Hi Sandbag,
i went to this years Summer Bushmoot by myself as my wife had similar reservations to you. I have to say i was so impressed by the attitude by, and for, families. The activities for the children were almost identical to the 'grown up' activities, just focused more on their needs. The beauty of it for me was that they were not patronised, the instructors were brilliant (and thats from a professional instructor), they not only entertained and informed the kid's (and accompanying adults), but they gave the kid's ownership of whatever the subject was. They may have been guided, but THEY did the discovering and producing! I have got to say, the look of wonderment and the smiles of delight were enough to melt the hardest of hearts (even Cap'n Badger and the naughty corner).
During the Bushmoot i had a little family emergency and, luckily enough, i only live 10 mins up the road so the Mrs was able to come down to the camping area to inform me (no mobile signal, BLISS!). She had to wander around the site to find me and when she did, she said that she was annoyed because, if she had know it was going to be so accepting of families, she would have been down for the whole weekend with Jed Jnr (17 months)!
There were kid's there from 4months old to over 50 Yrs! I strongly recommend that you consider taking your family to the next one, they will love it.
Just a quick one though, if any of your kid's are going to attend any of the classes, they must be accompanied by an adult; you cannot just dump your kid's with an instructor and leave. I'm not sure what the age ranges were, but i think it was either 12 or 14 yrs and below had to be accompanied, i'm sure someone will clarify. Saying that though, would you want to miss out on a major experience in your childs life like that? I would'nt.
Finally, i have to say that we had some kid's come wandering into our camp on occasion. They were brilliant, asking if they could enter, asking questions about how we did things and why. They were polite, inquisitive and a pleasure to have as guests. I think their parents thought they were intruding on our circle a little and called them away but they were ace, so if you were the family with the long haired kid's who sounded like they were from the North East area and who called the three legged dog 'Clever' and got a ferret, they are excellent children you have, you must be very proud!
