I dropped Jack and Sam off at 7:30am this morning to take the bus to YMCA camp. It's the full-fledged kind of camp you see in the movies, except they won't sleep there. Jack wasn't nervous until the bus was late and then he had to time to fuss about standing in his sandals in dewey, fresh-cut grass so that grass got all over his feet. I wondered how he would make it through the whole day if this was the type of thing that bothered him. Then he fretted over whether they would let him sit with Sam on the bus. They didn't. They had the littlest kids crammed three to a seat, so Jack had to sit with the bigger kids.
Sam seemed fine. A little boy with a mohawk walked up to him and said, "What's your name?" "Sam," he replied. The little boy with the mohawk stuck out his hand and said, "Hi, Sam, I'm Harrison. Do you want to be friends?" Sam shook his hand and they were off. I worry that, at five years old, perhaps Sam is a little too young to be doing this sort of thing. I've always had closer control of the people he comes in contact with. I worry that he can't take off his wet swimsuit alone or that he won't be able to reapply his sunscreen or that we haven't had enough conversations about "bad touching."
I collected them from the bus at 5:30pm and they were hot and tired, but not nearly as worn out as I had hoped they'd be. Predictably, Jack had a sunburn and they both had blisters from wet sandals. In spite of that, they said they had fun. Jack learned to read a compass and had a hike through the woods. He also paddled a kayak around the lake. I'm not as clear what Sam did, but I think it included tennis, swimming and exploring the multiple uses for mosquito wipes. "Don't touch your eyes with them!" he says.
They're going back in the morning with different shoes and instructions on how to re-apply sunscreen. I expect tomorrow they'll come home with even more new experiences and perhaps some more gems like the one Sam told me at bedtime:
Why do cows wear bells?
Because their horns don't work.