Monday, July 21, 2014

Flagler Schools Summer Camp Week 6

Happy Friday y'all!

This week afforded us a surprise field trip to Daytona Lagoon, which was an awesome treat for our kids because it's an expensive trip and we definitely weren't expecting to go twice. Monday and Tuesday were regular camp days. I apologize for not posting more photos, but it is a public school and we've had some issues with employees being inappropriate in recent years, so I'd prefer not to show their faces rather than causing trouble :]

Daytona Lagoon was straight up wacky. We arrived and it was already lightning, so there was a chance we were just going to turn around right their. The employees were super helpful and gave us a birthday room rather than the huge tables up on the roof, but it was a lot smaller than we were used to and so cleaning up spills was pretty difficult. We waited for the rain to subside so I read the kids a long story (Zack Files, FTW). When it finally stopped, we headed outside, and the water was freezing! Within five minutes, all of their little lips were bright blue. Even though I offered to sit out with most of them, they insisted on staying in for 45 minutes. The lifeguard on the tallest kiddie water slide was a riot, and the kids loved him. He was splashing and playful, and totally polite, which is a refreshing change from the dozens of aloof lifeguards that work there. Luckily they didn't get soaking wet from the rain on the walk back to the bus like last time, and could thus take a sweet little nap on the ride home.

This week's home ec was a choice between chocolate pudding with whipped cream in an ice cream cone, or an ice pop. Not much assembly necessary but boy were they yummy. The pudding thing was using leftovers from a 4-5 home ec activity in which they created edible teacups a la Alice in Wonderland, which looked like this: it was so adorable.

The rest of the week was nice and smooth. I'm really proud of how some of my kids are improving, and I feel like the kids and I have grown together. I learn how to lead them more and more as we go along, and they are learning how to follow directions and are really improving on how they play together. I have a few new students and it makes me proud to hear them asking other kids their names and playing with a variety of kids. One of my kids, who used to be the worst member of his old group whom I mentioned became an angel upon staying with me, is regressing somewhat into his old ways. When I ask him to play in another area or not do a certain thing (like tossing toys) he's beginning to shut down and retreat, which is a behavior which used to occur when he was a member of the purple group. I'm not at all sure what has caused this, but I think I'm going to have a chat with him to find out. I take pride in seeing my kids sitting the nicest in the cafeteria, and I have to have group time-outs less and less as we go along because there's hardly ever anything I need to discipline them for. I think they have really grown and are going to make great kindergarten and first graders this year, and that alone let's me know this has been a successful summer.



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