Greetings Knights and Damsels!Oh wait.. I'm back at home now :)
Let me fill you in on how I got here. While job hunting I stopped at the local art museum. Mostly to wander around and soak up the art for a "me day." I asked about any job openings but the only positions available were volunteering at the museum. There was a Creative Art Camp for kids for four different weeks this summer. The first was "Recycled Art" (last week), but this week "Knights and Damsels" I had time to request off for vacation to volunteer for the whole week! It's all about merging art and creativity with the history of the Middle Ages. The age group for the morning class is 5-8 yrs old, and the afternoon class is 9-13 yrs old.
I am having an absolute BLAST! The first day was a walk through the museum to see the art from that time period, 1 hour to do art projects, then a walk to the "castle" which is the monastery or church there (it's an old catholic monastery/college). Then the second hour is play practice! "St. George and the Dragon" based on a play from the middle ages! (Oh! And we also played "Ring around the Rosy" on the lawn and told the kids that was a game kids played back then and has been played hundreds of years!
The chance to just play all week has been amazing! To practice screaming and running off stage with 3 princesses was awesome! Then.. when the three boys playing the dragon started chasing us around stage...screaming...as loud as we wanted to... then they were still chasing us...so we screamed and ran more ...until we couldn't run anymore...and we were so out of breath from laughing...and screaming...and ran one more time.. and they were STILL on our heals...so the boys won (but we didn't tell them they won) aaahhh...what a day :)
Then MORE art projects...and the chance to get to know theses awesome kids even more! Like Tessa that came in quietly on the first day and pulled a chair to a table away from everyone else by herself. I pulled up a chair next to her and started helping her. Once she got her bearings she was perhaps the most outgoing one in the class! There were the identical twins we had to kind of ask what his brothers name was so we could figure out who we were talking to.. ;) Hey, whatever works..
One in the youngest class told me he's been in newspapers, on the news, won awards for his art capabilities but is afraid he's done it all and will run out of ideas for art..(he will be going places!) Two in the older crowd I predict will be quite the actors in the future (maybe even Dungeons & Dragons Masters someday).
To see artists and creative souls in this state, in a truly unlimited potential is so amazing to me! I want to teach art to kids for a living. Or just for free... I don't care. This has just been an amazing experience. Maybe someday..
Tomorrow is the final performance for friends and family. (Helana is ecstatic her grandma is coming all the way from Texas to see it!) And of course the display of all the artwork they have worked so hard on! The shields, tunic, stained glass project, endless painting.. kids can be so artistic if given the means. Seeing their personalities come through in their projects is surprising... The ones that are restless and fidgity can surprisingly become meticulous and perfectionistic in their art projects.
It's all about individuality and accommodating each one to be his own. But isn't that what we all want? And basically, isn't that what we all need? No matter what our age...
Have a wonderful day
And smile and play too
Love Sandy
