Flashbacks

It has been lots of fun working summer camp over at the zoo. I get to tap into all the fun activities I have led over the years. For example, this past week we did a little mummy wrapping, which is a total rehash of the Girl Scout overnight programs we used to plan at the Dayton Museum of Natural History back when I was a Cadette/Senior (I might be the back of head in the right foreground here, my sister Amanda obviously has a question). The new twist was I could show off pictures of my recent trip to Egypt to talk about where they would find cartouches and pharoah's names. I have been frustrated from time to time because I remember these great activities and handouts that I had. I'm all excited about doing the activity for myself, but have to make the handouts afresh because I left them at my prior workplaces. Lesson learned for next time!

Another fun part of teaching camp is that it gives me an excuse to visit amazing sites here in NYC. I have now been to all five boroughs. This week's field trip took us to the Bronx Zoo, which is pretty darned snazzy, BTW. I definitely hadn't expected to find a totem pole there. Even though the Bronx Zoo is the biggest blockbuster zoo in the area, our little zoo on Staten Island has something they don't - kangaroos! So our campers got to see the best of both zoos, really.

I don't know that I remember camp being as exhausting as this back at the Dayton Museum of Natural History, though. These 4-6th graders have me ready to collapse by the end of the day. They're good kids, pretty knowledgeable and enthused about animals. It's just summer and they're ready to have some fun running around and stuff. It has been entertaining trying to keep the balance between science content and trying to wear them out with an ever-changing variety of tag games. Hmmm...am I getting old? Or do I just need to get more than 6 hours of sleep per night?

We had a little flashback to Grenada this weekend when we helped Paul celebrate his second birthday. It was nice seeing some of our friends from pool day, even when there is no pool in sight. It was fun seeing the kids able to enjoy the sand-like gravel at long last. In Grenada sand was just a nuisance, getting into every crack and crevice, then getting ground into the eyes. I'm almost tempted to take Penny to a beach at some point. The folks at the party seemed to think we have some decent beaches here on Staten Island. They might have thought I was joking about the sand zamboni machine, though. The need for that machine really creeps me out. I promise, I really will get a picture of it at some point to post. That may require me to go to a beach around here. I guess I've got a few days off before starting my next job and might find time to squeeze it in. We'll see.