Sunday, June 24, 2012

Adventure Club: Taking the next step


It was another beautiful day of hiking at Adventure Club last Wednesday.  Although we were a small group this week, we had fun exploring the foothills above Boise, near Bogus Basin.



The hills are full of beautiful, sparkly, and sometimes translucent pieces of mica, quartz, and agate, which made climbing around on the rocks even more fun.


However, one or two of the kids were first-time hikers, and there is an important lesson to be learned about collecting shiny rocks while hiking. I imagine the internal monologue goes something like this:

"Boy oh boy, look at this cool rock. I should take it home and show all my friends. Hey, here's another one. Let's bring it home too. There's three more--even more awesome than the first two! This is great! What a fantastic rock collection I'm going to have. Hmm, wonder how my backpack got so heavy...."


Only one child from La Capilla managed to get up early enough to make the 6:30am bus this week--the intrepid Crystal. Every week she grows more courageous and more skillful at navigating the trails and boulders.


I predict that a day will come when she is the one leading this program, teaching the little ones how to get down a steep hill or cross a creek without getting your feet wet.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Sunday Night Basketball

After planting the garden at La Capilla last week a group of kids were playing basketball behind the church. I joined in on the game and we had a great time. I decided it would be a great idea to continue playing basketball every week after church on Sundays. We put it in the newsletter that basketball was Sunday nights at 7 behind the church. Yesterday we had 10 people show up to play. We might not be the NBA but we sure did have a fun time. It was a great opportunity to get to know some of the people out there at La Capilla. Being new I am still getting to know people and their names. What better way to get to know children then to play sports. We had a great time and plan on playing again every Sunday after church during the summer. All are welcome, feel free to join us. You can come to the service at La Capilla at 6pm or just join us for basketball following the service at 7pm. See you on the court.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Adventuring

Aldous Huxley claimed his father found "a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing."


 I imagine he had in mind a solitary, silent ramble through the hills--bird singing, brook gurgling, wind whispering. Plenty of time for reflection and contemplation....

That was not so much the atmosphere of our recent Adventure Club trip to Jump Creek.

Instead, try four adults and twelve kids, aged kindergarten to junior high, scrambling up rocks, hopping across creeks, catching (well, trying to catch) lizards, yelling, sweating, laughing, helping each other, and learning about themselves and their world.


Still, "churchgoing" might not be such an odd description: it was pretty awesome to see Grace kids and Capilla kids building friendships, gaining confidence in themselves, asking questions, and taking initiative.

Some of the younger ones--for whom this hiking thing was a brand new experience--spent the first hour clinging to the adults in terror. What? You want me to cross that creek on those wobbly little rocks? You want me to climb down that hill? Don't you see how steep and slippery it is?

They were entirely new to the basic skills of edging sideways down a hill, using the rocks embedded in the slope to keep from sliding, or dropping to all fours when it gets steep.We spent awhile saying "Put your foot here, now step here, now here."

But they didn't give up, not even the little kindergartener, Kimberly, who whimpered so incessantly that I finally asked her, "Do you want to stop here? Do you want to go back down?"

Still mewling, she shook her head emphatically and pointed up at the big kids, fifteen feet up. She wanted to climb! By the time we got up there, we were both panting and covered in sweat, but she caught her breath and turned to me with a radiant smile. And you would hardly believe it, but by the end of the afternoon, she and her friend Crystal were tramping out ahead of the group down the trail, confident as can be.






This was the first Adventure Club trip of the year, but no doubt there will be many more stories to tell this summer. The group will be going 2-3 times a month all summer long, with the next trip starting at 6:30 from Grace this coming Wednesday.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Of Scientists and Water Balloons

Leslie and Concepcion decorate their posters.
The end of school is here, which means finishing up final projects. Several of our Capilla kids had the same project last week--an essay and a poster about a famous scientist.

The students were able to use the office computer to find information and images, and we provided some of the creative materials, such as foam letters, construction paper, and other art supplies. I found my role as a tutor was mostly one of emotional support: "Yes, I think that picture looks great there. Sure, you could use these letters to spell out her name. What a great idea! Go for it!" Turns out you need a lot of confidence and courage to put the first permanent mark on a clean, white poster board.

The educator in me has to laugh sometimes at how far these assignments in practice are removed from their ideal. When Concepcion told me her subject was Dr. Mae Jemison, my reaction, naturally, was "Who's that?"

Deztiny writes about Sir Isaac Newton
The first African-American woman astronaut to go into space, apparently. But Concepcion and her friend Deztiny were both flabbergasted that I, an adult who claimed to be smart and college educated, didn't know about Mae Jemison. Hands on her hips, Deztiny turned to me and demanded, "Well, do you know who Sir Isaac Newton is?"

So, context is still a work in progress. But who knows? Maybe Mae Jemison should be as important as Sir Isaac Newton.

Anyway, this week we celebrated the end of this year's homework club with cupcakes, ice cream, and water balloons. I spent most of the hour standing by the sink, trying to fill balloons faster than the kids could throw them at each other--a pretty hopeless endeavor.

I finally stepped out into the sun just in time to get a bucket of water over the head, courtesy of Alex. The rest of the kids were shocked that he'd dared to soak an adult, but he just looked at me smugly and said, "Mother Karen told me she's going to make you ride home in the trunk."