Yesterday was fantastic. Last night it was perfectly clear and a wonderful temperature. After an amazing talent show where the girls sang and the boys danced and acted, we offered the kids the opportunity to sleep out under the stars. Expecting a few to try it, we gathered up one large tarp from the camp.
28 of the 32 students decided that they wanted to sleep outside…needless to say it was a frantic search to find enough tarps for all those sleeping bags. Mr. O. joined the kids outside. When I awoke this morning to grab some photos of the sleeping horde there were still 18 students and Mr. O outside. What an experience. It was like early evening all night as the moon lit up the night sky. I used my ipad and the star gazer app to allow the kids to explore the night sky without all the light pollution from the city.
Today, we race. Teams of 8 will compete against each other in a series of challenges that will encompass all they have learned this week, from canoeing, to fire building, to portaging, to orienteering, it will be 3 hours of action and problem solving. We organized the groups to take the strengths from each student to build on each other and create 4 super groups. May the best TEAM win.
That said we all win because these students have grown, challenged themselves, persevered and conquered fears. We have one student who has never been in the water – is a true non-swimmer – and from his first dropping into the lake he progressed this week to actually swimming 2 lengths of the swim area by himself (with a lifejacket of course) completing the swim test everyone else did. It was inspirational to see the change in him from initial panic to comfortable and enjoying the water and the number of students who cheered him on as he swam that test…So many stories of overcoming fears and learning to enjoy another aspect of life…the list would include almost every student…
I’ll let you know how the day progressed this evening…
