"Breaking Free Dramatically"

What a crazy week!! Monday and Tuesday was catch up from vacation and then preparation and rehearsals for Kidzblast Arts Camp at CBC....On Wednesday, Camp started. We have just under 100 kids attending the camp....rising 1-6 graders...all full of incredible energy!! We have the kids divided into 5 groups...for manageability sake :) and each group rotates from class to class, for a total of 5 subjects (art, music, drama, choreography, and gym/snack). Knowing how much that age group is into HSM (High School Musical)...we decided to follow that vein of thought and make the setting of the show in a school....so structuring the daily activities like changing classes has also worked well thematically!

Because my birth kids are now college age, it has been a while since I have spent large amounts of structured time with a group of elementary aged children! The faces may be different than I remember...but the world of "cooties", a thousand whys, fidgety little boys who are rough and tuff and little girls who are enamored with pocketbooks and make up have not changed at all!

As acting "Drama Teacher" for the camp...I have had SO much fun!! The kids have been like little sponges...learning stage directions, how to project and emote and act with their bodies, etc....and they are having so much fun doing it, they do not even realize they are learning valuable theatrical information. One of the major spiritual points we wanted to stress with the kids is that God has created them to be unique...that it takes all parts to make up the body of Christ! And in scene 2 of the show, "Breaking Free Dramatically", one of the actors has the line..."You gotta break free of the worlds expectations"... the scene goes on to explain that you can't listen to what people say, you have to decide for yourself, by asking God who you are and what HE wants you to be!! And while it is an "elementary" theme..most adults I know, including myself, still struggle with that idea from time to time! So, valuable stuff!

However, by far, their favorite thing to do in my drama class has been improv commercials....each kid picks one of many random items that I place on the counter...then they pick a partner, and then they quickly make up a commercial about that product. IT HAS BEEN SO FUNNY. Prices of the objects have varied from $1.99 to $ 9 million dollars...(cost varied greatly depending on which age group I was working with at the time)....they have been very creative...(Never imagined that a book light could be a deadly "freeze ray"...until a 5th grade boy picked that object for his commercial)...and without fail, according to the tag line of each commercial, anything can be purchased at Walmart :)

My mind and heart on several occasions this week could not help but revisit such cute and yes, sometimes profound things that my kids came up with when they were small. And being such a sentimentalist....I must admit, I got a little misty eyed, knowing that that time in the lives of my kids is long past....I know you hear it all the time, my sweet friends with little ones....but it is SO true...cherish this time...it passes way to fast...and when it is gone...you cannot go back.

As I hopped into my car yesterday (OK, I admit, it was more like "stumbled"...I was tired!) , for some reason, I decided to change the disc number on my CD changer, and it went to Josh's (my 19 year old son, for those who may not know) latest CD...he has been in the studio recording over the last few weeks, and gave me an unfinished copy of the new stuff he has written....and somewhere just a few minutes into a song that he wrote about a person who was struggling with emotional security issues.... came the line...."Lies that you were fed, spinning circles in your head"....WHOA! What a line! My baby said something quite profound! And for all practical purposes it was a direct compliment to the same spiritual concept I have been trying to emphasize all week at camp.

I immediately stopped the CD...and thanked God for proving me wrong...for a brief moment, I did "go back"....and just when I thought such precious moments of parenthood had faded slowly out into the sea of life....God gifted me with a "priceless pearl" that He let wash back to shore....

Until next time, I will be counting my blessings, and my pearls...
~Scarlett