Ten-year-old Anna Nelson wasn’t idle on her day off from school Monday – she got a firsthand lesson on building a campfire and making s’mores.
“It’s kind of cool,” Anna said of her new skill. “Now when my mom and I go camping I can say, ‘Hey, Mom, look what I can do.'”
School may stop on Presidents Day, but in Evanston that doesn’t mean classes stop; the city offers a number of educational opportunities for students with time off.
Anna and a number of other children spent the day at the Ladd Arboretum and Evanston Ecology Center, 2024 McCormick Blvd., reconnecting with nature and braving the cold.
Karen Taira, an environmental educator at the center, said this was the first year in a while that the program was offered. This year, workers at the center reintroduced the program, trying to attract 9- to 14-year-olds, she said.
From 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the ecology center, Nelson and four other Evanston children learned how to survive in the wilderness and work as a team. After learning how to use a compass, they used the device to find six contact points throughout the arboretum.
Outdoors, the group also built shelter using tarpaulin, wood and other materials they found. Indoors, the children engaged in team-building exercises and played word games.
“And I stumped them all,” said 9-year-old Evanston student Declan Falls, as he took a bite of the black-and-white marshmallow he roasted on the campfire.
Declan said one of his favorite parts of the day was meeting new friends Fiver, Gabby, Nate, Buttercup and Earl – a rabbit, ferret and three snakes who all call the center home.
For children who did not want to venture outside, children’s singer and songwriter Joel Frankel kept a room of 150 youths on their feet at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave.
With his acoustic guitar strapped across his shoulder, Frankel delivered tunes about ships made out of chocolate chips as the children made swooshing water sounds. “Watch out for sweet-toothed whales!” Frankel sang.
“The point is to give kids something to do on the secular holidays,” Jan Bojda, manager of Children’s Services at the library, said. “And besides, the parents are always looking for things to do.”
It was the kind of event Evanston resident Martha Huffman said her two daughters would love. Her girls Tabby, 4, and Ella, 2, recently stopped attending day care, and they missed group interaction.
For Tabby, the day was all about sitting in a chair in next to her mom and singing along to Frankel’s music as Ella climbed over the chair and all over their mother.
“My favorite part is the songs, because I like the beats,” Tabby said.
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