Mystery Camp

Last week was Mystery Camp with two other families with highly gifted kids. I can't even describe how fantastic it was to see these six bright young minds at work. When I think about the potential in that room, I am amazed!! It has been so wonderful to have a group of kids together with similar odd senses of humor, amazing reading abilities, and seeing the joy on their faces at being challenged to think. They all worked very hard, and I'm proud of each of them.



I have learned a lot from Mystery Camp too. Of course I've had to learn about the lessons that I taught (Amelia Earhart and the Mary Celeste), but more importantly it was an eye opener. I have never been one to compare my kids to others, but last week, that was difficult. After some thought (and some enlightenment from Tom) I realize why that changed last week. I have never really had anyone to compare them with. They're my only kids, and I assumed that's how all kids were. When they started school, I realized they were different. But they were still so different that it was like comparing apples to oranges. At Mystery Camp I have for the first time been able to see them with other similar children. That wouldn't be such a big deal if I wasn't wired to see ways toward improvement so clearly (it is after all why I chose to be a therapist).



Like all human beings, we have flaws, or places in our lives that could use some improvement. It wasn't until the middle of the week that I was able to stop looking at the negatives and focus on Zoë and Aiden's strengths. By Friday I had a solid plan of attack to help them make some small improvements, and also was able to see things in perspective. For example, Aiden tended to have a hard time paying attention while people were reading out loud the first day. My first assumption was that he just didn't want to sit still. When I actually talked to him about what was going on, I discovered that the older kids were reading too fast for him to keep up. So once he got lost he just didn't bother to try anymore. After knowing that it was easy to help him keep up and he did much better the rest of the week.

This week they're staying at Nana's and going to Zoo Camp. They're learning about all kinds of different animals and animal conservation. The highlight of the week is Thursday night when they get to spend the night sleeping outside at the zoo. Both of them seem really excited about zoo camp and want to do it again next year.

I've been spending the week getting the house back in order, running errands, preparing for our solstice party, and reading.