July Kids Club!

I know this is long, long overdue but I finally got some photos from our summer kids club-Son Rock Kids Camp! We had over 80 kids come at the end of the July, school years 2-7. The place was packed. It was only four days, Tuesday through Friday but everyone had a blast. A group of high school students from the States came to lead different stations in our building in Kenton: arts/crafts, music, discussion/small games, and story time. Since I was organizing the week, I was overjoyed to have 18 local teenager volunteer to help lead four groups of kids separated by age. Each group had a color and name: purple-bears, green-eagles, red-wolves, blue-chipmunks. Hilarity ensued when the oldest group found out they were the chipmunks but didn’t feel as embarrassed when I announced that I was the “big chipmunk” leader. We tried to work the camping theme into every aspect of the week. We began each morning gathering as an assembly and then proceeded to a nearby park for outdoor games for an hour. We finished by rotating around four stations. The stories got kids involved
I had a fun time that week; largely due to the amount of help. We had a day to train the volunteers and have them connect with their American peers. Every afternoon a group of the student leaders played different sports outside. Even in the summer, rain can come at any moment in London so we were praying for a good week. Thankfully it rained only one morning. The American team did a great job with the stations and all the kids made sure they arrived early to get started ASAP. The parents were very thankful to have their kids at the camp instead of on their computers all day and asked if we could extend the camp another week maybe next summer we will…

There were many highlights that week but one that stands out is our Parent’s Night. Two wonderful mothers in my neighbourhood have always made the dinner and surpassed everyone’s expectations despite having almost 200 people! We had a slideshow and summary of the week, a prayer and then just mingled for a few hours. After getting so much time with the kids, it was nice to meet their parents. Many of them expressed their gratitude and wondered how we did all of this with only £8 cost for the week. Almost half of the kids were at the summer camp for the first time. It is definitely something I would enjoy doing more of, and having help makes it much easier to consider.
I knew it was a good week when two months later I saw some kids in the park and they yelled “Ben, Ben! When are you having another camp?” Yes it is tiring and demanding but very worth it.