two a day

Today was an exciting day for Club Kangaroo - two new kids today! We average 6-10 kids on any given Sunday, so two at once is a big deal. Actually, any kid is a big deal! :)

Fortunately, both kids really enjoyed their first Sunday with us. Both of the kids stayed in our self-contained classroom today, although eventually we'll try to transition them into their age-appropriate class with a 'buddy'. We continue to see more and more kids with severe behavioral issues - lashing out, anger, uncontrolled temper - along with an inability to handle "crowds" or "lots of noise". It's nice to know that for at least a couple of hours a week these kids have a safe place to hunker down and feel loved and secure. It's also very rewarding to see the look on the parent's faces when they come back to pick up their child and get a "good report" as well as a smile on their child's face.

After church, we had 3 families over for a BBQ/Pool day - 10 kids and 8 adults total. Everybody had a great time - yeah! It's so fun to watch my own kids in this type of environment; each is so unique and has so much to bring to the party. Cassidy generally tries to fit in with the boys - competitive and playful. A couple of month ago she got the hang of diving, and today she got everybody trying to do a backwards dive. She was just as good, if not better, than any of the boys! Grant did great - the pool is really his equalizer. Although he doesn't "play" the same way as the other kids, he loves to be there with them and he really enjoyed watching us catch the football while diving into the pool. In addition, he continues to amaze us with his persistence in using words. It reminds that we need to be even more persistent in prompting for words in 'every' situation - it has helped so much! Owen is so social - loud, friendly, involving. Although he's just 5, he tried to get involved in the football catch game with the older kids. When he couldn't catch it, he was so upset! He gets so frustrated and is so vocal about it, I can see that will be one of our major parenting challenges over the next few years.

Nothing but kids all day long - what a great day!