We are just over the halfway point for the teen group summer session. Today, we went to Los Encinos State Park and had a tour with the Park Interpreter, Jennifer. I'm pleased to say that, three years ago, when she began, we were her very first tour and have returned several times since, both during the school year and subsequent summer sessions.It's about a half-mile walk from the office to the park, so we try and arrange things as early in the morning as possible. The plan for the day was: walk to the park, take a tour, feed the ducks and geese, throw the frisbee, come back and shop for our barbecue, simultaneously holding hero ticket raffle and conduct , any parent meeting, call it a day. And fortunately, that's just what occurred.
Taking a tour at Los Encinos, as with all of our community activities, has multiple purposes. In part, it's the equivalent of taking the kids on a field trip as might occur at school or on a family outing. But there's a little bit more to it. The adobe structure that we tour is not air-conditioned, not everyone finds the historical information fascinating or engaging, and they are in somewhat close quarters and have to keep moving along just as one would on a museum tour. So, we're looking for them to "hold it together" regardless of their level of interest. The kids did really well. They were respectful, and whether or not they were interested they made no obvious comments or displayed behaviors that suggests that such. One child became excessively exuberant at the close when Jennifer and announced that the tour had concluded. Since this wasn't an opportunity where we could use positive practice, (having him practice the tour ending a second time), instead I approached him and explained the problem with his behavior, then asked them to approach Jennifer to apologize (who, of course, had no idea why he was apologizing to her, but graciously accepted).
After the tour had concluded, Jennifer provided me with bags of duck food for the kids to feed the animals. I had them team up in pairs and share the food. All but two of them participated. One teen who tends to avoid engaging with his peers, and mostly approaches the adults, was saying apart from the group and talking with two of the counselors. When I observed us, I said nothing to him but told the counselors that I needed to speak to them about something, effectively removing them from him. Interestingly, he then got up and went over to her other kids were feeding the ducks and stood near them. My feeling is that you cannot always prompt conversation, but having a child standing near others puts them in proximity where they may overhear something that piques their interest. That was the case here, because within a couple of minutes this male teen was having a conversation with two of the other teens.
We walked back to the office to spend a brief period for going out before going on to Gelsons for our barbecue. It was interesting to note that none of the teams lag behind, no needed prompting to keep up with the group, and most of them were talking with one another, about 75%. Once we arrived at the office I explained how our barbecue would work and asked them what they wanted. Steak, hot dogs, and ribs were at the top of the list. I asked them to form "teens." There was a "Chip team," "Deli team," and "Drink team." This seemed to be pretty organized. The reason for breaking them up into teams is to provide another opportunity to foster communication between them and for the teens to have to remember what their peers wanted to order.
I allowed the counselors to go ahead and followed a few minutes later. When I arrived, I was informed that all of the kids had decided to join the "Drink team." Interesting. I told them that was fine, it just meant we would not beginning any chips or deli items, since there was no one to pick them out. Immediately after I said that, they decided to revert back to their original team choices. For say, the group lucked out today. Gelsons had rib eye steaks on sale, normally $22 a pound, but today $9 a pound. Since families ask, we usually buy a high-quality brand of hot dogs, today I happen to select Nathan's kosher style beef franks. the ribs come from the deli so I don't have to worry about cooking them to proper doneness and we typically only by beef ribs, not pork.
Everything went pretty smoothly, and our two carts of food arrived at the checkout counter, at which point I sent the kids outdoors and then had alumni members act as "go-betweens," ferrying bags of food and water out to the others so everybody could carry something back. Meanwhile, I selected an alumni member and a new member to join me to set up the chairs and tables.
It always helps to plan and prepare. I asked how many kids wanted hot dogs, and nine raise their hands. So, just to be safe I purchased 24. There were four left at the end of the meal.
I went in for the parent meeting and the kids finished up their meal and then held a hero ticket raffle. We had six families show up for the meeting and mostly talked about how to manage oppositional behaviors and clarified certain issues on the LUNCH Points program. One important change to the program is that, in order to earn blue tickets, the kids now have to match the behavior that they say they wish to work on with the behavior of parent rewards them for. If there is not a match, they still can have time on the Wii and they can still participate in the intermittent LUNCH Points raffles. It's just part of the process to make them more aware of what they're working on. Parents continue to worry that they are the ones responsible for remembering to send the certificate and offered to fax them or bring them by. This is not a parent responsibility but rather your child's responsibility, just like it would be for them to remember their homework assignment or something else that was important to them.
So, that wraps up today's session.
