Homeschool Camp at Clapping Hands Farm in Pittsboro runs from 9:00 am-3:30 pm on THURSDAYS throughout the Fall-Winter-Spring. 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—and also engineering, building, nature exploration, game creation, and more! This beloved program had a joyful restart during the Fall-Winter-Spring of 2023-2024 after a long pandemic pause. Our homeschool camp participants are an extraordinary group of creative, kind, collaborative campers and we are looking forward to another year!
Below is an overview of our Homeschool Camp program and a description of each of our 2024-2025 sessions with dates and pricing!
To learn about our other youth programs, please visit our Fall-Winter-Spring Programs page. [In the process of updating for 2025-2026 check back soon!]
To learn about our spring break and summer camps, please visit our Spring and Summer Camps page. [Check back in December for our 2026 Spring and Summer Camp schedule! Our 2025 camp season is still up to give you an idea of our range of offerings.]
overview
During the Fall-Winter-Spring of 2025-2026 will have FOUR 6-week sessions of Homeschool Caagemp.
- Session #1: Sept 11-Oct 16 with Oct 23 reserved as a weather make-up day
- Session #2: Oct. 30-Dec. 11 with Dec. 18 reserved as a weather make-up day
- Session #3: Jan 8-Feb. 12th with Feb. 19 and 26 reserved as weather make-up days
- Session #4: March 5-April 16 with NO CAMP on April 2 because of Spring Break Camp! And April 23 reserved as a weather make-up day
Each session will be 6 weeks long with an additional Thursday reserved as a WEATHER MAKE-UP DAY. Homeschool Camp will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and will include Games, Morning Circle, Morning Workshops in Focus Groups, Lunch, Anything Goes and All Camp Activities in the afternoon, Buddy Group check in, and a Closing Circle.
Each session will have at least two Morning Workshop FOCUS GROUPS; campers CHOOSE one Focus Group to join for the entire 6 week session. Each afternoon we have Anything Goes choice activities which are different each day, are based on campers requests, and will include opportunities to explore BOTH Focus Group topics. In other words if you are interested in BOTH Focus Groups you can sign up for one of them for the morning workshops and still be able to “taste” the other during Anything Goes! We are also please to announce that we recently invested in archery equipment and training for our staff so we will be offering archery as a choice class many afternoons.
Homeschool Camp serves ages 8-16. We accept older campers who are interested in our Focus Group topics. We accept younger campers on a case by case basis. Parents, Adults and older teens are also needed as Counselors or Volunteers. Our parent volunteers at Homeschool camp do so much to make our program fantastic!
Camp at Clapping Hands Farm takes place OUTDOORS for the most part. We generally run camp in all weather conditions unless there is hazardous driving conditions or it is cold AND wet. In other words if it’s raining and 70 degrees, we will have camp. If it’s 30 degrees and not raining we will have camp. But if it’s 40 degrees and raining we will skip camp and use our weather make-up day. During the winter session we will have a heated studio available that can accommodate one group.
camp fees & scholarships
The cost for each 6-week session is $400. There are DISCOUNTS for signing up early and for signing up for multiple sessions; see details below. Clapping Hands Farm has a no one turned away scholarship program; both partial and full scholarships are available.
session #1: Sept 11-Oct 16 with Oct 23 reserved as a weather make-up day
Time: 9:00 am-3:30 pm. Ages 8-16
Camp Fee: $400 (full and partial scholarships available)
Early-Bird Discounts:
$380 if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) before August 26, 2025
$375/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for BOTH Session #1 and Session #2 before August 26, 2025
$360/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for any THREE sessions before August 26, 2025
$350/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for ALL FOUR sessions before August 26, 2025
FOCUS GROUPS, session #1:
FUN FASHION – featuring bracelets, fabric decoration, sewing and upcycled clothing with Louise Omoto Kessel and Elle Moavenzedeh
If you want to create one-of-a-kind art that doubles as an amazing fashion statement, the FUN FASHION focus group is for you! This session takes a deep dive into
- BRACELETS including kumihimo cords, friendship bracelets, and beaded bracelets . . . and in each case with options for going beyond beginner patterns into more complex designs! (Louise)
- DECORATED FABRIC including block printing on fabric, nature printing, using stencils and resists, “glue batik” and reverse dye with “decolorant” paste. (Louise)
- UP-CYCLED CLOTHING and SEWN CREATIONS (Elle)
At the end of the session, we’ll have a fashion show where campers (or their models) can strut their art for all to see!
If time permits or by popular demand, Sashiko embroidery and Artful Mending can also be explored either in the morning focus group time or during Anything Goes.
Louise Omoto Kessel is a storyteller, artist, mom to two grown-up homeschoolers ages 19 and 23, and the founder and camp director of Clapping Hands Farm! She’s excited to see the fashion show at the end of this session!
EARTH SKILLS with Jan Burger and Mary Medvar
This group will feature EARTH SKILLS such as making cordage, baskets, foraging, campfire cooking, knot tying, whittling, knife safety, making and throwing Atlatls.
Jan Burger loves to make stuff (puppets, bows and arrows, hats, comix…) and is the king of games!!! He loves and collects games and loves playing so much he just nearly (but not quite) takes games “seriously!” He’s a very fun person to play with!
Mary Medvar is an environmental educator by training, an enthusiastic pond explorer (always has nets and boots in the back of her car!), a crafter and campfire cooker, and a homeschool mom to three wonderful boys. She thoroughly enjoys sharing her excitement and love of nature with others and is particularly excited to share this with the CHF community.
NOTE: When we first opened registration for Homeschool Camp our Earth Skills workshop was called Archery and Earth Skills. We had such an overwhelming interest in archery that we decided to move it to the afternoon, when it would be available to everyone interested since our current archery set up is limited to 8 campers.
DRUMMING AND DRUM BUILDING with Teli Shabu
This group will focus on WEST AFRICAN MUSIC, including drumming, singing, and also BUILDING a talking drum to take home.
‘The first half of each gathering will be spent learning to PLAY the Talking Drum. The second half will be spent building a Talking Drum.
Campers will measure, assemble, and decorate a drum and playing stick that will be a fully functional, durable, playable instrument. We will use Adinkra symbols, choosing them based on their meaning, and decorating the drum body with them. The group will perform on their drums at the sharing on the last day!
Teli Shabu has been a favorite lead artist at Clapping Hands Farm for many, many years! We are thrilled to have him back for this session of Homeschool Camp! Teli is part of a performing ensemble, The Magic of African Rhythm, and an active teaching artist in the schools and community.
session #2: Oct 30-Dec 11 with Dec 18 reserved as a weather make-up day And NO CAMP on Nov. 27
Time: 9:00 am-3:30 pm. Ages 8-16
Camp Fee: $400 (full and partial scholarships available)
Early-Bird Discounts:
$380 if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) before Oct 1, 2025
$375/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for BOTH Session #2 and Session #3 before Oct 1, 2025
$360/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for all THREE remaining sessions before Oct 1, 2025
FOCUS GROUPS, session #2:
SPORTS SAMPLER with Sarah Perry and friends
Outdoors. In the shelter if the weather requires. This focus group was suggested by a homeschool camp camper and we thought it was a great idea, so here it is!
During this 6-week exploration, you will have the chance to build skills and learn the fundamentals of how to play at least three sports: Volleyball, Soccer, and Ultimate Frisbee. We are NOT a sports camp, so the playing fields will be rustic and inventive, and the emphasis will be on everyone participating and having fun! If you love one of these sports OR have never ever played, you are welcome here!
Sarah Perry is a long-time Clapping Hands Farm leader and enthusiastic about play, teamwork, creative problem solving, and fun! She played volleyball and softball on teams growing up. She will be joined by leaders who have experience with soccer and ultimate frisbee.
STUDIO ART: PRIMITIVE ANIMATION with Louise Omoto Kessel and Jan Burger
Upstairs in the studio.
In this exploration of simple “moving pictures,” we will make thaumatropes, flip books, movie wheels. . . . and then progress to making stop action movies, including options for claymation, animating toys (stop-action Lego movies were a big part of Louise and kids’ homeschool for a while!), and animating drawings.
Simple storytelling, teamwork, and a variety of art forms will be part of our exploration.
Louise did this workshop several years ago at homeschool camp after having SO much fun playing with animation toys and stop action movies while homeschooling her own children, and thought it was time to do it again!
Jan Burger went to comic college and regularly animates giant puppets in real life with Paperhand Puppet Intervention! So, he will be a fabulous co-leader for this exploration!
CARPENTRY with Amy Moss
Outdoors in the sunshine, weather permitting. Under the house if needed due to weather. CARPENTRY is limited to a max of 6 campers and to campers ages 12 and older.
Clapping Hands Farm is about fun, creativity, and community. That’s why many structures around camp, including the games shed, our lost-and-found shed, and many picnic tables and benches, were built by campers themselves! In our Carpentry Focus Group, campers will have fun building benches and signs to be used by present and future campers. Taught by carpenter Amy Moss, campers will learn practical, creative skills such as how to recognize quality wood, important safety measures, measuring and marking lumber for our structure designs, attaching wood pieces with bolts and hex screws, and the design considerations in building a structure sturdy enough to endure weather and the energy of enthusiastic adults and kids!
Campers will have the opportunity to use measuring tape, speed squares, socket wrenches, eye & ear protection, impact drivers, sanders, and to work with a variety of types and sizes of wood and fasteners. (NOTE: campers will NOT be operating power saws). Best of all, what we build will be used by Clapping Hands campers for years to come!
Because we will be building things that involve real materials (and real costs) and need to be built to specifications so they will function, campers in this group should expect to follow a plan for construction and work as a team to build things. Past builders camp participants have taken great satisfaction in seeing things they built used every day at camp!
Amy Moss is a camp mom to long-time camper and staffer Danika Moody. She lives in a tiny house that she built herself in a tiny house community in Alamance County. She is a fiber artist, landscaper, and carpenter, among other things! She learned her carpentry skills from a friend whose daughter was a camper 20 years ago! It changed her life, giving her the ability to build her own house! Amy loves to work outside and to inspire others to learn building skills – they come in handy all the time!
session #3: Jan 8-Feb. 12 with Feb. 19 and 26 reserved as weather make-up days
Time: 9:00 am-3:30 pm. Ages 8-16
Camp Fees: $400 (full and partial scholarships available)
Early-Bird Discounts:
$380 if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) before Dec. 1, 2025
$$375/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for BOTH Session #3 and Session #4 before Dec 1, 2025
FOCUS GROUPS, session #3
EARTH ROMP with Mary Medvar and Jan Burger
Outdoors in fields, forests, and along creeks and ponds, weather permitting. Shelter if needed due to weather.
Winter is a magical time to explore Clapping Hands Farm! Ticks, hunters, and poison ivy are all taking a rest! There are trails and places nearby that are only fun to adventure in at this time of year!
EARTH ROMP is a playful exploration of all things OUTDOORS. There will be exploring and discovering, finding bugs and encountering animals and plants, AND also running, hiding, climbing, and playing.
We might make new trails, plant or find letter boxes, go on a long hike, and then play games when we arrive at our destination. We might craft using found and natural objects, make Andy Goldsworthy-style outdoor art installations using leaves and rocks, and thorns, and explore ancient technologies like atlatls. We might track animals, study scat, look for the earliest signs of spring, and figure out what bugs are doing when it’s really cold. That’s a lot of possibilities!
This group, for safety reasons, will move together and stick together while playing and exploring; campers and staff will have input into choosing activities as nature inspires and enthusiasm guides.
Mary Medvar is an environmental educator by training, an enthusiastic pond explorer (always has nets and boots in the back of her car!), a crafter and campfire cooker, and a homeschool mom to three wonderful boys.
Jan Burger loves to make stuff (puppets, bows and arrows, hats, comix…) and is the king of games!!! He loves and collects games and loves playing so much he just nearly (but not quite) takes games “seriously!” He’s a very fun person to play with!
CARPENTRY: DESIGN AND BUILD with leader TBA
Outdoors in the sunshine, weather permitting. Under the house, if needed due to the weather.
CARPENTRY is limited to a max of 6 campers and to campers ages 12 and older. Secretly, Louise is hoping to find a leader who can help campers design and build a little free library for camp!
Clapping Hands Farm is about fun, creativity, and community. That’s why many structures around camp, including the games shed, our lost-and-found shed, and many picnic tables and benches, were built by campers themselves! In our Carpentry Focus Group, campers will have fun building benches and signs to be used by present and future campers. Campers will learn practical, creative skills such as how to recognize quality wood, important safety measures, measuring and marking lumber for our structure designs, attaching wood pieces with bolts and hex screws, and the design considerations in building a structure sturdy enough to endure weather and the energy of enthusiastic adults and kids!
Campers will have the opportunity to use measuring tape, speed squares, socket wrenches, eye & ear protection, impact drivers, sanders, and to work with a variety of types and sizes of wood and fasteners. (NOTE: campers will NOT be operating power saws). Best of all, what we build will be used by Clapping Hands campers for years to come!
Because we will be building things that involve real materials (and real costs) and need to be built to specifications so they will function, campers in this group should expect to follow a plan for construction and work as a team to build things. Past builders camp participants have taken great satisfaction in seeing things they built used every day at camp!
TABLE GAMES with Louise Omoto Kessel
Indoors, upstairs.
Come to this group if you love to try out a new game! We will be learning LOTS of new games and playing 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!) We’ll be exploring so many games! And figuring out which ones we like best! The opportunity to craft traditional games to take home will be included.
NOTE: this group will NOT include role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. We are devoting a whole focus group to that in the March-April session! Also, the creation or invention of new games is not an intended focus.
Participants in this group will have opportunities to play all together, in small groups, pairs, and alone. We will learn some games together each week; there will be time to choose which game you play each week.
Louise Omoto Kessel is the founder and director of Clapping Hands Farm. She loves to do a LOT of things and is tickled to be taking a break from teaching some kind of artsy thing to PLAY as many games as possible with as many campers as possible! Getting to know the campers and counselors at camp is what she enjoys the most.
Table Games will happen indoors, but the other focus groups will be outdoors. On cold days, we continue to meet, sometimes making a campfire. On rainy WARM days, we still have camp. If it is rainy AND cold, we cancel and use one of our weather make-up days!
session #4: March 5-April 16 with NO CAMP on April 2 because of SPRING BREAK CAMP! And April 23 reserved as a weather make-up day.
Times: 9:00 am-3:30 pm. Ages 8-16
Camp Fees: $400 (full and partial scholarships available)
Early Bird Discount:
$380 if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) before Jan 15, 2025
FOCUS GROUPS, session #4
CREATURES AND CAVERNS! (aka C&C) with Alex Nelson and Jan Burger
If you like stories about adventure, creating interesting characters, and using your imagination, our Creatures and Caverns focus group might be the one for you!
Campers in this focus group can expect to play C&C in small groups each morning. With 2 hours each morning, 6 weeks of camp, and a consistent group of players, this will be a satisfying journey for experienced players AND people new to this type of game alike.
Creatures and Caverns (C&C) is a Clapping Hands Farm role-playing game where you create a character, become that character, and then (with all the other invented characters) go on an adventure thick with challenges and surprises. A leader guides the adventure, a roll of the dice sometimes determines outcomes, and everyone makes choices and contributes to the journey. In Creatures and Caverns, you’ll enter into a story with friends and use your character’s abilities, tools, and wits as you encounter both danger and opportunities!
NOTE about D&D and C&C: If you love D&D, you will probably love C&C as well. We decided to invent a Clapping Hands Farm role-playing game because “D&D fifth edition” has a 200-page rule book, and we wanted a version that had a quicker path to get into the game and a simpler set of rules throughout. C&C allows us to spend most of our time PLAYING, CREATING, and STORYTELLING together rather than having to remember a bazillion crunchy rules!
Alex Nelson and Jan Burger will be leading this group, with other people assisting.
POND AND CREEK EXPLORATION with Mary Medvar
Outdoors hiking to ephemeral and big ponds, creeks, and streams, weather permitting. Shelter if needed due to weather.
Pond and Creek Exploration will include visits to a magical ephemeral pond near camp that, in the spring, is teeming with salamanders and frog tadpoles. Hikes to nearby creeks. And exploration of the large pond you pass on the way into camp. We hope this will include getting out on the water in canoes. The focus of this group will be exploring some of the coolest natural features of Clapping Hands Farm while learning about insects, plants and animals that all enjoy the “water of life” provided by these natural bodies of water!
We might (!!??) have a NEW pond at camp by then; if so, inroducing of aquatic plants and animals to the new pond may be added to our explorations!
Mary Medvar is an environmental educator by training; an enthusiastic pond explorer (always has nets and boots in the back of her car!); a crafter and campfire cooker; and a homeschool mom to three wonderful boys.
VISUAL/PERFORMING ARTS
Session 4 will include ONE MORE FOCUS GROUP still to be finalized! But will almost surely be in the visual arts or performing arts realms!
