For the past 3 weeks I've been working in the city at Girard College where one company brings together 300 kids from all over the greater Philadelphia area to have fun at a summer camp. The first week started out sort of rough with me contracting a kiddy disease, known by the name of strep throat to many, something may I add I've not had since I was 10 but luckily I recovered and have had a blast since then; I teach Project Discovery(science) and World Tours(s. studies) to a bunch of 6-9 year olds who have blown me out of the water with their intelligence. "Most" of my campers encourage me daily with their insights and funny comments and it has certainly been a rewarding experience. Especially when moments like this morning happen where a young, often difficult camper runs up and says "Miss April, my uncle left yesterday for Belize, I told him about all that stuff we learned, even them funny people with cone shaped heads and cross-eyes".
I don't know much about their home lives or how well they do in school but it has been amazing to see the smiles on these kid's faces as a room full of people cheer them on for earning the honor of "Camp Scout" for the day. Just giving these kids a place to have fun and be kids has turned out to not only be a blessing for them but me as well. This afternoon as one of my campers was attempting to teach me the Dream Camp rap she stopped one of her friends en route to the bus and was beaming to tell them she had successfully taught me the rap/dance, " I didn't think I could ever teach anybody anything."It turns out what I thought was the most whitest white girl dance ever could bring a huge smile to one child's face and I'd risk humiliation for that any day.
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