I'm just finishing a camping trip and I'm on a lake rowing up to the shore. It just happens to be the same lake that Lucas has his summer camp on. I see him working on something near the shore so I row directly up to where he is. He is super surprised and happy to see me and starts talking 100 miles per hour about all kinds of stuff and I can't keep up. He seems very busy and determined.
Two kids a few years older are a few yards away and they are laughing and saying something mean about Lucas not finishing and failing. Lucas is doing his best to ignore them and continued working on his project. I asked him what those kids were talking about.
Lucas tells me that all of the groups are supposed to build working wheel chairs with the directions and tools they were given but the other two kids on his team left and he doesn't know where they are but he has to finish by himself anyway.
To me it seemed like an impossible task given Lucas is so young he is not strong enough to do some of the things it takes to build the chair plus he can't read the directions. He was still determined to succeed.
He tells me he wants to show me some stuff around the camp and jumps up and runs away with an excited "Common!!"
I start to follow and hear the kids making fun of him again so when Lucas is out of ear shot I say to them "He's a lot younger than you but he is still trying. You should be encouraging and helping him because he is alone. If I hear you make fun of him again, I'm gonna hurt you both."
They got quiet and nodded.
I followed him to where his grandpa was sitting at the lake whittling a stick down to nothing and by the time I made it there, Lucas was running to the next thing to show me.
I talked to his grandpa about how his team mates left and he didn't tell anyone so he's been using up his time not making any progress. His grandpa asked what he thought should happen. The performance hall has a piano in it so I told him I would help Lucas learn one simple song to play and teach him why piano is an important instrument which he can then play the song and explain the reason to the crowd.
His grandpa thought it was an acceptable replacement activity since learning was the main objective of anyway.
I started walking toward Lucas again and woke up.
Monday, June 12, 2017
Summer Camp
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