Basket-Berry!
Posted in Little Historians and tagged with Children, Church, Sports on July 21, 2009Last night was the easiest night of camp or any camp-like activity that I’ve ever had.
I’m not sure if it’s just the calm before the storm, or maybe just that the younger kids really are easier. Probably, it’s the fact that we only had 9 kiddies in our group and there were 2 other helpers. Yeah, that’s probably it.
While I only had 9 in my group, my friend Jen (her group of kindergarteners rotates through the sports with mine) had 18. Yeah, slightly unfair. We’ve been told that’ll be fixed for tomorrow so she can stop pulling out her hair and I can start. At least we’ll be a balding pair, right?
Really, though, I enjoy my group. While we were waiting for all the kids to get signed in, we were shooting baskets. After a while, I decided to go ahead and gather them up and sit down. And they just sat there, not making a peep, not poking one another, not crawling around on the floor, for about 5 minutes. That’s when I realized that I had to get them moving as the assembly portion hadn’t even started yet. I know 5yos have a low tolerance for immobile activities. So, I did what any other fun-loving children worker would do, and I “turned” the kids into frogs. They had a blast hopping around while I tried to turn them back into boys and girls. Definitely broke the ice, too!
Some kiddie-ism highlights:
Me: “What is your purpose?”
Child: “To obey Mom and Dad.” (haha, not bad, eh?)
Me: “What did we learn today?”
Child: “How to play basket-berry!”
I wish I could share with you video of the kids learning how to play basketball (each night we do a different sport, tonight is baseball…if it doesn’t rain) as it was adorable. I only had one or two kids that had any clue how to play, so there were a lot of verbal reminders on what to do(“Dribble!” “Pass to a teammate!” “No, he’s not on your team!” ”The basket is this way!” ”Dribble!”). More importantly, though, the kids had a lot of fun while learning not only about sports, but about the Lord. I’m excited to see how the rest of the week goes!
Photo by e453753
July 21st, 2009 at 10:49 am
HAHAHA! Keep comin’ with those Kiddie-isms! Too funny! Love the purpose in life being to obey mom and dad. I remember feeling that way. Funny how we fixate on it, eh? ;D
July 21st, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Wow! Hopefully their purpose in life carries through their twenties. Good luck!
July 21st, 2009 at 1:09 pm
How sweet! :o)
July 21st, 2009 at 1:57 pm
What great patience you must have! What great comments! Those are always the best! Have a great day!
July 21st, 2009 at 3:30 pm
you know when children now days don’t do much except the tv/play games thing, they really don’t know how to physically play. Good that you are doing that. Did you every play leap-frog? All down like frogs, one jumps/leaps over the other one. I am glad all went so well.Do they, or will they by the end of the week watch/look over the weeker ones?
July 21st, 2009 at 4:09 pm
@Carrie: Yeah, I think that her parents were focusing on that one…
@Jeve: I’m sure her parents would appreciate that!
@MaryLeigh: The great things about these kids is they made it easy. I don’t expect it to be so easy the rest of the week though…kids tend to misbehave more when they are comfortable in a situation.
@G. Zoe: I’ve never played leapfrog. I am encouraging teamwork (really, the 2nd greatest commandment) by looking out for one another. The one kid we had that did really well I encouraged him in that. There’s always room for growth in character!
Twitter: caitysparkles
Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Oh, I’m so glad camp is going well! It sounds like everyone is having a good time! I’m so glad!
July 21st, 2009 at 5:55 pm
9 kids??? 18 kids???
Trade ya! ;-P
July 21st, 2009 at 8:18 pm
How fun! and basket berry? HOW CUTE!