Homeschool Art Camp at Clapping Hands Farm in Pittsboro will run from 9 am-3:30 pm on THURSDAYS throughout the Fall-Winter-Spring. We define ART broadly and our 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. We had an extraordinary group of creative, kind, collaborative campers last year and we can’t wait to start up again for our 2024-2025 season!
Below is an overview of our Homeschool Art 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 2024-2025! 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 2025 Spring and Summer Camp schedule! Our 2024 camp season is still up to give you an idea of our range of offerings.]
overview
During the Fall-Winter-Spring of 2024-2025 will have FOUR 6-week sessions of Homeschool Art Camp.
- Session #1: Sept 12- Oct 17 with Oct 24 reserved as a weather make-up day
- Session #2: Oct. 31- Dec. 12 with Dec. 19 reserved as a weather make up day
- Session #3: Jan 9- Feb. 13th with Feb. 20 and 27 reserved as weather make up days
- Session #4: March 6, 13, April 3, 10, 17, 24 with May 1 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 Art 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! .
Homeschool Art 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.
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 12-Oct 17 with Oct 24 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 and Multi-Camp Discounts:
$380 if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) before August 26, 2024
$375/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for BOTH Session #1 and Session #2 before August 26, 2024
$360/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for any THREE sessions before August 26, 2024
$350/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for ALL FOUR sessions before August 26, 2024
FOCUS GROUPS, Session #1:
MUSIC JAM with Alex Nelson
Alex Nelson and the MUSIC JAM Focus Group will be putting all other bands to shame this session with its melodic creativity, ideological harmony and sheer musical genius. You’ve heard of Queen? The music jam focus group is more iconic. You’ve heard of Nirvana? The MJFG is more profound. You’ve heard of The Beatles? The MJFG has way more mania. We just happen to be the coolest people to ever do anything for the joy of making music together. This workshop is open to all skill levels, and all instruments are welcome! If you don’t have an instrument, we have lots to choose from!
At the music jam you can learn how to play your favorite songs, communicate through music, and build your musical, improvisational confidence. There are NO RULES to the music jam, it’s all about having fun and making music together!
Whether you taught yourself how to play; love to write your own songs; know a few chords on the ukulele; are just curious and will be making music for the FIRST TIME; or are an accomplished player who has been taking lessons or studying on your own for years; there’s a place for everyone to join in and jam!
Alex Nelson is a musician, composer, and performer. He teaches guitar, piano, ukulele, and composition, focusing on jazz, classical, folk, rock, pop, and blues styles. Alex has a gift for bringing together a group with a wide range of musical abilities and quickly transforming them into a band!
Alex recently graduated with a Master of Music degree from UNC School of the Arts, and is currently maintaining a studio of students, actively performing across North Carolina, and recording a third studio album.
FUN FASHION – DECORATED & UP-CYCLED CLOTHING and ACCESSORIES for your personal “FIT” and around the house!
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! There are a zillion possibilities! After seeing examples of a big variety of techniques, campers will have choices about their own projects and what we learn as a group. 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!
Campers will have opportunities to use duct tape, bleach pens, stencils, iron on transfer paper, yarn, glue, fabric paint, spray paint, t-shirts, hand-made rubber stamps, leaves, wool, fabric, colorful threads, beads, and wire!
To make bags, up-cycled clothing, jewelry, hats, rugs, patches, artful mending, wild decorations, and more!
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!
FORT FUN(damentals)
This Focus Group will explore FORT FUN(damentals) while building a FORT VILLAGE! In the process campers will learn about styles of building; principles of design and construction; use of tools; and survival shelters. Model scale forts built of sticks will make a fairy-elf sized village and build understanding and plans for bigger forts. Campers will have opportunities to build with different materials such as bamboo, grass, pine needles, vines, sticks, mud, trees, etc! A variety of skills and approaches will be included such as lashing, thatching, weaving, sawing, tying knots, stringing tarps, and more! Consideration for structural integrity and decorative flourishes will be included.
While in the Fort Village, close encounters with trees and bugs and other fauna and flora will be encouraged and used as jumping off points for further investigations as curiosity and group interests lead.
Mary Medvar is a homeschool mom of 3, with a background in environmental education. Mary is passionate about exploring nature and hands-on science; she thoroughly enjoys sharing her excitement and love of nature with others, and is particularly excited to share this with the CHF community. Crafting and community brought Mary to CHF, where she has been a camper, volunteer, and debuted on staff this past summer. Mary is excited to bring her energy, creativity and enthusiasm for exploratory learning to this session!
Register for Homeschool Art Camp
session #2: Oct 31- Dec 12 with Dec 19 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 and Multi-Camp Discounts:
$380 if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) before Oct 1, 2024
$375/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for BOTH Session #2 and Session #3 before Oct 1, 2024
$360/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for all THREE remaining sessions before Oct 1, 2024
FOCUS GROUPS, session #2:
INVENTING GAMES!
Campers in this Focus Group will play hard, get creative, and INVENT new games!!!
We’ll start by playing our favorite games and games from different part of the world! Then we’ll start thinking about games and their elements; thinking about different kinds of games and understanding how they work and what makes them fun! We will jump off from there to create new games that include our favorite elements.
If you love games! If you love to run around and play! If you like seeing your ideas and your friends’ ideas incorporated into a collaborative process; if testing out new games and then tweaking them till they “work” sounds like fun to you! Please join this playful inventive Focus Group!
Alex Nelson has been coming to camp at Clapping Hands Farm since he was about 10 or 12. Now he’s a professional musician. . . but he still LOVES to play! He’s great at helping campers have fun and create!
MAKING TOYS AND GIFTS!
Each week there will be a featured toy to make or build. Louise has been leading the Toy Making Workshop for our ever popular Toys and Games Camp for over 2 decades and knows how to make a LOT of different toys! Toys that feature sewing, drawing, engineering, physics, building, and more! There are toys that are cute and cuddly, toys that spin and fly, toys that become puzzles, games we can make that require strategy and are fun to play again and again.
Making your own fun and playing with toys you build yourself is the best!
Handmade gifts are extra wonderful. With Kwanzaa, and Winter Holidays approaching, this workshop also assists campers interested in making handmade toys, zawadi, and gifts for family and friends. (But if gift making isn’t your thing, you are free to make toys for your own fun!)
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 loves to make things and to teach people skills that allow them to expand their creativity and express themselves by making wonderful things!
Register for Homeschool Art Camp
session #3: Jan 9- Feb. 13 with Feb. 20 and 27 reserved as weather make up days
Times: 9-3:30. Ages 8-16
Camp Fees: $400 (full and partial scholarships available)
Early Bird and Multi-Camp Discounts:
$380 if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) before Dec. 1, 2024
$375/session if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) for BOTH Session #3 and Session #4 before Dec. 1, 2024
FOCUS GROUPS, session #3
To be announced quite soon, check back!
Focus Groups under consideration: Fiber Arts (crochet, sewing, embroidery, weaving), Outdoor Explorers, Outdoor Survival Skills, Primitive Animation, Skill Toys (hooping, jump rope tricks, juggling, and more), Printmaking and collage, Creative Writing, Comics. . . .
session #4: March 6, 13, April 3, 10, 17, 24 with May 1 reserved as a weather make up day.
Times: 9-3:30/ Ages 8-16
Camp Fees: $400 (full and partial scholarships available)
Early Bird and Multi-Camp Discounts:
$380 if you sign up and pay (or make a payment plan) before Jan 15, 2025.
FOCUS GROUPS, session #4
To be announced quite soon, check back!
Focus Groups under consideration: Fiber Arts (crochet, sewing, embroidery, weaving), Outdoor Explorers, Outdoor Survival Skills, Primitive Animation, Skill Toys (hooping, jump rope tricks, juggling, and more), Printmaking and collage, Creative Writing, Comics. . . .
