June 30- July 4
We were expecting this to be a busy week because it was the week of the Independence Day. In the previous years we had anywhere between 50-80 kids. This year the most we got was 35. Which was not good for the camps. We are in the middle of the summer and we still have to send people home because there aren't enough kids and we are over staffed. In the past things started picking up by July, but not this year. There are a lot more family activities to do around the resort so many people are not sending their kids to camp. This is great for the families, and great for the resort, but this is not so great for the camps because there is much less work this year.
This was the first week that we had enough kids to make a swim group, however. On Mondays we swim test the kids who want to take it and if they pass then they get to go in the bigger pools for the rest of the week, as opposed to staying in the wading pools. The swim group was very small this week; there were only 4 kids in it. Even with such a small group it was a very difficult group to manage. There were 3 boys and one girl. The girl did not pass the swim test, but her cousin was in the group and since the group was so small she was allowed to be in it as long as she swam with a life vest on. The three boys were s bit more difficult to manage. One of the boys had a communication and learning disorder. I remember having him in my group last year, and I remember that he really needed a one-on-one counselor. He was not able to advocate for himself very well, and he certainly was not able to hold a conversation. It was also difficult for him to answer any questions. This year he had come a long way. He was able to talk, and answer questions, although holding an actual conversation still proved to be difficult for him. While we were playing on an obstacle course that we made outside I pretended to race with him and I had never heard him laugh so hard. It tickled me how much he loved it.
The other boys in that group had a hard time following directions. Even though there were only four kids it took us forever to walk anywhere. It took us almost 20 minutes to walk to the pool one day. It is like they would all zone in and out of their own little worlds. They needed constant reminders of what we were doing and where we were going.
July 7- July 11
When I came to work that Tuesday I was assigned the five year old group. There weren't too many kids in the group that week so it was a nice small group. Jess, my supervisor, told me that they were a little difficult, but I gave an arrogant laugh and thought that I can handle any group ever. Well I should have listened to Jess's warning because this group was INSANE. I had at least four boys who did not listen AT ALL. And it didn't help that it was an arts and crafts day instead of a playing outside day. Because it was Wednesday we had to make costumes for the parade the following day, so there wasn't a whole lot of time to play outside and get all of their energy out. There were 7 kids in my group, so I would give directions to the whole group then I would have to go around to 5 of them and give the same exact directions. Every time we started a new activity I had to repeat myself at least 6 different times. It was very frustrating for me and I felt like a broken record. Our costumes came out great though. We made gladiator costumes, so we had shields made out of paper plates, swords made out of paper towel rolls, and body armor made out of giant pieces of paper that I cut head holes out of. They were covered in black and red glitter and they were colored black. They were so fierce. I wish I had taken a picture to post on my blog.
The next day we got to play outside a little bit more. I took the kids to the playground and I facilitated some games on the green. On the playground however, one of the boys was throwing rocks, so he had to sit out from playing for a little while. Later, at snack, the same boy took another boy's glasses and screamed in his face. I separated him from the group and told him he could come back when he was able to calm his body and apologize to the boy that he screamed at. These are just some examples of the behavior that I dealt with that week. I would have to write a short story in order to explain all of it.
Saturday July 11 was an amazing day. The morning was a little bit chaotic because I was only expecting between 8-10 kids to show up for camp total and we had 15 come that day. And about 5 of them came at once around the time that we wrap up check-in. I had planned on taking my group out for double swim time that day because of how hot it was. I had also only planned on there being one group of kids total, but we ended up with two which worked out great. I took 7 six year olds and Olivia and Morgan had 8 five year olds. We split the groups up for the morning, but we all ended up at the same pools for swim time in the afternoon because we both decided to do double swim time. Both group were great. The kids listened and followed directions, and it was a super easy day. It was a nice relaxing day after the group that I had earlier that week, and it was a great way to end my work week.
