I promised more details on my first session of campers, which began two weeks ago from today. 
I will try to be quick!
First of all, the staff I worked with that week was pretty great! Had a couple problems but nothing that couldn't be overcome or that dampened my spirit. Unfortunately, the campers that came for the program we were in charge of was another story.
We checked in 15 girls that Sunday for the "Boots & Bridles" program, which was supposedly an intermediate horseback riding program for ages 14 to 17. The girls ended up being ages 10 to 16, a huge gap that immediately put rifts in the group, especially the older girls who resented the bouncy little 10yr olds. This made it difficult to play games and do activities with them as a whole because neither "side" wanted to play with each other very much.
To make it even better, I had a couple kids who were extremely mouthy. "I don't DO games" and "NO!" were frequent statements from this one 12yr old girl. To make matters worse, she had come with three other girls who did whatever she wanted them to do...so if she didn't "do" games, then they didn't. I even got into an argument with her over washing her dishes. We had finished cooking out with our mess kits and her plates still had food on them. It took me almost 15 minutes to get her to do it, resulting in her slamming her dishes around and stomping over to the water. Blah.
But I can deal with anger and emotion. What I learned that week is that I can't handle apathy. Practically all of the 14-16yr olds (about 6 of them) just never did anything. Never sang camp songs, never played games...never SMILED, or at least rarely did. No matter how hard I tried or what activities I planned I never seemed to get them to come out of being mopey teenagers. The only thing that seemed to do that was when they were riding horses.
It just kind of broke my heart. I felt like I had failed at my job since it didn't seem like they were having fun at all. I cried a lot that week. 
But that is all over now...and this past week was AWESOME! 
I was in charge of a program called "Native American Art & Lifestyles" for ages 9 to 12. We got 9 girls (exactly in that age group, ha!) and they were just amazing. All of them were friends and got along, they all sang songs and played games and loved everything we did!
I think it helped a lot that I used my weekend off to research Native American crafts and stories that we could do with the kids. I printed out so much stuff! I found tons of crafts and planned my week out in advance. We had a campfire every night and read legends and stories to the girls before they went to bed. We went stargazing one night, which was super fun! We even built a tepee!
They were all so great and so much fun to be with. I got hugs from them all when they left on Friday, the sweeties.
I leave in a little bit to go back for my new session of campers! I get Brownies (ages 5-8) this week, yikes! Hehe, we'll see how that goes. I hope I can learn all their names...there will be 20 of them! 
It's so hard to keep up with everyone's blogs! I should be getting about a week off after this session, so then I will catch up with everything! I have over 100 articles to read on my feed reader, oh my, hehe!
Have a lovely week everyone! I will be back again soon!
It is extremely difficult to deal with kids when they just don’t care. I should know! I had lots of them while teaching in Lexington. You kind of expect that from the older kids, but younger ones like I had should care a bit more you’d think. I’m sorry to hear that first week went that way and that you cried.
Why were those kids at the camp if they didn’t even want to do anything? Because of parents? Because they had to be?
So…when you have Brownies, I bet it’ll be a lot better! I was a troop assistant with Brownies when Katee was in it. They loved me because I was older and cool.
I bet you’ll have a blast with them. Kids are so cute and say such funny things.
There is a LOT of stuff out there on Native Americans. Every grade in every school covers that topic at least once in the school year usually, so there is just tons of stuff out there. I bet you found some good things! I hope the kids like it.
I’ll be glad when you’re back for good! Things seem a lot more quiet at the Q*Bee BBS without you around!
At the age of 14 I was suicidal & I cut myself. Whenever I was supposed to do something I didn’t. trying to figure out why I was like this when no one believed me was already too much to deal with. So a 14 yearold not smiling is normal I assume. I still refuse to sing songs, etc in public. I was also told it’s the in thing not to smile. lol.
Have fun at your last week of camp! Can’t wait for you to come back full force.
It’s amazing how these girls felt they could get away with not doing anything. The camp that I’ve gone too practically requires participation and you’d pretty much get kicked out for having an attitude like that. I’m sorry you had to put up with them. I am glad that despite them you ended up having a good week, especially with those 9 girls.
Have fun with your next week of campers. Looking forward to seeing you online more though. *hugs*
That would be my absolute favourite week at camp! Horses?!? How could one go wrong with horses?!?
Kids can be scrappers at times. I’m not looking forward to raising a teenager honestly, I can barely get through the toddler stage and into childhood itself!
Man, my good luck goes with you Mel! Ain’t it a shame they outlawed spanking in the “educational” system? Lol, no I kid! Really! :art:
Why did people come if they were not going to join in?
It is not your fault that they wouldn’t join in, I am sure they would have enjoyed the activities you had planned like the younger children, if they had just got off there “I am better than this” status and joined in.
How on earth did 10-16 year olds get into a 17-19 year old course?
I’m so sorry about your first week, that sounds horrible and I can’t imagine how hard that was for you. I hope the Brownies aren’t too much work!
This is for you Melissa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephcharles/665055693/in/set-72157600558618611/
Good to hear things are going so well! Sorry to hear that you’ve had some kids who won’t cooperate. It’s tough but it’s not your fault. It sounds like you’re doing a great job so far, going to the trouble to find fun things for them to do. I hope the Brownies will be a little easier to manage!
Well I’m glad that overall you’re having a nice time. It is so painful when you just can’t get through to kids but please don’t blame yourself. I’m sure you’re doing a wonderful job at making sure their experience is a great and fun one! Can’t wait to hear from you when you get back.