July 5th

July 5^th, 2009

Our first day of teaching. Wow.

First let me say this: the kids are great. In fact, they were more than great today; they were wonderful. Session One was interesting. The kids were all... hm. How shall we say this? Energetic. Hehe. We made some rules up right away: You must stand while singing. If you do not stand when we issue the command, you have exactly until the count of three before you get tickled to death. Unfortunately, that only works with 80% of the campers as some children enjoy being tickled to death. Session Two was better but we still had trouble with the songs. I don't know if we were trying too hard or what. But the kids were patient. :-)

Session Three and Four were probably the best. They were so funny. They knew the songs. They did the motions... in fact, they really got into them! Lol. Of course, two of the boys in both those groups were from my cabin (therefore, I'm one of their special counselors) so they did their best. But they were really, really funny. Making jokes about each other and singing their hearts out...

I am signed up for Cabin 6. Basically, it's James (age 17) and myself with four oldest boys ( ages 10-14). They are so well behaved and gentlemanly. We won first place today in the cabin clean-up. We were all so surprised because we didn't know how clean the other cabins were. James kept saying, “We'll probably get last place or something or maybe tie for fifth...” and Stirling (one of our boys) would reply, “Shut up!” :-P :-) Anyways, the judges went from 5^th place on up and we started thinking maybe we had gotten even 3^rd or 2^nd. But it was still a great surprise when they announced that Cabin 6 was the winner. :-)

I am amazed at the change in young people when they receive a load of responsibility. They become adults. The children look up to the counselors... it's an awesome feeling. I was frightened by it yesterday even though I was loving having the boys around. Camp is so lonesome without the children! But today I think my feet are finding some firm ground... it's going to be ok.

We decided that some things are going to happen:

1: To the best (meaning, tries the hardest) group, we will give prizes to at the end of the week.

2: When we finish early, the kids are allowed to play the instruments until Session time is over.

3: And the rules of our classroom will be followed with the only exceptions due to ill health.

4: We will begin every session with prayer.

My brain has quit working. So until later. Lol. :-)