eye opener.

so i am working at this camp this week. its called camp invention. i'm a counselor and basically just lead a bunch of incoming first and second graders around and make sure they pay attention and keep their hands to themselves. (i can't tell you how many times i've repeated that in the past 2 days). anyways... today i had an eyeopener.
mind you that these first and second graders are only 6 and 7 years old. basically they are still in kindergarten. needlesstosay... they have potential to be a handful, but they are oh so cute. ;)

okay. so there is this one first grader who is adorable. really cute little boy. he is super tiny for his age and you can tell he has some sort of add or other attention disorder. (or maybe he is just 6.... this can be an excuse to not pay attention). so he is one of the kids that always has a teacher sitting by him and has to be reminded that he is in class and not to touch everything. i think he just gets bored. so monday, i tried working with him and everything. mostly i noticed that he gets super frustrated with himself and with other people when people don't understand him or when he can't communicate exactly what he means. i tried to help him spell "donut" and he freaked on me because he didn't think there was an "n" in it.
i was really worried that things were just going to go more and more downhill as the week went on.
however, today i had an eyeopener. so he was having the same sitting still, sharing issues as yesterday. but today, god specifically put him on my heart and mind. i was bound to figure out how this kid works.
so he might not be the best listener (if he does at all), or sharer (he doesn't really understand the whole teamwork idea), or participator (he loses interest rather quickly).... he is the most talented artist i've seen (in elementary school). he is so creative. we built spaceships today and he was all for it. (yes, he did want to make one all by himself and have no one help him, but he did an amazing job). he made this astronaut bed that was out of the most random materials, but was incredibly built.
it just melted my heart towards him. don't ask what exactly did it. (its not like i'm too prone towards the creative end of things) but i had basically been viewing him as inferior to the rest of the group and dreaded having to deal with him.
i couldn't have been more in the wrong.

so now i found a perfect spot for him and know what exactly makes him tick. its great. i love being able to reach a what seems like impossible to reach kid.
i'll let you know how the rest of the week goes. keep this beautiful child of god, mick, in your prayers.