Thursday, April 7, 2016

It's not about the equipment


We have a little friend who lives nearby who absolutely loves coming to Aim Right. He is an only child (quite rare in our community) who lives with his grandparents and mother, and I believe he gets rather lonely. He is here anytime the doors are open -- and even when they technically aren't. He has learned that if he knocks, we will open the door and often give him a snack. :)
 
Yesterday our little friend stopped by after school with this message: "The school is having a carnival tonight, and I just wanted to let you know that there may not be very many kids at Kids Club." We thanked him for being such a good informant and, of course, gave him a treat.
 
He was right.  Our usual two van loads of children was only one, and the bus was not very full either. It's not often that I am finished with the van route early enough to play with the children before Kids Club, so I considered it special to be able to do that yesterday. Little chalk artists were painting the basketball court, a large soccer game was in session, and various ones played with the Frisbee and hula hoops. 
 
Anything that is played with here is played with hard. Sometimes I look at our pathetic equipment--bent hula hoops, balls that keep losing air, and nubs of chalk--and feel badly that I haven't gone shopping to replace the items.  I realized while playing with the kids yesterday, though, how much they just crave someone playing with them and giving them attention. That's really all they want.
 
 


 
This photo almost makes it appear that our bus has arrived at a tropical location.  Nope...it's just dry-heat Phoenix!
 

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