Last year, all of our campers at LBI were girls save one mild mannered, five year old boy who had traveled the world. I liked him and we had many conversations about his travels..
That group of mostly girls made us feel right at home. As parents of daughters, we are accustomed to their emotional and social rhythms. It’s easy for us.
This year’s first group has four girls and four boys, so it feels very different. The boys are rough and tumble, wrestling, balls of energy who are disinclined to listen (at firs), requiring us to adapt to their physicality.
I am thinking of it as “beautiful chaos,” and it’s challenging. We need to accept the changes and adapt our facilitation tools. It’s still fun, but it’s no longer easy.
Two of the boys (brothers) like to make poopy jokes and knock each other around. The first day included a smack down where one of them ended up in tears.
Today, the two other boys showed me how hard they could throw a ball by aiming at my anatomy of the same name. Fortunately, I protected my assets.
But its subtlety changing. By the end of the second day, a bit of their softer sides began to appear. We don’t deserve all of the credit. Yes – we have set some boundaries and we are an interesting, musical couple, but I think that the real star of this camp is the awesome, natural surroundings. Its strikingly beautiful here.
