DAY TWO

I did not take a single photo today! I cannot believe how fast the time flew. It seemed like they had just walked through the door when it was time to leave again. BEST MOMENT of the day: two minutes after she walked through the door we were standing around chatting waiting for Madi to arrive and Abigail said, "I thought this was going to be the most BORing class, but it's the best camp I've EVER been to. I love it so much!!" And this after only one day! Woo hoo! Let's see what she says tomorrow....

Today we started out in our circle talking about worries. I asked the girls if they knew what the word "worry" meant and Ava said it's something you are thinking about and you are not sure what will happen, like maybe you are worried about your dog being sick. They we talked about things they are worried about; Hayliegh is worried that her dog will die. Abigail is worried about having asthma and gets scared she might stop breathing when she is sleeping. Ava is worried she might hit her head on the diving board when she does a flip. All valid worries. Then we talked about the opposite of worrying, and what you can do to help yourself when you are worried. We thought of words we can use to combat worry. They came up with some excellent ones: love, peace, brave, caring, sharing, friends, believe, BREATHE, and my favorite CONTINUE. I love that word. Just put one foot in front of the other and continue. No matter what.

We made worry boxes with our positive words on the outside and tiny clothespin worry dolls to hold our worries on the inside. Afterward we had a lesson on tape transfers and they experienced that AHA moment when you rub off the paper and the image stays on the tape. Love it! Then we had lunch. Yesterday I had a roll of duct tape on the table and Ava picked it up and made an awesome bracelet for me. So last night I went to A.C. Moore and bought a few rolls and today while we had lunch I let her teach the class. We all learned how to make duct tape bracelets and bows. They are so cool! And Ava did a great job teaching. I should have made a video.

The girls continued working on their journals, adding paint and paper and tape transfers to their layers. We did a little jumping on the trampoline, wore some tutus, danced and hula hooped. Then I introduced them to our friend Sarah and the girls from Girl Power 2 Cure. I explained what it means to have Rett Syndrome and we read the girl's stories on the website. They asked a lot of questions and wanted to know all about the girls and who they are and what their lives are like. We decided to continue our relationship with the pen pals my group made during the winter session, so each of the girls made a shoelace necklace for Sarah and her friends. They are adorable and I promised to get them to the post office this week. Suddenly it was almost time to go home. We cleaned up (these girls are great helpers! they love to wash paintbrushes and sweep glitter) and then played a few rounds of musical chairs and had a hula hoop contest as their moms and dads walked through the door.

Tomorrow we go on a field trip to the park for some Guerilla Art. I swear I'll bring my camera!