"At First, We Hope Too Much; Later On, Not Enough." - Joseph Roux

Last week was the kids' first week back after Spring Break.  Wednesday, we were really short of volunteers, so though I usually work with the 4th-8th graders, that day I was sent to work with K-2nd grade (the Red and Orange groups).  It was fine, they're cute and there are fewer of them.  And most of them try pretty hard to follow the rules.So in some ways, it's easier with the younger kids.

I went with them throughout their entire day (led homework time, gym games and art, though I was preparing art while they were getting their Bible lesson).  Gym games is always the funniest part of working with the younger kids.  It's later in the school year now, so most of them have figured out the rules to most of the games.  But at the beginning of the year, when we have many fresh, new faces in the group, no matter what game we happen to be playing, it always devolves into everyone just running around chasing each other (tag, where everyone is "it").  Once they start to understand the rules of the game (and this is true at all ages), they become more concerned with the rules than they are with enjoying themselves.  But when they're FIRST learning the rules, they're always very concerned with how well the OTHER team (or the other kids if it's not a team game) is following them.

Wednesday, I had them playing freeze tag, which is always fine until someone else wants to be it.  So for about 5 minutes, one kid was it.  Then two kids were it (the original (kid A) and one who asked when the original started to slow down(kid B)).  Then a few minutes later, we had a little over a minute where no one was it.  Drama had ensued and both of our "its" were sulking on the sidelines.  I chose two different people (kids C and D) to be it and talked kids A and B out of sulking. 

The game made it a few more minutes before kids D and B had a tiff (no babysitting!) and both ended up in tears on the side of the game again.  I managed to talk B into playing again, but D was very upset because "every day he gets into trouble and then it becomes a bad day" and he didn't want to play anymore.  Poor D.  I talked with him a little while longer and then asked him what would make him feel better, and he decided he didn't want to play anymore, he just wanted to sit there.  I left him to sit there, and a minute later he was running back out to play.

By the time I had everything worked out with D, kid B was sulking in a different part of the gym again!  Drama, drama, drama!  I mentioned it to the Director, Emily, and she brought up that B is going to have a little brother soon, and she doesn't seem to be dealing with it very well.  Situations like this are why we're hoping to have a Parent's Outreach ministry too.