Thursday, June 14, 2007

Summer campin' we will go

Well, we are nearly through week two of Unruly Takes on Summer Camp Counselors.

Week One was fabulous. The counselors truly enjoyed having her and had such wonderful things to say about her:"She is the most caring, free-spirited child I have ever met," "I can't believe how much she knows!" "She really loves nature, doesn't she?" She LOVED camp every. single. day. She fell asleep in the back seat of my car every afternoon, not lasting even 10 minutes after I picked her up. The swimming, hiking, canoeing, playing and running, learning about outdoor stuff, climbing the rock wall, archery...it all kept her wonderfully active and engaged all day long.

I dropped her off every morning with a hug and a reminder to have a fun day. I didn't sit at work and worry and wait for The Call from a camp counselor about her behavior.

She loves to stay busy. The moment she feels a little bit bored is the moment things start going downhill. And as soon as things start going downhill, it's game over for the rest of the day, the behavior goes into a spiral of absolute naughtiness.

Week Two has not been so fabulous. This week she is at a different camp, an indoor camp. A camp that involves a lot of sitting, working on art projects and organized activities. A lot of activities without a lot of "active." She is not a happy camper this week. Two incident reports and a chat with the camp organizer about her behavior, the behavior that involves yelling and name calling and hitting and kicking have marked this week as not-so-great. The icky, less-than-civilized behavior that rears its nasty little head when boredom seeps into her day.

The next camp is back at the outdoor camp, thank goodness. I'm anticipating a week of wonderful behavior and a very tired, very happy camper at the end of the day.

So, next week I'm off work, and she has no camp. We have nothing in particular planned for the week, I just wanted to take a week off to spend some time with my kiddos. We will take an overnight trip to the lake and fish and camp and cook hotdogs. I will set up the tent in our yard and we'll get the bonfire going at least one or two nights. We'll spend a lot of time swimming and hiking in the woods.

We like to swim!

We'll probably finally get around to hiking up to the old cavalry fort/Indian trading post just across a corn field from us.

And I'll sleep in. At least until 6 a.m. I'm one exhausted momma.

4 comments:

R said...

Oh, Jenn...

I hate to read that about Unruly's second week at camp. You must get so frustrated-- not with Unruly, but with all the adults that you trust to care for her (in school, in camp, etc). They don't seem to recognize that, like you wrote before, something else is going on with Unruly and the same expectations cannot always be in place with her as with the other kids.

I'm here if you want to shoot me an email about possible options to help-- I know you're not interested in medication; but there are others.

Also-- have a super fun time next week!! That all sounds so fun-- except for the whole part about being in your yard at night with the bats!! ;)

J. A. Blackburn said...

I can't say I blame her- who wants to sit inside and do art when it's SUMMER outside! good thing week 2 camp is just a week! :)

Lisa said...

Wow. In looking at your previous posts.. You've been a busy woman.

The pool looks awesome. NExt week sounds like alot of fun.

Jenn said...

Rebecca...after scratching the mosquito bites on my arms and legs until they bled (yeah, I'm bad about that), I'll take even MORE BATS!

I am very much looking forward to next week...I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. The pool looks MUCH better than it did a couple of weeks ago when it was swampland! We got the new filter last week and within 24 hours it was blue instead of green.