June Continued...

Back to posting about June.  The week after school was out Dave went to Germany for work.  I had planned to work at our church's version of VBS - Kreative Kids Day Camp.  The kids work on songs, drama, and art throughout the week.  It's from 9-4pm M-F, so I figured it would help keep the kids worn out; and it did.  But it also wore me out!  I got to partner with another woman to run the mini camp.  The preschool aged kids (more than 20 of them!) only come for half the day.  And then I stayed for the remainder of the day to watch the 4 or 5 kids of volunteers.  

It was during this week that we kind of put two and two together to figure out that Amelia can't handle big groups of people, period.  She gets a crazed look in her eyes and is very "active".  There was a woman, Weny, who would bring Amelia to me every once in a while just so Amelia could see where I was and what I was doing.  During the week, Amelia whacked her head - twice, got a carpet burn type injury from the big bounce house slide, put a handful of hand sanitizer in her hair, and lost most of her projects from the day.  But Wendy told me she had things under control.  She told me there wasn't a kid yet that she couldn't handle.  She has a way of understanding children, and dealing with them in a very compassionate way.  She knew Amelia's story and just kind of went with it.  She was such a God send!

I really like the way our church handles counselors.  They use the teens as team counselors, and they report to adults if there are any problems.  They have requirements that need to be met, and they move up with the kids each year if possible.  Wow!  I love that our church encourages teen volunteers, especially in the traditionally adult roles.  

And I had such a great time leading the kids in their song Friday night at the variety show.  I was so worn out, but the kids were so much fun!  I can't believe how much I enjoyed myself.  And I got to see my two crazy kids singing the songs they'd been singing to me all week.  They had so much fun :)

June 25th, the kids started their summer programs.  Amelia qualified for an English Language Learners program.  Not only was it free, but she got to ride a bus!  I was pretty nervous since she'd only been on a bus once before.  The program was 6 weeks, although she missed a few days for our Buffalo trip to celebrate her birthday and introduce her to family.

Yes, I know.  My daughter is wearing a hoodie.  And, no, it wasn't cold enough for a hoodie (it's been a very hot summer), she insisted on wearing it (instead of putting it in her backpack) because her classroom was cold.  

I enrolled Eli in a program designed to help kids transition from kindergarten to first grade.  He was having a hard time with reading; his math was pretty much on target.  Well, Eli had different plans.  He woke up one day and wanted to read.  In fact, unknown to us, he was reading books at night (instead of playing with cars), teaching himself to read with the phonics cues we'd been studying.  One day he came to me and said "Mom, I want to read this book to you."  And he read 25 pages!  I was amazed :)  His first book was Chester the Horse.  And he hasn't stopped reading since.  He loves reading, and I couldn't be more excited for him.

So that's most of June.  The next post will take us in to July.  Yeah!  Progress!