Days 1 & 2 A Success! (Week 4)

Balance Beam -- Beast Mode

We've been having an excellent camp so far! I love these long days with all the kids. It gives me much more time to connect with them and who they are than what I'm able to get during the <1hr lessons at Mindful Martial Arts.

It also gives us a chance to explore more content, more context, and to live-problem-solve real life playground politics and conflicts.

Plus the amazing beautiful farm we're on makes it a great photo opportunity. We should make a calendar or something! Please check out beautiful pics and vids of your kids hereI I added over 30 pics and vids of the last two days, this morning.

You'll get to see pics of the Ninja treasure hunt (for popsicles), the balance beam challenges, tire swing and sand-box fun, "chicken-fight" challenge videos, nature ninja bracelets, ninja backwards rolls and more.

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Themes and lessons so far include the "Dream Caller" art project, where we are designing devices to call in the good energy for good dreams (while also still catching any bad energy that may lead to bad dreams). We're learning to calm our minds with breathing, and how to use verbal and physical self-defense with our minds, hearts, words, and bodies. A little bit of controlled wrestling and jiu-jitsu actually happened on the mats these last couple days.

And several children had the opportunity to stand their ground yesterday, put their hands up, and call out in a loud voice "STOP! I DON'T LIKE THAT!" It was transformational (I feel) for one of our campers to turn from a semi-crying semi-panicked child who was running away from someone chasing her, to one who was standing her ground. "TURN AROUND. STAND YOUR GROUND. PUT YOUR HANDS UP!," I yelled. She did. Her chaser was half her size, and as soon as he realized she wasn't going to run away and he was going to have to go through her hands to get her, he "noped" right out of there back to the sand-box. It was beautiful to see.

Other campers had to defend themselves from an overzealous and very emotionally disregulated camper at the end of the day who got in 3 different children's faces within the period of 3 minutes, grabbing for their shoulders and body (don't worry, it wasn't your child ;-) ). All 3 of them stood their ground, put their hands up, and called out in a loud voice "STOP! I DON'T LIKE THAT!," before their "attacker" moved on. They then walked away almost non-chalantly. It was beautiful to watch.

Thanks for having your children be part of this experience.

Aloha,

Coach Gabe & Team