One Week of camp down.

Friday, June 20

Okay for the most part I am feeling better about camp. I have had a few really great interactions with kids to help ease my worry about hoping this is more than just a low budget summer camp for them.
First of all, I got a little emotional when I saw (again) all the kids reading with their reading buddies. The kids are actually very excited when we put books out on the tables for them to read after lunch or after snack. I read with a boy named Mathew today, a book called...”Two to Grow on” or something like that. It is so awesome to see the adults next to them, with one arm around the child, helping them read. It really is just wonderful. I love it a lot.
Additionally, a boy in class today was being SO SO SO bad. He was ignoring what I was telling him (which, by the way, seems to be a trend among many of the kids because many of them have learning disabilities, while most of them have issues at home) standing on the chair, rolling on the ground and whining and so on and so forth. So, the rest of the class (including me and Kara) sat at our desks and passed around the talking sticks and answered the two questions “What can we do to make Isaiah feel better?” and “How does it make you feel when Isaiah does not want to be a part of our group?” The kids had great answers, thinking that if we told jokes or as Norah suggested “invited Isaiah over to play video games and then he could be my friend” or even play with him more, he would be happy.

Then, they said that when Isaiah didn’t want to be a part of our group, it made them sad, angry, and even a little hurt. It was really cool to see that they were able to discuss how they felt, even though they are really only 6 years old, and they also wanted to hear how all their peers felt, what their ideas were. It was really neat.
I feel a little bit on emotional overload, though. I have been hearing a lot of stories about abuse and poverty from the kids. It is too sad to bear. I love my kids—the first graders (along with the others, but especially my class)—and to think of any of them being abused or witnessing abuse or seeing their fathers leave or stealing the key to the pantry and getting caught and into a lot of trouble. It just makes me so sad.

Oh, so funny: one of my favorite kids, named Foster, looked at a weed that a girl from camp had brough in and he was staring at it, crosseyed-like, and asked “WHAT IS THIS? WHAT IS THIS? LIKE, SOME KIND OF BABY CHRISTMAS TREE?”
It was too cute.

I feel like I can never concentrate because the girls are always distracting me. They put in “When Harry met Sally.” What do they expect? Of course I can’t journal when this is on—it’s on my “Top 5 Favorite” movies list. Duh.
Today we let some of the kids pie us in the face. It was messy and gross and we smelled like soiled milk the rest of the day. My stomach has been upset since the beginning of the week, FYI. So I didn’t eat a lunch today, instead I packed one and it was quite delciiuos: PBJ, roasted garlic Triscuits, and half an apple. So, I am hoping that if I stop eating the freaky school lunches (WHICH AS I SAID IS PERFECTLY FINE FOR KIDS BUT NOT FOR GROWN ADULTS AND BLOSSOMING WOMEN) then maybe my stomach will start feeling better.
I think I will break for now. I have such a low attention span right now.
Talk to you soon. <3