In Pursuit of Adventure: Miss Black in the Middle

Have I mentioned that I am the Middle School Senate sponsor? Well I am, and it's a lot of fun. We have very official meetings, and plan (what I would consider to be) awesome activties for the Dakar Academy Middle School.

In October we hosted our main event of the year: Lock-In! I think I mentioned the lock-in in a previous post. I somehow found myself encouraging the hyperness and insanity of 30 middle schoolers until midnight, and then attempting to calm them down to watch movies and "sleep" all night. Imagine with me, the "aroma" of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders after running around for 3 hours outside (during hot season) and then being locked in a science room for another 7 hours. Ahhhh Middle School!

I feel compelled to brag about the senate, they planned all the activities, chose the movies, provided breakfast, set-up and cleaned up ALL with very minimal help from me. I simply made sure they had their bases covered and they ran with it.

Settling the Crowd

Costume Contest: Superhero Theme

Charades: Chloe

Charades: Caleb and Isabella

McComb Twin

Big Booty

Grace and Miss Lee

Big Booty

Teachers

Food line

In December we had our second annual dodgeball tournament and added a movie night afterwards: Home Alone...classic! More recently, in February we hosted our first ever Middle School Progressive Dinner. Most of the kids weren't sure what a progressive dinner even was, so we welcomed them by explaining that a progressive dinner is when you enjoy each part of the meal in a different location and progress from one locale to another (see how I casually explained 'progressive dinner' for those of you who were sheepishly asking yourselves what it was?).

The Senate girls served appetizers and fancy drinks with sugar-rimmed cups in the science lab. We had covered the counters with poster paper and the kids loved being able to draw and write.

Our main course was a pasta dinner with garlic bread and shirley temples served on the petits poteaux, our soccer 'rink' usually used for soccer, handball, and occasionally volleyball. After we had eaten groups were given a bag full of random items and had to create a 'skit from a bag'. A spin on dinner theatre.

The middle schoolers then progressed to the dorm rooftop for twilight brownies and ice cream. We finished our evening with s'mores around a bonfire in the sandpit. Is your mouth watering yet?

In addition to being the Middle School Senate sponsor, I am also a Middle School Youth Group sponsor. I love me some middle schoolers. I'm scared to consider what it says about me that I am so comfortable with 10-13 year olds. It really feels like my niche.

On Thursday nights a typical youth group starts with singing, followed by a 15-20 minute talk, and then chat time in small groups to discuss what we have just heard, or how our weeks have been. We used to start with a game, but have learned that it's best to end with the game. By Thursday nights even the best-behaved middle schooler has some 'crazy' just waiting to be unleashed.

Story Time with Miss Black