Before Spring Break, we went all the way to the Pendleton Heights High School Pool! ;) Who says you have to travel a long way to have a great time?? Despite the frigid and windy day outside, we had an awesome time at the indoor POOL PARTY! Kids were swimming up and down the lap pool, playing an intense game of water polo, floating on inner tubes, and doing wild and crazy animal-inspired jumps off the diving boards. Haha. One of our volunteer leaders - Isaac - even made up a new game with a bunch of the kids, a beach ball, and splashing each other. They were at it for almost the entire field trip! Another volunteer leader - Matt - was holding contests with the kids to see who could retrieve the diving sticks the fastest, who could get the most of them, and so on. That peaked the competitive side in some! My personal favorite was watching the kids (and participating some) in the animal jumps and dives in the diving well. People watching shout out an animal as you go down the diving board, then when you jump you have to act like that animal.
Our second field trip of the Spring Semester was this past Saturday We went to INCREDIPLEX! (in Indianapolis). Where there's "10 acres of fun under one roof!" We played rousing games of laser tag, racked up the tickets at the arcade - each kid received $10 free for the arcade -, and went wild in the bounce houses and extreme jungle gym! With all that energy that was burned, we had to refuel... so we filled up on a delicious pizza lunch! The kids were so excited to pick out prizes with the tickets they had won in the arcade and of course were racing out of the laser tag arena to see which team - Red or Blue - came out victorious. One kid - Quinten - even got me a prize with his tickets. Another kid - Akshdeep - was sharing the candy he was so excited about with us leaders. When he had given away some of his candy, and what candy he had left then went missing, another kid - Shane - stepped in and gave him more than he had lost from his own stash. What sweet and thoughtful kids we have!!
Field trips are such a huge part of our program. It may seem like we're just entertaining the kids and having fun, but there is so much more to it than that. We love to give the kids opportunities that they may not have otherwise while also having them earn these opportunities through good behavior, coming to program and participating in all aspects, and striving to grow academically. It's a fun release and a wonderful way to bond with the kids. And we all know that bonding with the kids leads to deeper relationships and growth in different areas in their lives. So tell me... who doesn't love field trips!?
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