CAMP!!

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do was to go to camp. I went to day camp, overnight camp, science camp, Bible camp, sports camp, horse camp - you name it! There was something quite nice about leaving home to spend time outside. I was a camper, but where I REALLY loved camping was when I was a camp aide or counselor. I loved the summer that I spent in the Ozarks, being a camp counselor. I would still be doing that during summers if I hadn't become really sick and unable to return due to a lung fungus (sounds fun, doesn't it?? It wasn't!).

Anyway, I have often wanted to work at a camp of some sorts, but music therapy came up and took over my professional goals. This is kinda where the impetus is behind today's Creativity Camp - my desire to be camping and also being around people. Creativity Camp is the type of camping that I like the best now - inside and not in the lung fungus inducing humidity!

Today, I will be meeting with some music therapists to make things for use in our sessions. I have sent out the camp packet as well as the materials that they will need, and I've tested the way Zoom does recordings to see what folks will see during the playback. I have six hours before camp starts, and I am nervous.

Of course, I always get nervous before I lead something - it doesn't matter what that something is. Right now, it is the second Creativity Camp that I have ever run (the first was in 2015, and I had one participant! This one has nine!! Growth.) that is taking over my nerves. I am trying my best not to get overly stressed about this - I am more than ready. We will see what happens in the next six hours...

Here is what I want to do this morning before Camp...

  • Continue to sort materials from the piles they are in to storage bags and some shelves that I have opened up just for this purpose. I decided that I needed to dedicate some space to the crafts that I do for music therapy versus the crafts that I do just for me. So, I have three empty shelves and three that are filling up with stickers and bulletin board die cuts and sentence strips and all sorts of stuff that I use to make music therapy visuals rather than the paper, paints, and ephemera that I use to make my junk journals.
  • Design a badge. This was an idea of my sister's, and I like it. I will design a badge to share with participants this year. My sis shared that, in the education world, participants get stickers to display after many of their trainings. She puts hers on her computer. I like the idea of having something to share with campers, so I will spend some time with the circle tracer and the circle punches making a digital badge that I can share with others.
  • Eat breakfast. I have been on a potato/chicken breakfast run lately.
  • Take a shower.
  • Start the dishes.
  • Move things on my desk to accommodate my laminator and all the stuff that goes along with making visual aids.
Here's what I will probably do this morning before Camp...

  • Move things from one side of the desk to another.
  • Forget that I have to change my audio settings so people can see my face and hands during the recording.
  • Knock things over several times without moving them where they belong. (Case in point, I have a cup of paperclips that I have scattered everywhere several times this week already. I just need to stop using the cup, but I haven't taken the 30 seconds to dump the clips into the drawer set aside for this purpose. I guess I have preferred picking up all the clips multiple times instead. Ugh.)
  • Eat breakfast.
  • Check my email over and over to see if anyone has any questions...
Time to get started with all of this. I hope that my campers have as much fun as I have at camps in my past. I also hope that this is going to be something that I can run over and over again in the future.

Time to get started. Thanks for being here...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Anticipation Builds...

Ask any school teacher about the week before break and you will get the same response each time - ugh. We are entering that week at my place of work. I am dreading it, but am also looking forward to it. My plan is as follows - clients choose what they are going to do in (some) sessions. Last week, we played Name That Tune. Now, I always fix the games where I get points when my students display unsportsman-like behavior or inappropriate interactions with each other or where I stump everyone in the room with my music selections. I also always cheat at the end with the reckoning of points. Always. I lost. We set it up so that they get to choose what happens in the next session (with guidance from me) if they win. If I win, it's business as usual. Three of my groups will be choosing what they are going to do during their therapy hours. I anticipate lots of karaoke and movie watching during those three hours. I am getting ready for a short week as well as experiencing the week...
Read more

There's Always Something...

I am starting to fill up the gaps in my music therapy schedule with individual music therapy treatment times. This is a great feeling. I'll start individual treatment on July 11th when we come back for our second session of our Extended School Year. I'll get things going for three weeks, reevaluate, and then start up again when the regular school session starts. I am excited about getting back into this type of therapy. I've missed it, but there's something else going on. I'm a bit scared. You would think that my 23+ years of being a therapist would make things lots easier for me to jump back into this type of therapy interaction, but I am a bit scared still. I think most of these feelings have to do with forced light duty and almost a year of being out of my comfortable routine. I know that some of these feelings are rooted in fears of being hurt again. I don't want to be hurt again. I know that many of these feelings are somewhat irrational, but they sti...
Read more

Going on a Squeegee Hunt

One of the songs that I sang over and over and over again as a song leader in Girl Scouts was "Going on a Squeegee Hunt ." Now, you may be wondering what a "squeegee" is - good question! It is an imaginary creature that was probably invented by some obscure girl scout in Southern California many, MANY years ago! Anyway, similar to the traditional children's song of " Going on a Lion/Bear/Tiger Hunt ," the song takes you through a sequential process over, under, around, and through various obstacles towards a goal. Today, as I am sitting here writing, I am thinking about the poor squeegee being hunted. It is just in its cave, trying to do its squeegee things without interruption, when suddenly, BOOM! Some Girl Scout arrives to poke it! The poor squeegee does what it can - it jumps up and chases the Girl Scout all the way home!! This has not been a good work week. It is amazing how people will make mountains out of molehills. Here is the deal. I se...
Read more