12th-16th August 2013
Do you want to take a deeper look at your life as a parent?
Are there areas which could benefit from a re-think?
Would you like support and encouragement to make changes?
Would you like time as a family under the summer night stars?
An unusual opportunity for parents to take time to look at their parenting in a beautiful and safe environment.
This camp aims to nurture you as a parent, so that your children, our next generation, grow up empowered, free of limited thinking, held by appropriate and loving boundaries.
Imagine …
…living as a family in nature, spending time together with other families and having time for you.
…having the time and space to reflect on your experience of being a parent and to learn new skills to use in raising your children, knowing that your children are being expertly cared for and having magical adventures in nature.
…having delicious food cooked for you by experienced chefs, using the abundant produce of the land around you.
… sitting round the campfire with your family, sharing stories from your day of the time you spent together and apart.
…sleeping under the stars with a pillow scented by lavender flowers from the plants you helped to care for that afternoon.
Summer Camp for Families in an opportunity for this and more.
What can I expect at Summer Camp
An intimate atmosphere with approximately fifty participants, adults and children.
The mornings will be for parents to focus on developing skills and ideas for raising children in a way that is heart-centred and with clear boundaries that create workable, loving relationships for parents and children. Examples of what we’ll look at include setting up support for you as a parent, ways to play with your child that build a strong connection and effective approaches to setting limits.
This will be delivered by experienced Families practitioner, Joanna Watters.
During this time, we'll look after your children for you – offering a gentle safe adjoining space for toddlers and babies, an intermediate play area and the option for older children to join Embercombe staff in seasonal activities.
For the younger children, childcare will be based indoors in or near to Centrefire with a secure fenced outside area. Your children will have access to you, but we’ll also create a separate space with lots of interaction and activities where appropriate, to help ease their separation from you.
The adult session in the morning is an integral part of the camp, and the intention is that all adults present will participate.
Lunch will be a delicious homemade soup, freshly baked bread and salad prepared for you.
The afternoons will be time for parents and children to spend together in our 20 acres of woodland, 30 acres of meadow and market garden with a freshwater lake (There will be opportunities for canoeing or swimming when a life guard is on duty). We have a flock of laying chickens to feed and collect the eggs from each day, sheep to feed in one of the meadows, two friendly Dartmoor Ponies, Mikey and Star - as well as some bee hives in a cordoned area of the site and one of these has a viewing hole to see the bees at work!
There will be opportunities to get involved in gardening in the herbal ‘medicine’ garden or harvesting Summer produce or try your hand at natural craft activities such as working with green wood, or making a felt object from sheep’s wool.
The woods, meadows and lake, yurt village fire circles and the surrounding forests provide an ever-ready playground for you and your family to use - and to practice some of the techniques offered in the mornings. You may choose to make this ‘free time’ or get involved in some more structured activites offered.
Optional one-to-one consultations will be offered with Joanna during that time, for parents who would like this.
Evening meal will be served at 6pm.
On a number of evenings, we will host some optional talks and discussion sessions based on the ‘Hand in Hand’ approach. Evening activities will be from 8 - 10pm. Children who are able to can sleep on sheepskin rugs or curled up with you. We will provide baby sitters to support parents wh
o wish to put their children to bed in their yurt.
There will also be a campfire in each yurt village for parents who prefer free time.
Older Children - Wildcraft
For families with children aged 13 and over, we will be running our Wildcraft programme during the same week as Summer Camp and your child will be welcome to join. The full price for Wildcraft is £400 for the week: Summer Camp families can book places at £275.
http://www.embercombe.co.uk/wildcraft
Lead facilitator: Joanna Watters
Joanna is an Embercombe Associate, mother of 2 grown sons, parenting facilitator, ex-primary school teacher, and a long time worker in family education as a workshop leader and counsellor. She has undertaken various professional trainings in parenting, including short training with Patty Wipfler of Hand in Hand parenting, Aletha Solter of Aware Parenting and the 'Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities' training brought to the UK from the USA by the Race Equality Foundation.
She works to support parents to explore whatever is in the way of raising the next generation to be empowered, confident, sensitive, trusting, individuals able to lead in their own lives.
Facilities
Embercombe has ordinary toilet facilities and solar powered hot showers as well as compost toilets in each yurt village. Dining facilities may be indoors or outdoors and there is a large comfortable indoor space with views over Dartmoor and sofas, rugs and a fire for gatherings which means that we have a variety of spaces we can use as we need to, according to the weather.
Accommodation
We offer accommodation in two yurt villages, each comprising 7 yurts with a compost toilet and fresh water in each. All yurts have deep mattresses and some have handmade oak beds. All have a solid wooden floor, a wood stove and openable windows and provide a very comfortable and private place to stay.
Food
All meals, snacks and drinks are included in the price of the camp.
Homemade bread and toast, sugar free fruit spreads, cereal and porridge will be available for breakfast.
Lunch will be a soup and salad with homemade bread.
The evening meal will be a hot meal, with salad and a pudding.
All the food we offer is organic and sourced locally where possible.
All meals will be vegetarian. Almost all the fresh food you eat will be grown at Embercombe and picked the day you eat it.
Homemade bread and spreads, fruit, fresh water, teas, coffee and cordials will be available throughout the day.
Special diets: we are used to dealing with special dietary requests such as vegan and gluten free and making this food as tasty and pleasing as the other dishes we offer. Please let us know if you have any special requirements or allergies.
Money
The price of the camp is all inclusive and there will be nothing to buy during your stay – no pocket money required!
Our approach
To read more about our approach to parenting, please see the Sustainable Families page of our website.
Travel
We are within easy reach of the M5 and Exeter St David’s Station. Please see our Travel Page for more details.
Cost
This year, we have two prices, one for those able to pay towards the full cost of running the camp and one for those less able to pay.
We appreciate that this will still be unaffordable for some familes. We apologise if you would have liked to join us this year but are unable to because of the cost. This year, we need to run a smaller camp of no more than 50 people, to ensure everyone has a great experience, whatever the weather. Next year, our Linhay, the new Land based Learning Centre, will be open and we will have more facilities available. It will then be possible to increase the size of the camp and be able to offer places to families in real financial need again.
We invite you to self-select the price your family will pay – and ask that if you are able to afford the higher rate, that you do so because there are only a limited number of lower price places.
Prices include all your food, accommodation, parenting support, childcare, crafts and are inclusive of VAT. In other words, you’ll need to pay for nothing else during your stay
.
Full rate:
£200 per adult or child*.
Bursary rate:
£150per adult or child*. UPDATE: all bursary places have been filled.
*We are offering the same rate for both adults and children. This is because providing high quality care for the children is a significant cost of running the week. There is no cost for babies in arms who parents will keep with them in the morning sessions. Wherever possible, parents are encouraged to offer their children the opportunity to go into the childcare provided, to enable them to gain the maximum benefit from working with Joanna.
Each yurt can comfortably accommodate 2 adults and 3 children. Single parents will be invited to share a yurt, to enable the maximum number of people to participate in the camp. With regard to yurt sharing, we will do our best to match the ages of your children or meet other requests you may have.
Dates and Timings
Arrive between 2pm and 4pm on Monday 12th August
Depart 2pm on Friday 16th August
To book your place
Call Clare on 01647 252 983/5 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . She can also answer practical questions about staying at Embercombe.
If you have visited our Sustainable Families web page and still have questions about the nature of the camp, please contact Joanna Watters on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
