Welcome Back!

After a nice few week break for the holidays I’m back at the Youth Center with a new and exciting challenge awaiting me: 1st and 2nd graders. This is the one age group I haven’t yet had the pleasure of working with in the Youth Center, which I always secretly thought was a good thing, since I’m much more accustomed to helping with the older girls. Hence, I arrived at the center this afternoon fully expecting to be a bit culture shocked with the group of little ones I had never met, although it was comforting knowing Ms. Jessie (she’s back!) would be there to lead the way.

To everyone’s surprise though, Ms. Jessie was nowhere to be found once classes were dismissed from daily announcements in the Multi-Purpose Room. (She was running late due to the snow storm!) Consequently, it was more or less up to me to escort the girls to Classroom B, introduce myself, get snack, take attendance, and run the first few activities, all with a class I was already nervous about! As intimidating as that might sound, I actually really enjoyed the experience and had a great time. Girls Inc. has given me plenty of opportunity to lead classes over the years; this just happened to be the first occasion it wasn’t planned ahead of time.

Thankfully the Girls Inc. staff was there to help out, which I very much appreciated, and Jessie did arrive soon after we got kicked off (with all the snow today we were just happy she made it in one piece!). And it turns out the 1st and 2nd graders are a ton of fun. This unit is called Allies in Action, which requires some adjustment in the materials to suit the younger girls, but overall it’s about sticking up for one another and treating people the way you want to be treated.

The girls had some really insightful discussion and creative skits, which really surprised me given their age. Sometimes I need to be reminded just how smart and perceptive even our youngest girls are. That little reality check makes me really excited to help out with this group… and hopefully I’ll be able to learn a thing or two from them as well!