Eldest and Nominingue

Eldest is the second novel in the Inheritance cycle, of which Eragon is the first, written by Christopher Paolini. In Eldest, Eragon heads off to Ellesmera, the land of the Elves where he will be tutored by Oromis, who it turns out is a dragon-rider like Eragon. The primary focus of this novel is the training of Eragon. He spends countless hours learning to open his mind to the living things around him; to practise the language of the elves, the language of magic; and to learn humility in sword fighting against elves who possess superhuman strength, speed and agility. His is a crash course in wisdom – to learn the wisdom required to face Galbatorix, the renegade dragon-rider who has made himself the king of Alagaesia. The difference is that Eragon only has weeks to prepare himself whereas Galbotorix has had more than a hundred years to acquire his power.

At Camp Nominingue, an important focus of our program is skill training. Although we do not train dragon-riders, we do provide boys with the opportunity to learn outdoor skills which they can use on canoe trips and which they will be able to use throughout their lives. Each morning, campers participate for two hours in two instructional activities, drawn from a list of twenty activities. These activities are drawn from five basic categories: canoe tripping, water skills, outdoor challenge, sports and other life skills. Campers choose two activities which they will take for six days, as they work towards developing a certain level of competence. For every instruction, there are four levels of accomplishment, so there is always a realistic goal for a camper to achieve. Campers receive a shield which records their skill accomplishments at the end of summer and they have the opportunity to continue their skill development the following summer.

CN Instructions:
Canoe tripping     Water Skills           Outdoor Challenge  Canoeing                    Swimming                   Archery   Campcraft                  Kayak                          Riflery    Orienteering              Sailing                          Climbing                  Nature studies          Windsurfing                Mountain Biking
Outdoor cooking       

Sports                       Other
Tennis                         Crafts – Woodworking
Lacrosse                     Theatre
Basketball                   Guitar
Soccer

Camp Nominingue is about fun and friendship as much as it is about skill development, but building skills is an essential part of our program. Growth in self-confidence is often the result. At Nominingue, this has always been true!