Art Camp

Things got really busy this month and I haven't had a chance to post about the Art Camp Sean attended this summer. I also had some technical difficulties with some photos, so here it goes.
Art Camp focused on creating art with natural materials. Sean enjoys art, and I was excited for him to participate.
About mid-week there was a little bit of drama with another child at camp, and I won't go into details, but it was a good learning experience.
It was a great example for me of how we must learn to handle ourselves in all types of situations and with all sorts of people. This particular child was one that Sean has known for a few years now, but has always had some problems dealing with. I know that Sean is not the only one who has had problems with him, but I also know that in order to learn how to handle our anxiety and anger we have to be in real-life situations. At age 7 we aren't going to handle it gracefully, and Sean didn't. Neither did the other child. What came out of that was a long conversation between us (much later when things were calm and he had a chance to come home and decompress and have dinner) about how to recognize anger and how to handle it in a healthy way.
No one was physically harmed, in case you're wondering.
For almost a full year Sean has had selective exposure to other children. I wanted more, but it just wasn't something we could work into the schedule on a daily basis. So he got very comfortable here, and we had some field trips with a friend or two and we met with a homeschool group a few times.
Being comfortable is a good thing, but no amount of reading scenarios in a book will prepare a child for the real-life of dealing with a situation in the moment. I firmly believe these things must be practiced, and the best teacher is life.
Back to art.
He created some fun things that week. He had some great creatures made from pine cones and feathers, and one with what we always called helicopters (seeds from a tree) that looks like a big bee. They painted rocks and he made some drawings. Each child created their favorite animal with an Eric Carle technique and the teacher copied them and made a book for each one to take home. Their works are so great! Sean's is a snake;o)