Finally Got it Down... and It's Just About Over!

What a summer it's been! Ryan and I have adjusted our curriculum to meet the needs of Kindergartners through seniors in high school and we've learned to break large learning targets into smaller more manageable ones. Our own personal tool box of teaching strategies is enormous and we feel such a great sense of accomplishment!

We did another lesson this week to teach the kids story structure and to focus specifically on the importance of having a beginning, middle, and end. This week we read them the book "The Three Horrid Little Pigs" and together we broke it down into the Beginning (Introduction), the Middle (Events), and End (Conclusion) We tied it in with a different challenge called CanDIdate that included no props so that the campers could use what we just talked about to really focus on just their story! They came up with some great performances!

Because these campers are the perfect age and just all around awesome, we've also been able to teach our regular generating and focusing tools that are in our Destination Imagination curriculum.

Here's Ryan teaching Attribute Listing

Here's the kids and I doing Morphological Matrix!

Not only have we been having a wonderful week of camp but we've even got to visit with some of my fantastic family that lives in Seattle!

Visiting with my favorite Princess, Zini!

Zini showing me her Preschool year book.

So great to be reunited with my girl!

Sharing some giggles with Aramis!

Such a silly boy!

Love him!

Of course I brought my favorite picture books to give to my favorite little cousins! We read them when Solomon got home from gymnastics!

Seeing people I love was a perfect ending to a beautiful day!

Almost there!

Even though last week was one of our most challenging weeks of camp, it ended up being great! Thursday was probably our best day. We started off by having all the little kids stay inside with me while Ryan took the older ones outside to do the Tie the Knot challenge. While we were inside, I read a book to them called "Have you filled a bucket today?" If you haven't read it, you need to! It's a short children's book but it has the most wonderful message! At the end, we had a fantastic discussion together about what it means to fill someone's bucket and how they could fill some buckets at DI camp. Honestly, this conversation was so precious that I wish I had video taped it. It was probably my favorite moment of the whole summer.

Everyone needs to read this book!!

One of the most important things I think Ryan and I focused on last week was the idea of breaking big targets up into manageable little ones when we weren't seeing growth in our campers. Since we had such a young group, two of our "tools" that we normally teach were too hard. So instead Ryan and I created a lesson where we read them the book "Stellaluna" then as a group we made a chart that recognized the beginning, middle, and end of the story. After we did this together as a group, each team got their own beginning, middle, and end poster that they used to plan their performance for one of the challenges. At the beginning of the week we recognized that story structure was lacking in all the performances the kids came up with so we broke it down for them in a mini lesson. It seemed to really work. Every team came up with a solid story for their performance.

Our group poster on the story Stellaluna

At the end of the week, our sweet campers and youth center staff got us both wonderful gifts!

Since our flight on Saturday to Seattle wasn't until 8:00pm, we spent the majority of the day walking around Hollywood Blvd.

Look who I found! My good buddy Shrek!

We decided to walk to the place my Grandma recommended for us to eat at called M Cafe. Well, 5 miles and 900 homeless people later, we found it and had a lovely lunch! We even learned from this experience... "next time take the car!"

Our journey from Los Angeles was an interesting one! Naturally Ryan was searched going through security so I just had a seat on the other side and waited for him before continuing to our gate. I volunteered to give up my seat and sit in an exit row which ended up being fantastic because I sat next to a lovely girl my age who I learned I had a lot in common with! She goes to WSU Pullman (go Cougs) and is also going into Elementary Education. Her mom is a teacher and her dad is a super intendant! We had a nice chat before we both fell asleep and slept pretty much the whole flight.

Ryan and I some how never received a rental car reservation for this week so when we arrived in Seattle we went to the only rental car place that was open and got a cute little Kia to use for the week. Naturally we got lost on our way to base because we couldn't figure out how to use the GPS! You know, just normal everyday challenges for Ryan and Rachael.

When we finally figured out where to go we headed to the home of one of the youth center staff. Since Ryan is a "foreign visitor" he had to get his own special pass for this base. We picked his up from a SUPER nice guy named Robert and headed to the main gate where my pass was supposed to be waiting for me. Guess what? The people at the gate had no idea who I was or what I was talking about. Shocking I know since I'm usually so lucky! haha! So we headed to a hotel off base for the night. When we received our keys and hauled all our luggage up to our rooms, Ryan opened his door and headed in to get settled in for the 6 hours we'd be there. When I tried to open my door the key didn't work... shocking again I know! So I headed all the way back down to the lobby with my luggage where a random man told me I looked "extremely tired" and I got a different key to try. Luckily this one worked!

Sunday morning we woke up and headed back to base to the visitor center where the people there were able to write me a pass! YAY! Feeling like all was good, we headed to the base lodging where the lady at the counter bursted our bubbles by explaining that since we didn't show up Saturday night both our reservations for the week had been canceled! We tried to explain that they literally wouldn't let us on base but she didn't care. So we had to call another youth center staff member named Tracie to come and use her military ID to rebook our rooms. Just like Robert, Tracie was wonderful and helped us get everything resolved.

Sunday afternoon we went into Seattle to Pike's Place market! It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking around. We were tempted to just skip this week of camp and hop on this cruise ship but we decided against it.

What a beautiful day!

After visiting several places including the Original Starbucks we decided to buy some beautiful flowers from the market and take them to My Great Aunt Ruth who I ABSOLUTELY ADORE!!!

She loved the pretty flowers!

It feels so great to be back in Washington State! It seems weird that this is our 8th and final base! We have only 8 kids at this youth center and they are ages 8 to 11. I can tell they are going to be a fantastic group! I'm looking forward to a great last week and to going home on Friday!

New challenges in LA!

After our week of camp with the teens last week I was pretty convinced we wouldn't face another week as challenging or as rewarding. At first we were very worried about meeting the needs of older kids but it turned out to be a great challenge that I think we conquered successfully.

This week however is a whole new world with completely new challenges that may be even more difficult than working with the teens. This week we are faced with a challenge of involving the opposite end of the learning continuum. Our camp this week includes a group where the majority of the campers are 7-9 years old. Most of them are young for their age. In order to be successful with this group and helping them grow as DI problem solvers, I have to put on my elementary education teacher hat and apply some early childhood education teaching strategies. Already Ryan and I have had to completely alter our curriculum and try all sorts of new games and challenges that are appropriate develop mentally for this group.

We've learned that before these kids can do performance based challenges and successfully create a skit or performance to go along with the challenges, they have to have a basic understanding of the structure of of a story. Today we plan to make a "beginning, middle, and end" chart with the campers using the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. We are hoping that if we use a story they are all familiar with then they will grasp the idea of story structure.

Not only are we facing teaching/learning challenges, but we are also facing new challenges with the facility we are teaching in. Unfortunately, upstairs in the facility where we're doing camp we don't have any lights. So we've had to learn to teach and the kids have to learn using only light from the few windows that we have up there.

Despite all our new challenges though, we have some very sweet and absolutely precious kiddos this week. They had a blast creating team names and posters yesterday.

The Red TNT Fire Rockets!

The Green Gumdrops! They each drew themselves as a gumdrop.

The Purple Monkeys!

The Orange Sunsets!

The Blue Ocean. They each drew themselves riding a sea animal out of the ocean! So cute!

October? Oh, I thought it was August... my bad!

Well since all six of the bases I've been to so far have been in places that are scorching hot and so humid you feel like you're living in a steam room, I naturally only packed shorts, tank tops, and my camp shirts for the summer. Up until this point, that has been perfect! Apparently Los Angeles missed the whole summer memo this year though and decided to go straight from spring to fall. Don't get me wrong, it feels good (kinda, minus the whole freezing part). Ryan and I are just a little confused, that's all.

Despite the climate culture shock of coming back to the west coast, we had an AMAZING day at Disneyland on Sunday!

We managed to find the parking lot and take the tram over to the park!

Because I was so upset when I saw the sign saying Alice in Wonderland was out of service, the lady at the main gate gave me a button that said, "Honorary citizen of Disneyland" hoping it would make me feel better. I think she appreciated my passion for the happiest place on earth! :)

We were very efficient in hitting all our favorite rides first before the park got really crowded. We both LOVE Space Mountain!

Naturally I took Ryan on a "find as many princesses at possible" mission. He was very patient and stood in line and took my picture!

I found Sleeping Beauty...

and Ariel...

and Tiana...

and Jasmine...

and Snow White!

I gave Jesse a big hug!

Although from the look on his face I think the soldier is the one that really needed a hug!

I asked him to please not to look so angry and I think he did better in this one.

Donald Duck!

Goofy gave me a kiss and squeezed me so hard that my head disappeared inside the hug!

He really liked Ryan too!

Overall, it was a fantastic day! We ended the day by watching the fireworks as we went into It's a Small World! I forgot how happy that ride really is! LOVE IT!

You know it was an exciting but exhausting day when Ryan sleeps the whole 45 min drive back to base! Thank goodness I got a GPS this week!!

Almost homeless in Tampa!

Despite doing two four hour camps a day and taking on the new challenge of a teen camp (we're talking kids only 3 years younger than us), our camps in Tampa were definitely among the most successful! Ryan and I were both sad to leave and are already missing our awesome campers from both sessions! It was so hard to say goodbye to Macdill air force base and all the fabulous problem solving kiddos!

I was totally engrossed in my my work setting up for the second session on Friday when one of the camp staff came and told me I had a phone call. "A phone call for me??" I asked. She said, "yes man!" So I went out to the front desk very confused and picked up the phone. It was the truth. I did in fact get a call... a very mean-spirited person from the Inn where I had been staying, called to inform me I had to get all my stuff out of my room immediately because someone was waiting to check in. I tried to explain that I was staying one more night but she wouldn't even listen. Feeling very confused and upset, I had to leave Ryan alone to at camp and literally run (I didn't have the car) down the street to the hotel. I threw my things into Ryan's room as fast as I could and took off running back to the youth center. That's when I started crying! CRAP!! I really tried hard not to cry. I couldn't help it. Those of you who know me well know that when I even THINK about crying, my eyes swell up and I get enormous red blotches all over my face! Instead of running back to camp, I ran to the bathroom. When I saw my face in the mirror it made me cry harder... by this time our AMAZING POC, Loretta heard what happened and came to find me. When she saw me, she pulled me into a huge mommy-like bear hug and said, "don't you worry baby girl, I will take care of this!!"

YEP! Isn't this an awful story?? I know, right?! Well, one thing I learned is that you DON'T mess with Miss Loretta! When I pulled myself together and got my face back to a somewhat normal color I joined Ryan and the teens for an INCREDIBLE last session!

By the time I finished camp, Loretta had done her thing and unleashed her hardcore-ness all over some people at the INN and before I knew it, I was put in my own palace! Well, maybe not a palace, but I did get to enjoy a wonderful little house for my last night! :)

And our last day of camp turned out just as well as my moment of homelessness. I can honestly say that I'll probably talk about some of these kids for the rest of my life!

Some of the great memories from the week...

These guys are proud to say that they tied the knot in the rope first!

There were some beautiful pictures drawn for brain writing!

Gabby drew a picture of her and I surrounded by all her favorite challenges

I'm on the left and Gabby's on the right.

Marta's picture represented teamwork!

Megan drew all her favorite challenges surrounding Ryan and I.

I think we we're all pretty proud of our DI Wall by the end of the week! Miss Loretta loved it so much that she decided to leave it up as a reminder to the kids of everything they learned at camp!

Ryan and I learned this week that even teenagers enjoy throwing bouncy balls up in the air out of a pool...

... and even elementary kids enjoy doing the Disco!

We will miss you Macdill! Thanks for an amazing and memorable week of camp!!

Drowning in Tampa... seriously!!

Now I understand the term flash flood! After camp today Ryan and I were driving back to base just minding our own business when out of nowhere an enormous storm washed over us! It was raining so hard and thundering so loud that we were afraid to get our of our car once we got to our hotel. So we just stayed put nice and safe in our rental car and sang/yelled along to our favorite songs on the radio. Once there was a pause in the rain we decided to make a run for it only to realize that our parking lot was flooded and the water was several inches deep.

Here I am risking my life to take a picture of our feet drowning in the parking lot!

Once we got back to our rooms we literally couldn't even move because of severe exhaustion! You know it's been a long day when Ryan (aka Mr. Hyperactive) falls asleep at 7:00pm and doesn't wake up till morning which is what happened last night!

Despite being totally pooped, we had another awesome day of camp! I don't think I've laughed so hard in quite a while! Macdill youth center has some hilarious performers!

Since the posters were so effective with the teens yesterday, we decided to try it with the younger campers too! They loved it! The Green Vultures were precious! They said that they chose their name because vultures don't give up even when times get tough! They said their team keeps pushing through just like the bird! CUTE!

Our morning group of Elasto Plasto super heros!

The teens loved Elasto Plasto too!

Here we have The Red Goblin using his laser vision to destroy the evil and save the innocent lovely ladies!

Gabby aka "just your favorite neighborhood Cat Girl saving the day!"

Looking forward to more performances!