More About Summer Camps at BGC

Our local Boys and Girls Club has an ideal location, in between a park I used to take the kids to and James' current school. This means he can walk there after school and they can use the park so the kids can run around outside. James can even sign himself in. The staff is great with all the kids. I like what I've seen about reinforcing safety, respect, and caring. While I've received a couple of phone calls and requests to talk with the director when picking up James, any issues regarding behaviours are dealt with as calmly as possible, and they include James in the process, which is great.

Homework time and loud levels in the Teen Room can trigger behaviours. We are working on addressing this with James being more mature in requesting a break and the Staff doing what they can to accommodate us while keeping track of all the kids present. 

Summer camp is fun time! While I'd love to drop James off for a full day, so far it seems to work best to give him some quiet time before hitting camp. Every week has a theme. This week they are making films on an iPad with a partner. I can hardly wait to see what he's done.

One week they focused on cooking, and James made his own pizza and ate it for lunch. Wow. My picky eater, making and eating his own lunch! I swoon. James is eating lunch with his group! Again, I swoon. I hear tales (albeit brief and a bit garbled) about touch football games, goofy friends, and club staff nicknames and news on our ride home. It feels so good.

It makes me feel happy that James is not missing out on summer, fun things his peers are enjoying, and opportunities to learn new things. James seems pretty happy too!

Field Trip: Driven Raceway

Towards the middle of Spring, I began to plan for summer. Thanks to Friends of the North Bay Regional Center, I was able to sign James up for summer camp sessions at the local Boys and Girls Club. I told him I could afford two field trips during summer camp, which he could choose.

Without hesitation, James said he wanted to go to the dance field trip and go cart racing. The dance was a huge hit. When I picked him up he was glowing. The go cart trip was today.

Because James has never driven anything, except a video game, I thought it would be good to to a pre-field trip the night before and show James where he'd be going, and prepare him for go cart noises.

We got to Driven Raceway about 30 minutes to closing time. The place was empty and the staff hanging out. When James and I entered, they asked if they could be of help. I asked how noisy the carts were, explaining that my son had a field trip tomorrow but had never driven a go cart. They immediately offered to drive a cart around, so James could get used to the speed and sounds.

Wow, can they zip!! And thankfully they are much quieter than I thought they'd be. The staff was so friendly and courteous. They asked James his name and told him they'd look out for him the next day.

Result: another great field trip for James! James says he is glad we did the pre-field trip, so he could look forward to the real field trip even more.

Magic Marker Monday: "Big" Top

Michelle's post a couple of weeks back reminded me of a great little craft the kids did for Carnival Week at Summer Camp - the Paper Circus!

Paper people and tent parts were coloured and then cut and pasted.

James liked the the tent. He was not that interested in the people. This has me thinking that he'd probably like making a circus train, and maybe a station. Hmmmmm ....

I love how he decorated teh stripes with numbers!

For more great masterpieces or to share some of your own, visit
5 Minutes for Special Needs for more Magic Marker Monday.

                                
  

"Do You Want to Play?"

When I picked up James today, he was yelling gleefully, bopping a white balloon up in the air and laughing. I asked the counselor how long he'd been doing this. Ten minutes, apparently.

Because Carnival week goes out with a bang, I took a few pictures. While I was doing this, another boy wandered into the main hall where James was. "Hey - do you want to play with me?" he asked.

Another first. I don't think I can remember James spontaneously asking someone else to join him in a game in progress.

The other boy was on his way to eat his lunch, so I wound my photo shoot and we headed for home. So proud of my kiddo.

Special Exposure / Wordless Weds: Camp Wacky

Yes, TWO Special Exposure / Wordless Weds. posts this week!

The kids are attending their second week of summer camp and today was Wacky Wednesday. James' sister was so excited about it that he was too. They both took care to dress up. The counselors dress up and encourage all the campers to as well. I was so glad I'd had my coffee -- it was quite a site to see at the morning drop off!

James picked out a wacky outfit of his very own for the first time (last year he was content to let Mom slap a huge sombrero on his head and call it wacky-fine). The hat that his dad got for him, Dad's tie, and his shoes on the wrong feet. Wow he loves that last one, every day! His big sister racked up another award ... and she didn't even bring the hand puppets!

Prizes are given out to those who make an inspired effort at wackiness. It's such a smart idea, because getting to wear strange things like PJs, ties, and feather boas (and monster feet) to camp makes the day seem extra special - like a summer Halloween.


For more images from the heart and to share some of yours,
visit Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.






               and ... Wordless Wednesday