer camps for children. Bleu, a Keiki Co-Lead, is a mother, artist, and dancer who has volunteered many hours in her daughter’s Waldorf preschool. Sarah, our other Keiki Co-Lead, is a Bay Area professional by day and master kid-wrangler by night, with a great deal of camp and craft experience. Audrey and Sarah co-created Keiki Camp last year (with our sweet sister Jill, who will be on other adventures this summer) and Bleu is our dear friend. We have all worked camps together and balance each other well, creating a loving, firm, and playful environment for our campers.
We have envisioned and developed Keiki Camp as a gentle, natural space where our teachers and volunteers will facilitate friendship, community-building, and creative play for children while their mothers are participating in the workshops of the greater gathering.
Our days are split into morning and afternoon sessions, and provide workshops to appeal both to our younger participants and our older participants. Sessions are supervised by Keiki Camp leads, and teachers and work-trade volunteers support your children during each session. Mothers are welcome to help during Keiki Camp sessions, but are also encouraged to use Keiki Camp session hours to explore the greater gathering for themselves. This often facilitates a richer and more immersive experience for the child, as well.
We will begin each session as a group, and close together as well, so it is important that our participants arrive on time so that they are in rhythm with their peers.
Some of the workshop we have offered our Keiki Campers in the past include Hawaiian basket weaving, herbal tea blending, paper lantern and crystal wand crafts, nature walks, and faerie-house building. This year we will also be offering classes in bookbinding, mask-making, and dance, and all of our workshops will build towards a closing Council Of All Beings, a ceremony honoring the natural world, designed and attended by the children. Adjunct craft and other activities are always available for littles who need extra opportunities to hold their attention.
Our intention is to make this gathering as meaningful and precious to your children as it will undoubtedly be to you. Registered families will receive information about what to bring for their children (very important!) as well as registration forms to print and deliver to us when you arrive for the greater gathering.
We look forward to meeting you, and to seeing you again! Please contact Audrey at keikicamp@spiritweaversgathering.com if you have any questions or want to connect directly for any reason!
Audrey Daye
Audrey Daye is a fourth-generation Cascadian with a deep love of the wilderness and the creatures who belong in the wild places– including, of course, children! She has two young boys with whom she loves to explore the outdoors, and has used them as an excuse to become a professional summer-camper. She has been the core staff or director of summer camps each summer for the past decade, working at Waldorf camps, wilderness survival camps, homesteading and primitive skills camps, coming-of-age camps for both boys and girls, horse-camps, special-needs summer camps for adults and children, and camps for children who have survived sexual violence. She has studied Waldorf traditions and Steiner philosophy extensively, both academically and through her work in two Waldorf school programs, and integrates Waldorf methodology into all of her own programs. Her undergraduate degree is in biology and childhood development, and she cannot imagine a future that doesn’t include exploring and learning with young people! She is returning to Keiki Camp this year with joy and excitement, and can’t wait to see the sweet faces of your little ones, old and new.
Bleu Wilding
Bleu Wilding likes mystery and the wild. She is a mother, dancer, and artist living in the Pacific Northwest. Her love for children has led her down many paths, including serving in a Waldorf kindergarten, staffing Passage for Girls coming-of-age and horseriding summer camp programs, providing outdoor homeschool education for her daughter’s community, and developing children’s curricula for and teaching movement arts & mixed-media self-expressive arts. She and Audrey have worked together at multiple summer camps over the years and have taught homeschool programs together as well. Audrey says: Bleu is a gentle, compassionate, magical forest being! Children are drawn to her empathy and kindness and always find their cure for homesickness in her hugs and her storytelling. She believes in a child’s innate wisdom and intuition, and brings out the very best in every young person she meets. It is an honor and a joy to be bringing her into the Keiki family this year.
Sarah Morris
Sarah Morris is a proud Cascadia native hailing from the great Northwest. She now resides in San Francisco’s vibrant mission district where she enjoys speeding around the city on her bike and palling around with her spunky chihuahua, Taco. Sarah loves all things camp: field games, sleeping under the stars, cooking over fire, and making crafts are a few of her favorites. With over 15 years of camp experience, she has learned lots of fun camp games and songs that she can’t wait to share with Keiki campers! Sarah also likes talking about feelings and holding safe, quiet spaces for campers who miss their moms or just need a little time to reset. Audrey says: Sarah is down-to-earth, frank, and open-hearted. She has a playful, gregarious nature and her creativity knows no bounds! As Keiki co-lead last year, she provided both the structure and flexibility we needed to keep camp running smoothly and happily all weekend long. Campers from last year will remember her giant imagination and warm humor! I am so grateful that she has agreed to reprise her role with us this year.
