Everything is energy and there are people who have higher energy than others, whether they know it or not. These […]
Explore contrarymary's 1885 photos on Flickr!
Scans from Your Symbols Book , Camp Fire Girls Inc. (1966)
Being outdoors with kids can be easy or hard. Easy if they like discovering or hard if they need to be entertained. With my Nature Walk Trail Sign printable I have found a way to appeal to both. Easy crafts or active learning activities are something I like to bring with me for those "I'm bored" times. Redirecting their energy is usually all they ...
Our Laurels were in charge of coming up with a theme this year. They chose Alice in Wonderland—so I went on the search for a way to tie it into personal progress and found this quote by President Monson: Let us not find ourselves as indecisive as Alice. You will remember that she comes to a crossroads with two paths before her, each stretching onward but in opposite directions. She is confronted by the Cheshire cat, of whom Alice asks, "Which path shall I follow" The cat answers, “That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter which path you take.”7Unlike Alice, we all know where we want to go, and it does matter which way we go, for by choosing our path, we choose our destination. So there we had it, personal progress helps us choose the right path! Consequently this is the topic one of our speakers used—and we also sent it out on the invitations. We decorated with hearts, books, and teacups hung from the ceiling to make them look like they were "falling down the rabbit hole." And one of my Laurels did the flower center pieces. She purchased white roses and actually "painted the roses red" by brushing red craft paint on them. Also signs and arrows were posted around the room pointing in all directions. (We should have had some that listed the values, oh well.) A second speaker used a quote from the Doorknob character above. Food was all purchased from Costco: Muffins cut in half, Madelines, Aussie bites, Crackers and cheese, and fruit drink. We borrowed the tea pots from members of the relief society who were glad to lend them to us. The girls had a great time! One of them told me it was her favorite Young Women in Excellence so far. I can't share the invitation graphics with you, as I purchased them from Dollar Photo Club, a stock website. But at least this can give you an idea to do your own. However, I'm including a link to PDF sheets for the decorations.
I remember back to when I first started working with children, and I remember distinctly the first group of children I ever took into the woods. We followed a trail that was marked with posts and signs and the children loved running from one signpost to another, checking that we were following the right symbols and always waaaay ahead of me. The thing I noticed then and since, is that it takes a long time to lay a good trail or treasure hunt and then children will follow it in seconds. I am a great believer that effort and time I put in to planning has got to a lot be less than the amount of time it absorbs others otherwise it's something I should keep as one of my own hobbies or entertainments. I remember two of my students complaining that they had spent an afternoon cutting out shapes for craft activity at an after school club and the children arrived, stuck them onto paper, bam! bam! bam!, in three seconds flat and were off to do something else. This boils down to my default position when planning, "hmm maybe we get the children to do that bit". So I don't ever lay anything but the simplest trails or treasure hunts for children to follow, maybe dropping a trail of feathers as I check out a site. Collecting coloured feathers helped motivate this group during a chilly walk and helped improve observational skills and awareness. Otherwise, I see if the children want to lay the trail instead: It helps improve empathetic skills; will someone else know this is the right way to go? How will they know which is the wrong way? How will we tell them if we are not there? You can split into two groups, each taking a territory and laying a trail for the other group to follow. Have a set amount of time for each group to lay the trail and meet back at the start. It's always good to have other things to look for along the way, animal footprints, interesting things to point out to the other group, it helps keep motivation and concentration levels up and encourages awareness of what is around. There are loads of different ways that you can make signs, but make sure they aren't somewhere that will get trampled. It can still help sometimes to swap one person from each group so at least one person knows where they should be going Although that might just be taking the challenge out of it! Agreeing what signs mean is always helpful though.
Etiquette is the set of rules and practices, based on the way people treat each other at solemn social events, in either their public or private life. In other words, how to behave correctly and th…
More than 12 million Germans were displaced 70 years ago. Their journey has parallels with today.
Grese, Irma, was born on 07-10-1923 in Wrechen, to Alfred Grese, a dairy worker, and Berta Grese. Irma Grese was the third of five children. In 1936, her mother committed suicide by drinking hydrochloric after discovering that Alfred Grese had had an affair with a local pub owner's daughter.
A rant that all my friends and family are tired of hearing, but I never get tired of talking about.
Ever announced that you were going to be leading a group of kids on a hike and had your ears accosted with groans and whines and all manner of under-breath grumbles? Unfortunately for me, I have a few too many times. Although I have yet to figure out just where some kids have gotten this negative stigma to the word 'hike' (my own kids beg to go on hikes, so I just don't get it), I have found that children often can use the help of a motivator to make a walk through the woods something less of a chore. So for my last day of the Cub Skills station at camp I came prepared to motivate the boys toward enjoying our 1 mile hike. First, I had pre-hiked the path and found a cool destination that could be used as the end of our trail. A spillway for the resivoir's dam with some neat climbing rocks on the bank of the river. Score! I also created a hiking bingo game for the boys to bring on the hike, which conveniently listed many trees and birds which they needed to be able to identify to earn the Hiking pin. How very sneaky of me to include requirements in something billed as a 'fun' activity! Click image to download printable PDF. But I had an even better secret weapon to get the boys excited about the hike. I brought with me many small tubs filled with various goodies and some small plastic baggies. Before each group sallied forth they got to make their very own trail mix to enjoy on the walk. You've never seen kids so excited to put scoops of pretzels, Goldfish and M&M's into a baggie before. I don't think I heard a single grumble or complaint about starting the hike since they had one hand in their snack mix and the other on their bingo sheet and pencil. Conveniently, the character trait the camp was focusing on that day happened to be posotive attitiude too, which I happily reminded the boys of before the hike and hinted that those exemplifying that trait might just walk back with an extra spirit token or two. We happliy walked the rocky path, the boys excitedly checking things off their bingo sheets, including many things that apparently ONLY they could see. I tried not to mind the obvious cheating and told myself they were only trying to please me and themselves. When we reached the spillway and rocks, the expressions on their faces was priceless. There's something about kids and runnign water that makes them stare in awe. After a group picture and a short break to eat more trail mix and point out some nearby poison ivy, the hike back went just a smoothly and pleasently as the hike down. I'm not sure who was more proud of themselves, me or the boys. I also passed out information sheets for the Virginia State Parks Trail Quest program to those boys who were interested in getting the pin for that day's hike. Five group hikes in one day, and no memorable complaints to speak of. In fact, every boy seemed to have a truly great time and was all smiles after leaving my station. If that's not a testament to how much kids can actually enjoy hiking then I don't know what else to do to help. Dare I say even the parent chaperones, one of which blatently had said he hated hiking, thouroughly enjoyed themselves on the walk. I truly hope that the week's activities and the culmination of the short hike will inspire more of those kids to get outside and walk some trails with their Dens and family members. One of the groups at the "end" of the trail. Can you tell they had fun?
The Best 37 Team Building Activities.
Could Colin Kaepernick's NFL return be as few as a couple weeks away???
Free and Funny Encouragement Ecard: I look at premature ejaculation as a sign that I'm hot. Create and send your own custom Encouragement ecard.
