Kids Now-a-days...

We often find ourselves in a discussion about how quickly kids are growing up and how different things are now days - their bodies, problems, even their games and toys. After spending a day at the Frank Garrett with primarily youth and young teens from ages 9-15 (with a couple of 8 & 9 year olds thrown in) I would make the argument that at their roots kids are exactly the same. Our day was mostly filled playing the newly purchased BOARD GAMES...yes BOARD GAMES. Which are not boring at all. My biggest surprise was that the first game off the shelf was Candy Land played by two 11 year olds, a 10 year old and a 9 year old. It was awesome! Slowly but surely the games were flying off the shelves and the kids were asking AmeriCorps to play and teach them how to play the familiar and unfamiliar games. At one point there was even a debate about the direction that the bishop, in chess, can move.

Outside of the obvious game playing that took place, there was so much more happening. The kids were trying something new, playing well together, sharing, there were no fights over games or turns or any of the other usual 2 minute tantrums, and during a game of Uno there was even some double teaming just to beat me. The older kids were also playing with the younger children. As the day progressed I had a couple of kids ask "Can we do art Miss?". After teaching the fun craft of making "friendship bracelets" to a few girls and boys one of the middle schoolers said to me "This art stuff is fun!" I was beaming inside.

The day ended with "Mr. Jones" (Dante) and I forming a verbal contract with two of the younger boys Nestor and Cody. They were each given a loaner basketball to practice some drills that Dante had shown them down on the court and they will show them to him when we return in the New Year. Their improvement will show how much or if they've practiced at all. If there is improvement, they will gain full ownership of the basketball, if not they will return the basketball and it will remain at the gym. They were told the importance of the handshake and the importance of practice and learning fundamentals in order to be successful in playing. This was pretty important especially since they are on Ms. Nikki's basketball team list :) All of the remaining kids helped to clean up and there was actually a sense of appreciation for not what they experienced today but what they'd been experiencing this entire year.

As the year comes to an end I say thank you to the AmeriCorps, the Urban Connection staff, my husband - Dante, and all the other volunteers that have brought back life to the Frank Garrett and created a loving learning environment for the community!

God is working and WE ARE sharing HIS LOVE through
WORD, ACTION & ATTITUDE!