Stereotypes go Under the Sea

For reasons I can't go into, our break program hasn't been stocked/supplied/staffed in a way that's up to our usual standards.

Fortunately, we are all trained professionals, and are able to take up the slack and provide a fun, engaging program for the kids who are enrolled.

Thursday was one of the days this week that I actually had to work. It was a day with a water theme.

The kids made their own soda (club soda and 100% fruit juice) made ocean bottles with oil, colored-blue-with-food-coloring-water, and some spangles and sequins that floated on the water layer.

They made fishing poles with magnets on the strings and paper fish with a magnet on them somewhere so they could 'catch' the fish.

I brought a boatload of yarn, and a few of them made an octopus out of the yarn.

I had to leave before we got to the ocean mural we'd planned, but it might happen Friday instead. We do have a lot of other activities planned, though, so who knows. Maybe save it for another time.

We all contributed some of our own stuff and made it a success. Something that, through necessity, most of us are really, really good at.

It's funny, though. The typical gender differences between kids were evident this afternoon. One boy and all the girls were interested in the craftier stuff, fishing pole etc. The rest of the boys wanted to play with Legos, make up wild imaginary stories with Star Wars/Harry Potter/Pokemon characters and bash into each other.
I often have to work on the bashing, they really are very physical. Mostly the boys.
I love walking into someone else's program and telling a child, "We don't do that here." and having that child say, "Well Jennie lets us do it."
My stock answer? "Do I look like Jennie?"

And yes, the bashing and smashing and noise is generally a boy thing. Most of the girls just don't do it.

The girls like to spend more time sitting and discussing things, the boys like to spend more time bashing. :)

Now I've had kids that didn't fit the stereotypes, and they're generally accepted and allowed to be who/how they are without much commentary from the other kids.

But most of the time, those stereotypes exist for a reason.