Week 4!

August 11th-15th

I’ve definitely been more homesick this trip, which is strange considering the shorter length of this internship and that it is only week 4 of camp. Nevertheless, I love going to Camp every day and playing with my little Brits. Today, we made ‘Ants on a Log,’ which is a peanut butter, celery, and raisins. Not surprisingly, only one kiddo has heard of them before (Europeans aren’t huge fans of peanut butter). So I was surprised when so many kids wanted to participate. Ms. Grape (Alma) and I managed 16 kids at a time and while the kids either loved or hated it, they wanted to take some home to their parents and were rewarded with their name under “Try New Things.” One of kiddos made a treat for his dad who is away in Afghanistan currently, and will be until December. He’s a bit emotionally detached, but he’s bonded with Ms. Kiwi (Emilie) and is making improvements! Ms. Mango (Jenna) is also a huge help since her dad was in Afghanistan for a year. Because of this, she can relate at a deeper level to our handful of kids whose dads are away.

On Mondays and Thursdays, we do different kinds of clubs. Ms. Mango and I are in charge of Fitness Club this week! We had the kids do stations, such as skipping rope (jump rope), press-ups (push ups), running in place, etc. And they LOVED it! It was such a success and we were both pleasantly surprised. I never knew how much kids loved being active. I think it helped that we had pairs at each station for less than a minute, so it wasn’t as long or tedious as exercise can be. The 30 minutes flew by and Ms. Mango and I had a fun time acting like drill sergeants :)

Going over Expectations on Monday

Working on those press-ups for Fitness Club!

Skipping Rope :)

Go Ellie and Emily!

More from Fitness Club

The military police visited today and the kids got to solve another crime, which they love. Any chance kids get to think critically, they’ll take it and run with it for a while. It’s also nice for us counselors because we get to take a bit of back seat and breathe a little ;)

Arts and Crafts always seem to be a huge success and today was no exception. While I finished up ‘Ants on a Log’ with a few kiddos, another group made super creepy snake masks since it’s Jungle Week! It was so cute when they would try to scare the counselors whilst pretending to be snakes. Creepyyy!

My favorite part of the day is ‘Closing.’ And today was no different. It’s always very memorable because I know that we only have a little over two weeks of Camp left and nothing is as precious as the kids sharing a story about their day. Athletic Daniel ironically always wants to do the craft project. So it only made sense that he said his favorite part of the day besides playing football was making his snake mask and ‘scaring’ Ms. Cherry with it lol. He’s definitely grown on me and it’ll be bittersweet when he and his sister, Jessica, have their last day on Friday.

Ms. Kiwi, Gabby, Emily, Stevie, Taish, and Skyelar having fun coloring

Ants on a Log with Jessica, Maddison, and Lucy <3

Our awesome Jungle Week poster that took us 3 hours after work to make!

Solving crimes 

Ms. Grape's group working hard to find the culprit!

Ms. Mango and Ms. Berry's groups analyzing the suspect

Arts and Crafts

More Arts and Crafts making snake masks 

 Wednesday was a bit rough. We had a bit of a tiff, but I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. Living in the same housing, eating together, working together, and traveling together is a LOT of time to spend with the same people. Add to the fact that we are all girls functioning on very little sleep and endless work. But we’ve managed until week 4 without a dispute, and thankfully resolved it quickly.

One of the best parts about today was I had some time to actually play with the kids for more than 15 minutes! We played “Giants, Wizards, Elves,” which is the equivalent of “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” but as a team effort. We had the best time and I LOVED being able to spend some more time with my Little Brits :) I also received two loom bands, which are basically colorful rubber bands twisted together to make a bracelet. Everyone loves to make and wear them—even the boys!

Playing Giants, Wizards, and Elves with the kids!

So fun!

Crazyness comes when Capture the Flag is in progress!

One of the kids' favorite activites: hoola hoops!

Huddle with the team :) 

 It was a tough week with my staff and on Thursday evening my PC and I got into a bit of a tiff, which left me emotional and wanting to go home. But the next day at Camp, I was reminded of why it’s worth being here. A handful of our kids are leaving for holiday next week, so they won’t be back at Camp anymore. They made us loom bands (shown below), cupcakes, and cards; I felt so appreciated and so loved! What a great day to be a part of :)

One of the emotional parts of the day came at lunchtime, when I sat next to 6-year old Amelia. We talked the whole period about the little things (her favorite food, favorite part of camp, etc.) and then about a major event in her life. Her step-dad has been in Afghanistan since May. She refers to him as “Dad,” but I figured out it was her step-dad after she mentioned that her “real father” is in Wales with her step-mom. She said that she’s closer to her step-dad and that her mom says that she is lucky because she has “two loving moms and two loving dads.” Amelia mentioned that her mom comes to every performance of hers so that her step-dad can see it also (in pictures of course). She kept telling me that she only has “25 more sleeps until Dad comes home!” Friday is also Show n’ Tell day, so Amelia brought in a letter from her step-dad in Afghanistan. She read the letter aloud, which was really emotional for everyone. I also think it’s touching how close she is with her step-dad, since that is usually uncommon with stepfamilies. This summer, we have a quite a few kids who have parents in Afghanistan. Our one parent that complained this summer, her husband has been in the field for 8 months—it explains a lot since she is often stressed and her son is very sad and emotionally not there all the time. Mom gave me a great suggestion for him, and that is to have him write a letter or draw a picture for his dad every day at Camp. We did that for the remainder of the week, which he seemed to enjoy and it put a smile on his face :)   

Delicious cupcakes from Mollie and Keeley on their last day!

In the envelope is a picture of Maddison and Shelby with the counselors on their last day.

Some of my loom bands made by my kids :) 

Small group time with Ms. Grape!

 We did “Glitter the Counselor” this Friday opposed to our annual “Water the Counselor,” because it’s been so cold lately! I don’t know why there is so much rain this year! And of course it’s the one Camp internship that I didn’t bring my rain jacket :/ Anyways, the kids really seemed to enjoy the glitter, and us counselors weren’t soaked and cold from the water, so it was a win-win for everyone :) Ms. Berry (Erika) got glittered the most because she dressed in her fairy wings for that day!

Ms. Berry and her fairy wings :)

Glitter the Counselor! It got everywhere!

Skyelar and her stuffed animal

Mural Art everyday :)

Small group time with Ms. Mango and Ms. Berry :)

Although it’s not my favorite, negative parent interaction—and any parent interaction for that matter—is necessary. Like I’ve mentioned before, we have a chart of 4 Expectations that the kids need to work on the most. And throughout the week, we write down names and add check marks if a camper is going above and beyond to follow an expectation. Well Emilia rarely follows any of them, so it was awkward when her parents came for the performance and asked me why her name wasn’t in any of the categories. Instead of trying to explain to them that their child is not well-behaved and doesn’t meet those expectations, I honestly lied and told them we had spelled her name wrong, since we have another “Amelia” at Camp. Her parents seemed satisfied and then asked us to change the name to spell it correctly, so I changed the spelling in one of the categories. Then they were curious as to why she wasn’t in all the other categories. Boy, was I digging myself a hole here. So I asked if she would be back next week, and they said she would, but re-asked the question. Thankfully, one of my co-workers pulled me away and I excused myself. Oh. My. Lord. My least favorite kind of parent is the one that is so ignorant and believes their child to be perfect and free of any kind of wrongdoing or bad behavior. Drives me bonkerssss.

We said goodbye to a couple of our favorite sisters today: Maddison and Shelby. These two are so much fun and have been with us since week 1! They definitely argue and roughhouse around, but they are so close and such cute kids! Their mom is super funny too. She joked with us one day and said to not go near boys because this will happen—“this” referring to her girls lol :) We also said goodbye to another pair of siblings, Jessica and Daniel since they are also going on holiday to UK. Jessica’s really sweet and always talked about her “boyfriend” and loom bands. Daniel is the little crapper who I loved, but was always getting himself into trouble. He’s definitely going to be that cute bad-boy, jock when he’s older…I just know it lol. And last, but not least we said goodbye to Finlay today. I will miss him and his thick Scottish accent, but I will not miss not being able to understand him! haha. He might be back week 6 though, since he was begging his mom to let him come back. As sad as it is when our kids cry on their last day, it’s good to know that they have such a good time at Camp! Mollie and Keeley weren’t too keen on leaving either, but I let them know that they can always ask to come back next year!

Overall, it was a very bittersweet and rewarding end to a stressful week. We’ll see what the weekend brings!