Special Event: Heritage Home Skills Sleepover

Heritage Home Skills badge (HHS)

On the kit list, we asked the girls to bring 2 large tomato cans (empty), a soup can (empty) and a shoebox sized container  to take their crafts home in.

7:00-7:30—Arrival

7:30-8:00—Orientation/Icebreaker

8:00-8:30—Half make freezer raspberry jam (HHS#1), half make butter (HHS#2)

Biscuits with homemade jam and butter

Freezer raspberry jam: we used the instructions in the pectin packaging, but it was basically just raspberries (we used frozen), sugar, and pectin. The girl mashed the raspberries with the sugar, stirred in the pectin, and then poured into jars.

Butter: whipping cream and salt in a Tupperware snack size container. The girls shook the butter in pairs. It took about 10-15 minutes, depending on the vigor of the shaking.  Once it separated into curds and whey, we poured off the liquid and then it only took a few more shakes to get it into smooth butter.

8:30-9:00—Switch on the jam and butter making

9:00-10:00—Campfire and mug-up.  Mug-up was biscuits with homemade jam and butter, plus cheese and hot chocolate.

10:00-10:30—Get ready for bed

11:00—Lights out

SATURDAY

7:00-8:00—Wake up and pack up gear. Let me say, our girls are well-trained. They rolled out of bed and started packing up immediately. So proud!

8:00-9:00—Breakfast (Continental—muffins, boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt)

Bottle cap candles

9:00-10:30—Three group round robin—bottle cap candles, straw weaving, stained glass

Activity 1: Bottle cap candles 

Melt crayons in tin can double boiler. Place wick in bottle cap. Pour crayon wax into bottle cap. (HHS#4)

Activity 2: Straw weaving  

Straw weaving

Tape three straws together. Run yarn through each straw. Tie in overhand knot at one end. Tie another piece of yarn to an outside straw. Weave the yarn over and under to the desired length and then tie off onto the straw. Gently push weaving off of straws and then tie off the bottom yarn. Voila! Bookmark. (HHS#3)

Equipment: 3 straws for each girl, variegated yarn, tape, scissors

Note: this activity may take more the 30 minutes to complete. The girls can come back to this if they finish another activity early or complete it at home.

Activity 3: Stained Glass: It was supposed to be contact paper, black yarn, and glitter, but the glitter was way too messy. We experimented and ended up using small pieces of tissue paper instead of glitter. The person leading this should discuss how to make actual stained glass. (HHS#6)

Hippo in progress

Completed project!

10:30-10:45—Snack

10:45-12:15—Three group Round Robin—Hat craft, glitter balls, tin can stilts

Activity 4: Hat craft

Equipment: Precut yarn, precut toilet paper rolls, scissors

Activity 5: Glitter ball: Pour Pledge into plastic ornament ball. Swish around gently (try not to create bubbles) to coat the inside. Pour excess out. Pour glitter into ball and swirl around until ornament is coated with glitter on the inside. Put top back onto ornament. Equipment: Pledge, ornament balls, glitter

Activity 6: Tin can stilts—punch holes in cans with can opener; tie string through cans—should come up to mid thigh. Learn to walk on stilts. Option: decorate paper to go on outside of can to personalize. Equipment required: cans, string, can openers (HHS#7)

The girls had so much fun on the stilts. They even choreographed a small routine together. We forget that sometimes it's the simple things that give them pleasure.

12:15-1:15—Lunch—pizza on English muffins, vegetables

1:15-2:00—Closing