Last week was the second week of the Heritage Concert Series, and the Kids Gallery raised (drum-roll, please…) $67! It was storming during the festival so we moved indoors, which actually helped our sales quite a bit as we had more customers walking through despite the less attractive booth set-up. The goal for next week, set by the 7 and 8 year olds is $70, and I think we can do it!

The big seller this week was bracelets!

The dance camp is going strong this week, and the kids have a performance coming up so I anticipate a crazy schedule.  Luckily we are finished with all of the small individual projects, so now I can be flexible only working with a few students at a time on some bigger items. Last week, we started making a turtle table with paper mache, and will hopefully have it finished by Thursday!

I think the biggest thing I have learned in the past few weeks is how to have a better balance between accomplishing class activities but catering to individual needs.  On one hand, there are so many individual talents that I want the students to be able to freely express; we have lyric writers, poets, comic book artists, graffiti artists, drawers, and students who like to do “girly” crafts. On the other hand, we have students who haven’t developed much interest in the arts or found their niche or interest. Last week I was able to approach some of the students about putting their individual talents to use and doing some research and projects on the side that they can contribute, and they seemed to be excited about that. Some of the students who have shown little interest in the visual arts this summer are also getting excited about some of our bigger, messier projects.  I was certainly thrilled to see children taking an interest in learning both inside and outside of the camp.

Thirdly, there is the issue of financial literacy. I feel I am in the very beginning stages of understanding what the kids understand. The 7-8 year-olds had a pretty successful lesson last week, discussing all of the options for what you can do with your money, and what it looks like to set smart savings goals. The lesson with the 9-10 year-olds was quite a big leap though. My first mistake was walking into the room and saying (as enthusiastically as possible) “We are going to learn how to fill out budget sheets today!” You can only imagine a 9 year old’s response to that one! I had half the class tuned out before I even began.  This week I think we are going to take a few steps back and go a little more basic, and I am going to brainstorm ways to make the activities more interesting.

Hope you get a chance to stop by the Heritage Concert Series!
Jamie