Camp Mom: Day 23

[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.]
Wednesday is free movie day, and since we bypassed the snack lines this time, it was not Mom Tantrum day. The kiddie film we saw was Flushed Away, and while it was a very well-done and enjoyable movie, I will issue this warning for any families of hyper obsessive kids who have not yet seen it: There is a very real chance that your child will spend the rest of the day saying of various people, "I'm going to flush her down the toilet!" "I'm going to flush him down the toilet!" Um, thanks for that, movie writers. Thanks a whole heck of a bunch.
After the movie, we had some free play at home, including computer games for some and Bingo games for others. Then lunch, and a walk around the nearby high school again, this time dropping one camper and his mother off at the front door for an orientation session.
Toward the end of our walk, as we strolled along a sunny sidewalk, we met that great hazard of the suburban jungle: chewing gum on the sidewalk. One camper's flip-flops were pretty well covered with the stuff, so she hot-footed it home barefoot and we spent the next little while sitting on the front steps, eating popsicles and removing gum goo. (Dishwashing soap worked best for dispatching the sticky stuff, by the way.)
The kids did some homework, finally finished their long-pending beading project, and wrote in their journals before it was time to head for home. No one, I'm happy to say, got flushed down the toilet.
Photo: Terri Mauro

Disclaimer for younger children: Flushed Away should not be seen by younger children! I picked it up, thinking it was going to be super cute for Little Pickel. Nope, he decided that the toilet was going to be a fantastic place to flush Hot Wheels, Trucks, and the occasional dollar bill.
Ha! Glad mine isn’t the only kid who locked onto that. While it’s unlikely that he’s actually going to manage to flush his friend down the toilet, that is apparently not going to stop him from threatening her with it 500 more times this summer.