Dordt Discovery Days.

Summertime has begun to get away from me, and I haven't written as much as I would like to have so far.

This week, some of my friends and I have been serving as glorified babysitters/foster parents for 207 middle school kids on campus. We are counselors, hostesses, and assistants at Dordt Discovery Days, a summer camp designed to expose these kids to the inter-workings and wonders that are part of Dordt College. When registering, the kids could choose from a variety of courses, including "Design on a Dime" or "Up, Up, and Away." Sciences, art, English, computer science--no matter what the student's penchant for learning, he or she can find an easy outlet at DDD.

I have been assigned to help teach two classes: "GameMaker 7" and "Cooking with Karen." Cooking has been the simplest of the two: each day we make a different course, including snack, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. There are eighteen kids in the course, and most of them are easy to work with. One is rather hyperactive and won't sit still for longer than a minute.

A group of them is rather cliquish, too. At the end of the day, Karen and I always award the "Golden Spoon" to a cook who has exhibited either the messiest apron, the best apron, and other awards. At one point, the cliquish group voted to give the Golden Spoon to a kid that was absent that day.

Other than that, the cooking class has gone well. We've made Houdini pancakes, peach smoothies, tuna melts, and a whole assortment of things. Today we make supper; it should be tasty.

The GameMaker 7 course was laughable at best from the start. I am inexperienced in the ways of computers, so having to help twenty little boys create a computer game has been quite a trip. I feel as if I'm in charge of six boys, especially; they are easily distracted and get off-course pretty fast. They are always asking me questions like "can I blow up that mountain?" or "how do I create fifty enemies at once? I want my plane to EXPLODE!" I just chuckle and try to keep them from listening to too many Nelly or Lil Wayne music videos while the teacher isn't looking.

Discovery Days has been quite an adventure so far, and I've looked forward to it every day. Too bad it ends tomorrow.