Camp Mom: Day 9

[My son's summer-camp this year is a do-it-yourself affair with a couple of friends from his special-ed class hanging out at our house. I'll post a run-down of our activities daily, for others who may be looking for ideas. If you're doing something fun, too, please share it in the comments.]

Thursday is field trip day, and this week's excursion was to a miniature golfing place not too far from home. The kids played 19 holes and really seemed to enjoy it, despite the fact that the course was soggy from a rainstorm last night and retrieving their balls often involved fishing them out of a cup of water. The course was nothing fancy, no windmills or complicated holes, which made it just about right for this crew. We'll schedule miniature golf in for a second go-round this summer.

We ended the round of play with a little math exercise: I read each child his or her scores to add up, one by one, to reach the final number. There were a lot of hesitations and miscalculations as the numbers got higher, but all three golfers were able to make it through to the end with minor corrections. More fun than a worksheet page, anyway.

The craft for the day was popcorn pictures (above right). The kids wrote their initials with white glue on a piece of construction paper, then stuck popped popcorn pieces to the letters. Finally, they colored around their designs with markers. The finished products are kind of neat looking, though I have some doubts as to how well some of that popcorn's going to stay stuck. Next time, more glue.

Add a round of "speech bingo," a game made for therapists where you have to guess a verb before marking it on your sheet; some computer time; and the traditional homework-doing and journal-keeping, and that made our day. A nice calm one for my son, leading me to hope that the transition bumps are over and he'll be a happy camper now. One day at a time.

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