Dear Mother-in-Law, I want to tell you about what your granddaughter Louisa did today. What she did, is not from my side of the family. It is from yours and your daughter/my-wife. The part with talking animals is all me, but the structure & planning? That is y’all’s influence shining through.
Lou has talked for a few days about wanting to host a Stuffy Summer Camp. Today she was clear she wanted my full participation and like 2 full hours of time where she had control to execute it. I am going to relay it to you.
All my wordiness is here to convey foremost that this was a VERY structured and planned out event. Behold Louisa in action!
First she pre envisioned the whole day!
She explained it to me while she got chairs and clips from her art area, and took them to her room. She draped a blanket across the chairs to make the camp Tent. Her plan:
She told me there would be two activities in the morning, and then two in the afternoon. One activity would be a more bold/energetic activity and the other a more artsy/cerebral activity. She picked out four counselors, assigning their activity at the start. Then she picked out the 13 campers. Once chosen, she divided them up for the morning activities, considering the preferences of each.
Louisa oversaw teaching the “how to make a comic book” activity (ostensibly run by Mrs Goggles) and this largely consisted of her telling PeeWee the penguin how to make an art book as she made one. I meanwhile had the tiger and fox work together to make a book. The tiger was whiny and required much support and instruction from Lou. Once complete, Lou has all the art animals go down and watch a show performed by all the animals that had spent the morning learning tricks. Lou ensured that there was much applause and supportive cheering, and that each animal had a turn to show off their tricks.
Then Lou announced it was time for a shared group snack. She went to the kitchen, got a plate, put goldfish on it, and delegated to me to slice up an apple. She laid out the apple slices in an artistic spiral, took the animals to the couch and waited they all had snacks and that each ate. This also served as a snack for Lou and a break.
After snack, she arranged a soccer game for all 12 animals to play together laying out 2 goals, and getting a ball. She divided up the team and whispered to the bigger animals on one team to let the younger smaller animals on the other team win. She tracked the points as the game progressed, made sure it was close (“you guys catch up but don’t win!”) and made sure the smaller animals got the final game winning point. Ha!
Then she announced it was time to go back to her room for the afternoon activities! Surfing & Legos. She divided up the animals into two groups again slightly varying their choices. This time Lou opted to lead the bold/energetic task: surfing lessons! She got our two small surfboards (from Hawaii), and. laid out a blue blanket, sculpting one end into various wave shapes. Then one by one she trained the animals to surf. Starting them with easy basics, and then on their second turn making it more complex with tricks. On their third rotation it was like watching X-games! She layered in each animals emotional reactions with some being bold and exuberant and others more scared and meek, requiring her to be kinder and more supportive. Watching her help some cope with imaginary fears was adorable (“I know it’s scary but you can do this!”)
Meanwhile I was leading the Lego team’s activity. Once completed all my campers gathered around the wave and Lou put on a final surfing talent show where each animal demonstrated all they had learned. It was excellent and climactic.
By this point my back was hurting a bit and I was excited the camp day was over! And then indeed most animals left with their parents to go home, buuuut Lou announced that some animals would be staying late, waiting for their parents, and that there would be 3 open activities for them to choose from for after/csno: free surfing, board games, and drawing. She propped up 2 animals on the surfboards, then got a board game out and gave it to two animals, and then re-opened the drawing station and led that activity, while instructing me to run the board game. She alternated between helping animals play the board game with me, and having some draw. She had Tiger draw, and had PeeWee make a pretend restaurant menu.
Finally camp really ended and she began to clean up. After awhile she said “dad can i finish cleaning later?” :-)
She had told me that she wanted 2 hours for this, and now I see why. She had this whole big thing she wanted to do. She wanted to get to make her idea a reality. It required time and control, plus my participation to make guys talk. It was so creative and immersive and interesting. It shows a lot of planning and a clear understanding of structure that is NOT from my side of the family. So I thought maybe you’d enjoy seeing reading about it.
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