A week to remember.
This week was challenging. Never having worked with children with down syndrome I was going into this with cold feet... I experienced a lot within the week and definitely grew a little too. The patiences it takes to work with children with down syndrome is a lot but well worth it when you finally get through.
Camp Holiday was a week of different Holidays on different days of the week. Day one was Valentine's Day! We started out the day with yoga, library, playground, lunch, art, more art, drama, music, snack, then dismissal, was the daily schedule. All in 30 minute intervals. Which was perfect. Entertainment was not an issue with the campers! Majority of them would really get into what they were doing but if they didn't want to do it they wouldn't. I was not used to this. It took a while to understand what to say to make things interest an individual child and it was a learning process carried out by observing the counselors and other volunteers who obviously had experience with the campers before.
My rewarding story of the week is one camper came in on the first day to the classroom I was in and I could tell she was very shy and not comfortable. The entire day she was quite, didn't want to participate, and didn't seem to enjoy herself. Day three was a totally different story! By the third day of camp she was playing all of the games, participating in all of the crafts, laughing and goofing off with her fellow campers, and she just seemed like a completely different person! It was awesome to see the change and the excitement of being around other children that you can relate to must be a great experience for the campers.
This week was challenging. Never having worked with children with down syndrome I was going into this with cold feet... I experienced a lot within the week and definitely grew a little too. The patiences it takes to work with children with down syndrome is a lot but well worth it when you finally get through.
Camp Holiday was a week of different Holidays on different days of the week. Day one was Valentine's Day! We started out the day with yoga, library, playground, lunch, art, more art, drama, music, snack, then dismissal, was the daily schedule. All in 30 minute intervals. Which was perfect. Entertainment was not an issue with the campers! Majority of them would really get into what they were doing but if they didn't want to do it they wouldn't. I was not used to this. It took a while to understand what to say to make things interest an individual child and it was a learning process carried out by observing the counselors and other volunteers who obviously had experience with the campers before.
My rewarding story of the week is one camper came in on the first day to the classroom I was in and I could tell she was very shy and not comfortable. The entire day she was quite, didn't want to participate, and didn't seem to enjoy herself. Day three was a totally different story! By the third day of camp she was playing all of the games, participating in all of the crafts, laughing and goofing off with her fellow campers, and she just seemed like a completely different person! It was awesome to see the change and the excitement of being around other children that you can relate to must be a great experience for the campers.