WindWalker Summer DayCamp
Hands-on for smart kids . . . 
214/789-0359
214/789-0359going into the 4th - 9th grades . . .
701 S. Stemmons Freeway, Suite 240
(in the North-West corner of IH-35 and Fox Avenue)
Lewisville, Texas 75067
What the hands learn, the mind can't forget.
This is the only place in town where you will be actually building and working on real stuff from the minute you get here till the minute your mom drags you outta here. You’re going to build airplanes with three-foot wingspans, a car big enough to climb into and
race down a hill, pinewood derby style cars, and
battery-powered cars, and a huge kite, and cast
lead soldiers out of pewter, and a half-dozen
rockets (one of them is six feet tall), and all
kinds of more stuff. And everything smaller
than your head goes into a Captain Jack Sparrow
treasure chest that you build to keep it all in.
This is not for sissies. There’s not a paperplate or a ball of yarn anywhere in the place.
There no finger paint and no papier-mache. What there IS is bench-mounted power tools, solid fuel rocket motors, glass, molten metal, spinning propellers and an absolute requirement to wear safety glasses half the time and even a helmet when you race your big car.
This is a private summer day camp for boys, because there is stuff that kids just flat need to be able to do. We are going to learn and perform complex skills to construct complex projects, and you are going to have to be willing to work your skinny butt off to get it all done. Our incredibly qualified staff will work theirs off to help you, but you’re going to learn to do the work yourself.You’re going to love it. There are no grades. Everything is . . . “Did it work? Yeah? Outstanding!”“It didn’t work? OK; let’s figure out why. Have you thought of ...? OK. Now try it.”“Did you crash it? OK; let’s fix it. Look, here’s how to do that.”Personally, I like this way better, and I’m a high school English teacher. Our highly qualified counselors work that way, too. They’ve all built the stuff they’re sharing. This is the only camp like it in the country; you need to sign up quickly so we can get your camper’s materials ordered and in the shop. 214/789-0359Project: Aviation
You’ll build Airplanes. No; not folded paper airplanes – though some of those can be
cool if you’re into origami. The machines we’re building this summer are plastic and
wood, and they’re powered by rubber bands, electric motors, and even a solid-fuel
rocket. Some are radio-controlled. But not one of them is inside a computer. If
you crash it, you can’t push “RESET.” If you do tear it up, we’ll help you repair it and get it into the air again. We’re talking serious flying machines with wingspans from ten inches to over three feet. Every thing you need is included in the materials and supplies.
Tuition: $347Materials & Supplies: $290total: $637
$347Materials & Supplies: $290total: $637Project: Buffy-Porson Racing Car You know you want to! Is this cool?
Never heard of the Buffy? That’s OK; because you’ll ever forget this one. I built mine out of this book. You actually ride inside it. . . down a hill…after you’ve dragged the beast up the hill. When it’s built, you paint it the colors you want, because it didn’t come in a box. Of course you have to put your lucky number on the hood, too. The wheels are twenty-inchers. Check a tape measure; that’s honkin' big. And the steering is even drum-and-cable,just like they were in the beginning. It’s got a handbrake on the side of the car if you’re the nervous type. And it’s scary fast . . . so fast that if you steer too sharply, you can actually roll the beastie over. But it is sooooo
steer too sharply, you can actually roll the beastie over. But it is sooooo cool. Bring your own helmet and pads and gloves so you don’t get wrecked. Tuition: $347 Materials & Supplies: $235 total: $582Project: French War Kite . . . Winged Box Kite
Kitebuilding doesn’t mean assembling something Mylar from a plastic bag.
You make these out of tyvek, or cotton, or newspaper, and they really fly.
Why do you think one design is called a French War Kite? We even drop
parachutes and gliders from them. Different sessions build and fly
different kites, but they’ll all be big enough to impress your friends. Yeah;
we will have a couple of store-bought kites (nylon) to mupp around with, but
we’re gonna build the real ones to fly seriously with. And we’ll build a couple of
different winders to pull them out of the sky with. One thing we will consider when
you build your kite is how big you are. We could build a kite big enough to carry one of
us away, but that would probably upset your mom.
Tuition: $347Materials & Supplies: $117total: $464
$347Materials & Supplies: $117total: $464Project: Space Rocket or dragon head Window
Stained Glass in church windows is a beautiful thing, but did you know the “M-Streets” in Dallas have a couple dozen little houses that each has at least one stained glass window in them. We’re going to make a sun-catcher and even a box out of the stuff, that your mom really won’t believe you actually did. Your first window is like the one in the picture, a tulip. The warm-up projects are cool, yeah; but your masterpiece will be a huge (18 inch x 24 inch) rockets-in-space panel or a head-of-a-dragon panel that you can hang in your room window at home and make all your friends jealous. I'm still working on images of these windows.
Tuition:$347Materials & Supplies: $119total: $466
$347Materials & Supplies: $119total: $466Project: lead soldiers, checkerboard, Racecars
Lead Soldiers and checkerboards like in Mel Gibson’s movie The Patriot, but without the redcoats shooting at you. You’ll actually melt pewter and cast your own armored knights and dragons. You can make your own army (well, a squad, anyway), or you can pour a chess set. It’s sort of cool (between 5250 F and 6000 F). The checkerboard itself is a piece of ½-inch plywood that you sanded smoother than an android’s bottom and masked out before you painted it in either red or black squares. You need to find a penny with your birth year on it, ‘cause we’re going to polish it up and embed it in your board as a final truly fine detail. Naturally there’s a checkers tournament. (If you don’t know how to play yet, we’ll teach you.) Then, when you just can’t stand the thought of ‘spinning another knight at camp’, we’ll build a battery-powered 1/32 scale racer, load in the batteries and chase each other around a circuit at actual speeds of 23 miles an hour. They’re quick. You’ll have several knights to watch it all.Tuition: $347Materials & Supplies: $102total: $449
$347Materials & Supplies: $102total: $449Project: Aerospace
In other words . . . Rocketry. Well, yeah, what’s to say . . . of course we build rockets, and at least
one of these beasts will be taller than you are. Heck! It’s taller I am. We’ll also build some wee-
beasties, too, that’ll fit in the palm of your hand ‘cause they’re fun to fly. Every bird you build you’ll fly three times this session, and you’ll be enrolled as an official member of the National Association of Rocketry. Shoot, this even includes a year’s magazine subscription. Fun detail: Session VII (“V-2”), we’ll build and fly a 14-inch V-2 scale rocket model. This is the rocket the Germans made famous (infamous?) by launching against England in WW-II. It was also the backbone of the American spaceprogram immediately after the war that led to our being in space today. We’re going to be punching serious holes in the sky and running like mustang ponies chasing their parachutes back down from altitude. Just don’t paint your bird green – you’ll never find it in the grass.
These are not anywhere near to scale; if I made them the right sizes, you couldn’t find the Quark next to the V-2. Different sessions will fly different rockets, but you’ll definitely have something to remember this summer with.
Tuition:$347Materials & Supplies: $132total: $479
$347Materials & Supplies: $132total: $479Schedule Session I Session II Session III 8AM - 11 AM 12 Noon - 3PM 4 PM - 7PM Week 1 June 9 Buffy Porson Airplanes Stained GlassWeek 2June 16 Airplanes Stained Glass Buffy PorsonWeek 3June 23 Stained Glass Buffy Porson AirplanesWeek 4June 30 Pewter Casting Rockets Rocket-Powered Racer Week 5July 7 Rockets Kites Pewter Soldier CastingWeek 6July 14 Kites Pewter SoldierC RocketsWeek 7July 21 Rockets Rockets Rockets Week 8July 28Canoeing Pine Racecars KitesWeek 9August 4 Stained Glass Rockets Buffy PorsonWeek 10 August 11 Buffy Porson Airplanes Tamiya Racecars Week 11 August 18 Rockets Buffy Porson AirplanesHow Do I Register?
WindWalkerCamp.com
214/789-0359
Hits since 7 April 2008
This page was last updated: April 21, 2008
