[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.]
Success! I now have a tip to share for solving the bead-project problem that bedeviled us earlier this week. The kids are making keychains from a kit that includes heavy threads to string the beads on and beads to string them with. The idea is to work with two thread strands tied to a keyring, slipping the beads onto the left-hand thread and then working the right-hand thread back through the beads so as to make rows (see photo). Problem is, the threads were fuzzing out so badly at the ends that threading them through either way was way too frustrating for our already fine-motor-challenged crew.
Not today, though. Today, we got it figured out, and the tip is: Add tips. A piece of transparent tape wrapped around the end of each strand and pinched tight made the threading simple and the beading pleasant. If I had this project to do over again, I might try it with plastic lanyard strands, with the thought that they would be easiest to thread and push through. But now I think we will be able to see this project through to its completion with a couple more sessions.
We started the day with a nature walk, gathering up bits of leaves and bark knocked down by a recent thunderstorm. My son stopped at one point and watched, transfixed, as a fat bumblebee made its way through a patch of floral weeds on somebody's lawn. It's so cool to see my jumpy, noisy boy so cautiously quiet, watching something with such interest. If his friends weren't so uncomfortable with proximity to a bee, we could have stayed there all morning, him watching the bee, me watching him.
Our nature gatherings turned into an art project later in the day, with the kids dipping the twigs and leaves and bark in paint and brushing them onto construction paper. The camper who had been most interested in picking up flora was also the most interested in painting with it; my son mostly wanted to poke twigs through his construction paper and swing it over his head. Performance art, yeah, that's it!
Since last week's success with English muffin pizzas, Friday has been dubbed make-a-pizza day. This week, we tried bagel pizzas, and liked them just as much as the muffin version. Next week: French bread pizza.
Other activities on this at-home day were playing outside with soap bubbles and sidewalk chalk, and the ever-unpopular doing homework and writing in journals. The kids weren't as fussy about those last two activities as they have been, and all in all we ended a mixed-bag week with a successful day. I'm sure ready for the weekend, though.
Photo: Terri Mauro