Robin Hood

A friend of mine, who dreams big and is brave enough to pull it off, put together this amazing Robin Hood camp for a group of fellow homeschoolers. It was a two day camp where the kids learned skills that would come in handy if they were ever a medieval rebel. The first day was dedicated to learning how to shoot a longbow taught by two experienced archers and bow makers. I am not sure the instructors had ever taught a group of kids like this before. When the instructor asked how many kids hunted, nobody raised their hands. When he asked if anyone was offended by hunting, about half of the class raised their hands. As he was giving the class little tidbits of history the kids would raise their hands and elaborate with many details about what he had just told them (...so in the Battle of Crécy the French neglected to bring their protective netting and so they fell quickly to the English longbows... also crossbows were much slower to load...). It was awesome to see this group of kids and instructor share their knowledge with, and learn from each other. The kids had an amazing day shooting arrows at various medieval targets. They are now quite addicted to longbow action. The next day was dedicated to stage combat taught by two instructors from Shakespeare in the Parks. The kids spent the morning learning how to wield blunted, metal, broad swords (Isaac's favorite), rapiers, and daggers. In the afternoon they learned stage hand-to-hand combat skills. It was really funny watching the instructors walk around as pairs of kids appeared to strangle, punch, and kick each other, exclaiming "good!" and offering feedback in various ways to make it more realistic and dramatic. The boys had an awesome experience and we are very happy we postponed our departure to Boston. Thank you Aimee for all of your hard work and effort.

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