Deutschland Round Two! : Week 3!

August 4th-8th

Our 3^rd week was our smoothest week yet with half of our kids from weeks 1 and 2 returning and some new ones as well. I felt I made a deeper connection with the kids this week and my team and I have been learning and improving upon things each week!

Every time we have a birthday, the birthday camper receives a big, decorated card from us counselors and gets sung “Happy Birthday” at lunch. So because it was Jacob’s birthday over the weekend, it is only right that we do the same for him :) It sounds as though he already had a great celebration as he received a go-cart and trip to France this next week! However, it is rewarding to see the look on the camper’s face when s/he receives a card for their birthday :)

I was able to talk with one of our 8 year-olds Melanie more this week who has developed quite the attachment to me. She is very soft-spoken and yet her Scottish accent is quite pronounced! And I LOVE it! It’s very interesting now that I can distinguish more clearly between Scottish accents, Northern English accents, Southern English accents, Welsh accents, and Irish accents due to our varied UK campers! I haven’t quite nailed each of them myself, but it’s fun to know I can tell the difference most of the time. Melanie always talks about Scotland and how much she loves it compared to England. She and her family are visiting her…as she calls them “Grandad and Grandma” in Scotland next week and she’s very excited! She and her brother Archie are the best-behaved kids and so kind and polite! Their parents are also so kind as well, which only make sense seeing as though their kids are so well-spoken and kind. I loved getting to know them better this week and look forward to when they come back from holiday week 6!

My kids had a couple of great quotes this week that I will for sure share here! Let’s start with 6 year-old Daniel who is a little punk, but he’s a charming one and responds well to Ms. Kiwi (Emilie) and myself. He’s quite the soccer player and plays well with the older boys, but his small stature can be a crutch sometimes. Earlier this week, while myself, Daniel, and the boys were playing football (soccer) he kept being taken down or kicked (on accident of course). His response after a couple of defeats was a smile and a, “I’m like a short dummy, Ms. Cherry.” Lol love that kid and such a good sport! The older boys are very good about being more aware of Daniel though and do try, but there’s always going to be accidents in sports. I also taught the boys some volleyball skills on Thursday, which was quite the blast! I’ve always been surprised by how easily I bond with the boys, having grown up with 3 sisters and many female cousins, but I fare quite well if I do say so myself :) The boys enjoyed the volleyball lesson and even wanted to continue practicing their passing and hitting skills opposed to playing football for once, which was quite the surprise!—while also a nice break from a sport I’m not so savvy at ;)

One of our 7 year-olds, Laili, came up to me and told me, “Someone say that you like princesses, and I said that it’s because you are one!” This definitely brightened my day just a bit more seeing as though I’m in my “cute” camp uniform all day—tall white socks and all!

On Friday, we encouraged the kids to come dressed up for the theme of the week, which is Space! A few of our kids understood, but some of the girls took that as dressing up as “space princesses” and the like. Grace dressed up as the “Princess Pat” from one of our Camp songs. She was so cute we didn’t even bother saying anything :)

Oliver left Camp early today. His mom asked him if he wanted to see his daddy because he recently returned from Afghanistan. His face lit up so much I can’t even describe it!

Like I’ve mentioned previously, we do closing everyday and lately we have a couple of volunteers tell a story about their day and why they want to sing the song they choose to sing. It’s really sweet and touching because the kids LOVE to share their stories and always become very shy. Today, Jessica talked about how happy she is to be doing Camp and how many new friends she has made :)

However, every week has it’s challenges and week 3 was no exception. First off, let me say that I love working with my team of 5! They are such blessings and are all great leaders, which is great for me because it means I can trust them to do their jobs and help me out as well. However, since Kimbriana left, we gained a new counselor. This automatically makes things a little awkward since the rest of us have bonded, developed a routine, etc. But she’s just completely off track and cannot take constructive criticism, which puts me in a delicate position. We’ll see how the rest of the summer goes, but for now, my girls and I will have to mature a bit and learn to deal. You’re not going to enjoy everyone you work with and it’s good practice to learn sooner rather than later.

I also reprimanded the kids as a group for the first time on Wednesday, which I don’t do very often. On the rare occasion I speak sternly, but today was more so because for some reason they could not figure out how to stay quiet and hold hands for a minute while we transitioned inside. 6 year-old Grace actually came up and apologized later because I spoke quietly with her since she decided to be quite the rebel during that time. I am proud of her for apologizing though. It may seem like I overreacted, but I assure you I did not. Having 50+ kids talking constantly and avoiding holding hands for less than a minute should not be a difficult task for them and can be quite frustrating after a long week.

We also had quite the drama with our 9-10 year old girls this week who decided to target Ella with poor Chloe stuck in the middle of everything. This resulted with Ella in tears, a long conversation, and group bonding to rectify the situation. Fortunately, Ella really enjoyed her time this week and is quite sad that it is her only week with us. So we were more than happy when her parents came for Camp A Presents and wanted to take a picture with us :)

One of 5 year-olds, Rinzen has been quite the challenge the past couple of weeks, with Ms. Berry (Erika) and myself having to keep an eye on him every moment of the day. He recently had eye surgery and has a hard time seeing things, but he’s also extremely spacey. Sometimes he just wanders off quietly without even seeming like he means too and it’s very stressful for us, especially myself since I hold a lot of the responsibility and interact with the parents a lot. This week, we got him pumped up for the performance for the parents on Friday because his mom said she was going to be there. Come 1:15 on Friday mom is still not here, so we have the 5 year-old group go last in the hopes that mom will show up. Ms. Grape, Ms. Berry, and I take turns outside with him because he wants to wait for his mom to get there—never shows up. We were pretty furious. He was prepared to finally go on stage and sing and he didn’t because mom never showed. Mom called later after she picked him up at the bus stop asking for his glasses. And when I very passively asked her if something came up today, she said she “just lost track of time.” No big deal, your kid was just looking forward all week to you being there…

This week was a difficult one with my PC. In short, she’s very good with kids, but very overwhelming as a boss and always intervenes and does my job. She’s the PC of all the garrisons, so that’s four including Paderborn. But since she lives on Paderborn, she’s constantly under everyone’s skin and especially mine. Our POC is even bothered by her. Hopefully next week improves!

Lastly this week we tried a new tactic with the kids. We have a huge poster board posted up on the wall with three of our ten expectations (rules) for Camp. These three include: “Listen to your Leader,” “Try New Things,” and “Respect Others,” all of which are the ones our kids need to work on the most. Each time we spot a kid going above and beyond those expectations, we write his/her name on the board and point it out to the group as a whole. It worked so well that we’re doing it for week 4! If they continue to meet that expectation, we write a check next to their name. The top 5 campers in each category get to participate in “Water the Counselor” on Friday, which is always successful! We also pick 5 kids that we think improved throughout the week as well.

That's it for week three! I'll post about the weekend hopefully tonight :)