Wednesday, July 14, 2010

More thoughts on VBS

It seems that my frustration over my very badly-behaved child may have caused me to overestimate her height. In a room of preschoolers, she's taller than about a third. Some of these kids are five years old, and some are almost three, so it's a good range of ages. But she SEEMS taller. Maybe it's her aggressiveness.

Olivia did a lot better on Monday and then not so well again on Tuesday. But I noticed something. While all of the kids were pretty well behaved (except Olivia) on Sunday, at least half of them are pushing each other and melting down by the time we reach the final quarter of the evening on Monday and Tuesday. I guess the newness of the activity kept them all interested on Sunday, but now they've reverted back to their normal, which is that they are all little kids who get overtired and overstimulated and cranky by 7:00 p.m.

Thankfully, a very talented preschool teacher joined our adult leader group on Monday, and she has been AMAZING with the kids. It has helped A LOT.

I'm feeling a little better about Olivia's ability to fit into a crowd. However, it seems that we need to keep the activity going...any lull leads to misbehavior, defiance, and general frustration. So, how to deal with this...?

We were instructed to bring the kids in bathing suits and towels tonight. I'm hoping that a chance to get wet keeps all of the kids interested and engaged for longer tonight. Olivia obviously enjoys Bible School overall. She'd just enjoy it more if I ignored her and let her run off to join the older group for kickball or go back to the craft room to squirt some more glue. Ah, rules, structure, schedules...these things are lost on her.

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