This summer we did something a little different, a little outside our comfort zone. No, it’s not just camping for 2 weeks straight, although that is a new record for us. It’s doing the first half of the trip with an organized group, with itinerary, schedules, and even meetings — en français!
That’s right! Tina signed us up for a crash course in French and long-stay camping at the same time with BC Family French Camp. Even before the camp started, we were given homework. We had to design a family ‘plaque’ to put up at the front of our campsite.
We arrived at the Living Forest Campground just outside Nanaimo on Saturday with a little bit of trepidation, but thankfully our friends Mike and Maria, their two boys, and Maria’s sisters joined us as newbies.
In the beginning, we felt a little out of place, like kids in a new school. Many families were return customers, and they put on their tie-dye shirts from previous years so show their spirit. In fact, many families come year after year until their kids age out.
A very friendly ‘momo’ (Moniteur or camp counsellor) came to say and we quickly felt much more welcomed. Most of the momos were young men and women from Quebec, who spoke fluent English but with a distinct Quebecois ascent. They were generally much more comfortable speaking in French, so it’s quite an immersive French learning experience.
On the first evening, we had our first welcome meeting. This set the tone for the entire week that followed: the momos put on comedy sketches and belted out super high-energy songs — all in French! Some of the returning campers enthusiastically sang along, and I was left scratching my head, getting only about 2 words out of every sentence, and it’s usually ‘je suis…’ But the energy from the momos were truly impressive.
What was equally impressive was Big Bro laughing and responding to his momos in French! He just finished 2 years of French Immersion and already his command of conversational French was way beyond Tina and me.
Thus started our week-long French Immersion camping experience.
The campers start their days at 9am, and come home for lunch at 12 noon. Their after noon program runs from 1:30 to 4pm, then they spend the evening with families. Our minimum job was to keep them fed and housed, but additional participation were much encouraged: there were many volunteer tasks like making coffee and driving kids around the region, preparing lunch for the momos so they don’t have to worry about cooking, joining parent-led talks and workshops, or teaming up for some friendly competition against the momos.
Even though we spent a solid 6 nights at the French Camp, time flew by dramatically quickly. We spent Sunday morning biking around the lovely campground to get oriented. They have a cute little cafe right next to Nanaimo River.
At campground office, there were coin laundry machines and an adult-only work room.
In the middle of the campground, there’s a small playground and a ‘games room’.
There’s even a basketball court tucked in the northern edge of the campground.
On another day, we went hiking along the river on a pretty well-maintained trail.
We also joined a couple of the workshops led by other parents. One was on tying knots, and the group went on to put up a random rain tarp for practice.
Another was a talk led by Monica, who was a French teachers’ teacher – an experienced SFU lecturer on French Education. She gave an impassioned talk on the importance of inspiring our kids to face the challenge of learning a foreign language. She made a great point on the benefit of learning French being the constant problem-solving and mental exercises, not just the ability to speak both official languages. Both Tina and I had to learn English as a second language. I feel by putting Big Bro in French Immersion, he can experience a bit of the challenge and reward of learning, practising, and finally becoming fluent in a new language.
I also participated in the “Triathlon” against the momos, where 2 teams do a relay race of swimming, kayaking, and running. I took on the kayaking leg.
It was so much fun that when Wednesday rolled around, we haven’t moved our car for more than 4 days. As a result of constant opening and closing the car door, our battery was empty! Thankfully the campground had a battery just for this kind of situation. After we started our car, we nervously drove to Canadian Tire to get the battery tested and bought a jumper battery ourselves since we are camping for another week after this. Things we never had to think about when we camped for only 2 nights at a time.
We also create our tie-dye shirts, which were pretty addicting. I ended up tie-dying some leggings and sleeves at the end of the camp too.
On Thursday, the campers went on an excursion to Parksville, so we took the remaining 2 kids to Nanaimo for a city tour.
We also had a great parents vs. momo volley ball game.
Then on Friday, I enjoyed a paddle in the river estuary. The camp was capped off with a big potluck dinner and T-shirt signing. Our beef burgers were a big hit.
Over the week, we went from being a bit unsure to totally enjoying the camping experience. Meeting new parent friends and seeing the kids make new kid friends were a big part of it. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. A dad had a non nonsensical, random 5 minute conversation with our 2 younger boys while he was washing a table he just bought.
An impromptu baseball game broke out when we had some down time. Even though it rained for most of the week, we still thoroughly enjoyed it. We think we will become one of those families who just keep coming back until their youngest kid ages out.
More photos around camp:
