We're a day late getting last week's "reflections" to you, but hopefully camp photographer Anina van der Vorst's slide show kept you going while we were busy having fun. Here's the skinny on last week's adventures:
- Our Trail of Pages is epic! During Week 6 of camp we read a total of 3,307 pages and 52 books!
- Cabin Inspection continues to be a healthy rivalry. Week 6 went to the Senior Boys cabin and they haven't decided yet what they want their "treat" to be, but they're considering paintball.
- We said our tearful goodbyes to tutor Chris, C.I.T. Marco, and campers Ana, Olivia, and Tyler last week. Safe travels home and keep us close to your hearts. We miss you already!
- Buddy Beads have been effusive lately! For those who don't know, each day after lunch we take a moment to offer "Buddy Beads" to someone special. If someone made your day, or impressed you, or went out of their way to do extra work, or even just made you smile and gave you a hug at the right time, you can celebrate that person (camper, staff, tutor, counselor - even Mimi!) by offering them a "Buddy Bead" after lunch. You raise your hand and tell everyone in camp about the special act that someone did, and they get a bead and a round of applause.
- It's also book mania here...in particular, camper Miles and his tutor are totally hooked on Warrior's Apprentice, a novel. Camper Janusz can't keep his nose out of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Of course, both stopped long enough to partake in last weekend's adventures...
- On Friday, we had an all-camp dance with a "Black & White" theme.
- Saturday, we hiked to Wilson's Creek with high hopes of the great, natural swimming holes there. However, a last minute downpour saw the already high waters rise up and over the ledge we like to sit on (that's 4 feet higher than normal!), so we were rained out of the swimming hole. We made the best of it on the natural rock slides down into a lower, deep pool, however, and then hiked our wet selves back to the vans.
- Sunday, we went to Tom's Creek and everyone washed their hair in the waterfall! We concluded our weekend with bowling at Lightning Lanes and our weekly ice cream sundaes, before ending with study hall.
- Everyone continues to get different, private tutoring sessions with Orton-Gillingham methods--so it's difficult to explain who is doing what. Suffice it to say that everyone is still tapping for sounds and chunking for syllables, an exercise they'll take home with them and hopefully practice throughout the school year.
- Last but not least: LETTERS! Some of the kids have started writing letters to the parents of their counselors and sending them all over the world. A few have even been at camp long enough to receive letters in reply. There's just barely enough time left to get real mail to us at camp, so send away! (If for some reason a camper misses your mail, we'll gladly forward it.)