Educational Farm & Nature Preserve

3083 Liberty Road Delaware, Ohio 43015
740-363-2548

We are open to the public:
Monday - Friday,
9-5
Saturday,
9-1

Closed:
Sunday and holidays

Getting to Stratford: map and

map & directions>

A $2 per person or $5 per family donation is appreciated for those wishing to spend time at Stratford.

farm camp 2013

Farm Camp registration opens on January 16th!
Download Camp Registration!>

Download:   Registration Form>     Trash-free Lunch>

Gear Lists: 3-5 Camp>        6-8 Camp >       9-12 Camp >

• 3 – 5 year olds with adult companion July 15 - 19 (full)
  July 22 - 26 (full)
  Fee: $120
  Camp Hours:
  Monday – Friday, 9:30am  - 11:30am
  
  Parent and child will experience the farm together through simple and playful activities. Children will care for the farm animals, spend daily time in the forest, and will discover the joys of planting and tasting things straight from the Earth. Parents will be encouraged to rediscover their sense of wonder as they walk side-by-side with their little explorer. Treat yourself and your little one to a week together on the farm.
  
  
• 9 – 12 Year Camp
  July 29 -August 2 (full)
  August 5 – 9 (full)
  Fee: $230
  Camp Hours:
  Monday – Wednesday, 9:00am – 4:00pm
  Thursday 9:00am through
  noon on Friday (1 overnight)
  
  Bright and early each day, campers will care for the farm animals, feeling the daily cycles of farm life and contributing to the raising of food. Their hands will plant the fall crops, tend the summer vegetables and take part in harvesting and preparing for the farmer's market. Throughout the week, campers will go on adventures in the forest, discovering the joys of time spent in nature and the lessons the Earth has to teach. Their week concludes with an overnight spent under the stars.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• 6 – 8 Year Camp:
  June 10 – 14 (full)
  June 17 – 21 (full)
  June 24 - 28 (full)
  July 8 - 12 (full)
  Fee: $195
  Camp Hours:
  Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 3:00pm
  
  Daily, campers will tend to the farm animals; feeding, watering, milking and collecting eggs. The easy rhythms of the farm will carry the children from chores to play and back again throughout the day. Hands will be immersed in mud and water, berries and brambles, as the children experience fully through their senses.
  Days will become adventures as children explore the forest, turning nature into paint, mossy bark into fairy homes, and holes into hideouts. This will be a week of experiences your child will not soon forget.
  
  
• 13 – 17  year olds 
  (Junior Counselor):
  June 5 - 7 AND
  one week of 6 - 8 year camp week
  Fee: $230
  Camp Hours:
  Thursday and Friday  
  9:00am - 3:00pm
  
  If you are a teen who loves nature and the farm, consider becoming a Junior Counselor. You can enjoy all the fun of Farm Camp while sharing your knowledge with young campers. Develop your leadership skills by acting as a link between campers and senior counselors with daily camp activities. You will spend three days with our Environmental Education Interns honing your skills before being assigned to and Intern for a week of fun with the six to eight year old campers. This is a perfect way of gaining community service experience and of building your resume for college applications, especially of you are interested in ecology or education.
  

Registration Procedures    

• For questions and more information, please call the education department at 740-363-2548
  or email April Hoy at secearthshare@aol.com.

• All Farm Camps require advanced registration.

• Submit registration form with the camp fee paid in full.

• Return registration form either by postal mail, fax, e-mail or in person

• Please fill out one form per camper.

• Registrations are processed on a first-come, first-served basis.

• You will receive a confirmation letter and a health form for your child when the camp registration has been processed.

• Print out "gear list” and “no-garbage lunch”.
  

• You will be automatically placed on a waiting list if the weeks you selected are filled.

Stratford is more than information. It is the spirit in the woods - the touch of moss with the tip of your nose, and the gratitude given to a plant prior to picking a taste. We are all made from the sun and return to the soil, just as every other animal and every plant. The food we eat connects us to everything else on our planet.

Stratford's organic farm intimately connects children to their food; placing a seed in the Earth and tasting a leaf of spinach, giving water to a chicken and washing a freshly laid egg.

Adventure is everywhere; in the animal holes in the ground and in the search for a perfect berry. Mystery surrounds children, filling their souls with a longing to explore and a need to discover for themselves the meaning of things. At Stratford we use play to learn with all our body; we become squirrels; we breathe in tandem with the trees. Learning is the pleasant consequence of play, when play interacts with our brother and sister creatures of the earth.

Our hope is that by encouraging appreciation in a child, we are fostering a lifelong respect for the beauty and diversity of life around us.