Camp Minikani Encore

It's Camp Minikani time again! This year I taught the gemstone flower pin craft that we did for Mother's Day last year. Since Moms or Dads are at camp with the students we couldn't exactly call it a Mother's day surprise, which took a bit of the excitement out of the project for some students. The girls loved the project because they wanted to claim the pins for themselves, but most of the boys weren't convinced to make a pin for Mom when she was right there helping them with the pin. Oh, well. They seemed to have fun, and no one found it too difficult. I wish I had some pictures of some of the finished products--some of them could have been sold on Etsy or Ebay. Here you can see me in the process of making a pin and leading the group through the steps. They worked hard and almost everyone finished in the short time we had to complete our projects. I'm proud.

Back at Work

Well, Paris was a dream. I've been back to work for two weeks already and loving it.
Everyone at work enjoyed the blog posts, and I have sent my friend Margaret off to enjoy a 3 week stay in Paris with a recommendation to dine at Cafe Breteuil. My husband has also been talking up the trip, and he is passing on his leftover euros and subway tickets to a friend at his workplace.

Stop me if I've said this before, but I really do love my job and the children. While I'm not a teacher but a staff person, I do have a teaching degree, and I try to make teaching opportunities happen whenever I can. Most of these activities are extracurricular(read unpaid), but my time is freely given. In the first 24 hours that I was back at work from Spring break, I offered or was asked to help out with 4 such activities. First, I volunteered my services to demonstrate knitting and jewelry making at Middle School Art Night. Next, the second grade team asked if I would return to their camping retreat to teach the beaded keychain that I did with the students last year, then the science teacher told me that she would love it if I could teach the craft activity that I had suggested to her as an activity for students to do for a Mother's day gift, and finally, because my boss is out on a two week medical leave, the Brownie moms asked if I could pinch hit for my boss and teach digital scrap booking to the 3rd grade troop. I said yes, yes, yes, yes! Laughing all the way, because it is so much fun!

I already taught the digital scrap booking class (photostory.) We had 27 girls, 19 computers, 3 moms and me. In one hour and 1/2 everyone made a mini-movie and had burned it to CD to take home. I could tell it was a great success because I heard the girls talking about it the next day, and 2 girls asked me follow up questions. The Brownie Moms were very grateful, and I received a pack of Thanks A lot cookies and a Computer Badge as compensation. It was great, and I'm looking forward to the next event.