Most of Week 6!

August 25^th-27^th, 2014

Our last Monday was probably our best one yet. It was due to a combination of us counselors being in a great mood since it’s our last week, making the most of our limited time left with these kids, and our group this week! We have 42 registered, but only 38 today, so it was a great number for us! It’s also Harry Potter Week and I LOVE Harry Potter :) We worked extra overtime on our posters and decorations and it definitely paid off.

We started off with a kiddo who was so unbelievably nervous and upset to be here. It was his first time in Camp Adventure and he just returned from UK the day before, so mum stayed at Camp for an hour and sat in the back. I was very surprised by how well he did for the rest of the day though, even after she left! There were a couple time where he would ask me to call his mum, but when I asked him to wait five minutes and then come back if he still would like me too, he didn’t come back :) which means he was having fun. He even shared a story with the whole group today during Closing, which was such a pleasant surprise! Mum was sooo happy when she came to pick him up and he was in a good mood.

We also had some of our Weeks 1 and 2 kids return from other camps or holidays. One of my favorite kiddos is 9-year-old Liam who is just adorable and a little charmer I might add. He has a girlfriend in Wales apparently and went on a McDonalds date with his girlfriend in Germany. Oh the love life of an elementary-aged kid…He made me a loom band though to add to my collection. We are all very happy Liam is back also because he sets a good example for the rest of the kids and loves Camp.

Ella, Keira, and Abi also returned. They were very sad at the end of Week 3 because they said they couldn’t come back since they would be in France. While I am very happy that they have returned, they did so because there Mom is in the hospital with Lyme Disease, which is what you sometimes get from ticks :/ So hopefully she feels much better soon! But we love having the girls back :)

Today, we made Harry Potter glasses out of pipe cleaner during Rotating Activities and played lots of high active games, thus meaning a lot of plasters (band-aids). My favorite part of the day though was our Sorting Hat Ceremony. For those of you who are not familiar with Harry Potter, every year there is a talking and magical hat that decides which house each wizard or witch is in. So after slighting changing the 4 house names (small group names), combining the oldest group with the youngest group to make 4 groups, we called up each kiddo to the front to take a seat. Ms. Mango placed the hat on each kiddo’s head and Ms. Honeydew (pretending to be the talking hat), hid behind a curtain and would announce which kiddo was in which house. It really was rather fun for everyone and we had a lot of good laughs. It was also a great way to divvy the kids up into our pre-made groups instead of just having each counselor read them off on a list.

We also had the kiddos make owls today, also themed to Harry Potter, and stick them on paper bags. Throughout the week, friends and counselors can leave positive notes in each bag until the kids collect them at the end of the week!

Tuesday was a bit rough and very long. We’ve told our kids over and over throughout the past 6 weeks to only scream if you’re hurt, in danger, or someone else is. Today, a bunch of kids screamed bloodcurdling screams because of a dead bug…Everyone lost their shit. Forgive my French, but it was necessary. It was so bad, I couldn’t even talk over them, so I got up on the bench and blew Ms. Kiwi’s whistle. That got their attention. What followed after was a long conversation with them and sitting in complete silence for 3 minutes. Each time that someone made a sound we started over. I laid the smack down. After that they were brilliant for the rest of the day :) Well, with the exception of Rinzen…

We’ve always had problems with Rinzen, although I wouldn’t call him an extreme case. But today was his worst day. He refused to come inside after the activity was over, despite the pouring rain. It took Ms. Kiwi and I 30 minutes to get him to come inside. He was throwing a tantrum and completely glued to the bench. We tried lifting him gently by the arms and I grabbed his legs so he wouldn’t drag them and then kick right into the chest. Thank you, Rinzen. I almost went a whole summer without being kicked, bitten, or slapped and you gave me another record. So after finally getting him willingly inside, I filed an incident report and gave mom a call. Fun stuff.

Although a stressful day, a fun activity we did was potion making. We combined baking soda, glitter (for color), and vinegar with the kids and they got to see the effect of the three as it bubbled up. From there they added in other materials, such as paint, leaves, mud, etc. Kids LOVE messing with randomly goopy things and exploring their creativity.

Nevertheless, us counselors were glad when the day was over and literally went home, ate dinner, and went straight to bed lol.

On Wednesday, we had a much better day. Rinzen was better behaved and kids seemed a bit mellower. We made Butterbeer today, which isn’t beer, but a mixture of cream soda, caramel, and whipped cream. It’s a popular drink from the Harry Potter books. Sounds disgusting, right? It was actually delicious! Now British kids are not fans of what they call “fizzy drinks,” they love their juice, but because cream soda isn’t really that fizzy, a good ¾ of them loved it! We did limit them to a small drink though cause that much sugar in any child is going to be a problem. One of our girls even claimed that she felt “drunk” from it lol.

My favorite part of the day was during the Closing when I heard a little kid’s voice coming from the toilets. I walked down the hall, knocked on the door, cracked open the door a bit and said, “Hi this is Ms. Cherry. Who is in here?” I hear a little British voice reply, “Ms. Cherry…” And 5-year-old Elsie comes out from the stall butt naked, pants hanging at her ankles, “Someone locked the other stall door from the inside.” I almost died of laughter. I let her know that I’d look at it later and she should come out soon so she wouldn’t miss Closing. It was just so freaking funny. Love this kid.

I’m so excited and sad for our last day tomorrow! I am guaranteed to cry during Closing I know it! I’ll update about Friday after tomorrow of course. Until then, Cheers :)

Sorting Hat Ceremony 

One of my favorite kiddos, Liam :) 

Our awesome poster, courtesy of myself and Holley :)